A short guide

Three decluttering rules that hold up in a real house

Most decluttering advice assumes a free weekend and a clear head. These three are small enough to use on a Tuesday, and none of them asks you to get rid of things you love.

What is the 90/90 rule for decluttering?

Two questions about one item: have you used it in the last 90 days, and will you use it in the next 90? If the answer to both is no, it can go.

It works because it replaces a hard question with an easy one. "Do I need this?" invites a story about who you might be someday. "Have I touched it since spring?" has an answer.

Use it on the things that stall you: the small appliance, the jacket, the third set of measuring cups. Keep the seasonal exceptions out of it. Ski gear in July is not clutter, it is just July.

What is the 5-5-5 rule for decluttering?

In one short session, find five things to throw away, five to donate, and five to put back where they belong.

Fifteen items is small enough that you will actually start, and the third five is the part people skip. Putting things back where they live is what stops the same pile forming again next week.

It is a maintenance rhythm rather than a project. Ten minutes on a Sunday does more over a year than one exhausting Saturday in April.

What is the 50% rule for clutter?

Fill a shelf, drawer or closet to about half its capacity and leave the rest empty, so the space still works when life gets busy.

A cupboard packed to the doors looks organized on the day it is finished and falls apart the first week somebody is in a hurry. Space is what lets a system survive a real household.

This is the rule we use most often in a client’s home, and it is usually the one that surprises people. Half-empty is not wasted room. It is the room the system needs to keep working.

If it is bigger than a rule

Some spaces need a second pair of hands.

A rule is enough for a drawer. A whole pantry, a garage after a move, or a parent’s house of forty years usually is not, and there is no prize for doing that part alone.

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