Nobody wants a cluttered, disorganised or chaotic home, and yet not all of us feel like we have enough time to ensure this. Life gets busy, and the time leftover should be spent enjoying ourselves, not slaving away cleaning and decluttering – which is where decluttering methods come in.
Decluttering methods, like the 10/30 method, are designed to help us balance a busy, sometimes chaotic, life with a clean and organised home. Giving us a plan of action, so we can balance our time but still ensure effective results.
This method is perfect for those of us low on time who still want to keep our homes organised and clutter-free, here’s exactly how to do it.
What is the 10/30 decluttering method?
Essentially this method follows the timed-honoured approach of little but often. The 10/30 method is a way to chip away at clutter without having to clear a whole room in one go. You set aside 10 minutes a day to declutter one small area and keep it up for 30 days. That could mean sorting a single drawer, clearing one shelf or working through the jumble on your bedside table. You can tackle a different spot each day or return to an area that needs another session.
The idea is to make the job small enough that you can fit it into an ordinary day, rather than waiting for a mythical free weekend to appear. Ten minutes may not sound like much but it adds up to five hours of focused decluttering across a month. Now, that’s plenty of time to make a whole lot of difference.
How to do it
Pick one small spot to start. Choose somewhere you can make real progress in 10 minutes, such as a bedside table, a kitchen drawer or one shelf of your wardrobe. ‘Sort out the bedroom’ is a much bigger job, and could leave you with half the contents of a cupboard spread across the bed when the timer goes off.
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Set a timer for 10 minutes. Work on that spot until the time is up, keeping your attention on the task rather than getting distracted by another cupboard or a quick look at your phone. You’re aiming for a focused burst of decluttering, not a dramatic before-and-after transformation in one sitting – this is what's going to make a long-term impact.
Make a decision about each item. Ask yourself whether you use it, need it and want it to stay in that spot. Put back what you’re keeping, move anything that belongs elsewhere, and set aside things to donate, recycle or bin. Try not to create a ‘deal with later’ pile, that’s just clutter with a new postcode.
Use the last minute to close the loop. Put away the items you’re keeping and take the rubbish or recycling out of the area. If you’ve filled a donation bag, put it somewhere you’ll remember to take it. The aim is to finish the session with a clearer spot, rather than a fresh pile of decisions waiting for you.
Come back tomorrow and do it again. Choose another small area or spend your next 10 minutes finishing a job that needs a little longer. If you miss a day, pick it back up when you can; the point is to build progress over the month, not to turn the method into another thing to feel guilty about.
What can you tackle in 10 minutes?
The best jobs for this method are small enough to finish, or make a visible dent in, before the timer goes off. If you’re not sure where to begin, try one of these:
- The kitchen odds-and-ends drawer: take out the things that don’t belong, bin anything broken and put the useful bits back where you can find them. No need to reorganise the entire kitchen while you’re there.
- A bathroom shelf: check for empty bottles, products you no longer use and anything past its use-by date. Wipe the shelf, then put back what you actually reach for.
- The post pile by the front door: recycle junk mail, open anything important and move letters that need action to one clearly chosen spot. The goal is to stop the pile quietly becoming part of the furniture.
- Your bedside table: clear away glasses, cups, old receipts and the book you abandoned three months ago. Keep the things you use at bedtime within easy reach.
- One section of a wardrobe: sort a single rail or a small group of clothes, rather than pulling everything out at once. Put back what you wear and set aside anything you’re ready to pass on.
Keep each session focused on one contained spot. ‘Clear the bedside table’ is a useful 10-minute job; ‘sort out the bedroom’ is how you end up with a mountain of chaos and anger issues.
