Decluttering Made Easy: 18 Areas to Declutter in 10 Minutes or Less

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Decluttering and organizing can be very time-consuming. Making a space functional, user-friendly, neat, and organized takes a great deal of time, especially if you are very busy with other responsibilities and obligations. Busy schedules often take precedence over managing our homes. And many of us wonder how we are going to get rid of all the clutter that distract us and cause us stress. While you can’t declutter and organize your entire home in a few hours, you can reduce your stress and overwhelm by focusing on one small area at a time that you can declutter in just 10 minutes or less.

Rather than thinking about every area of your home that needs to be decluttered and organized, focus on a few small areas that won’t take a lot of your time. You should be able to declutter each area in 10 minutes or less. And, if you tackle one small area after another, it will make a big difference in how your home looks and feels to you and others.

Areas You Can Easily Declutter in 10 Minutes a Day

Decluttering doesn’t always need you to spend hours and hours of your precious time. In fact, decluttering a little each day is usually more effective and rewarding than doing it every once in a great while! You can easily spend 10 minutes a day decluttering your home without getting overwhelmed and tired.

Here are 18 areas that you can quickly declutter in order to make your home more organized, functional, welcoming, and comfortable.

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Tabletops

Tabletops are areas that attract a lot of clutter, without us even realizing! Look around now. Chances are that you’ll find most of your clutter there. Coffee tables, dining room tables, end tables, and other flat surfaces are easy places to ‘set and forget’ things, and they can become cluttered very quickly.

So take some time to easily remove items that do not belong on your tables. If these are something you use, put them back in their home. If you don’t use them or if you don’t need them, I would recommend donating them or throwing them away. In this way, you can easily declutter those tabletops in 10 minutes or less.

Go by one room at a time, and see what you find on your tables. Clear any unnecessary items off of the tops of the table, throw away all old magazines and papers, and remove any decor items you no longer love. You can easily declutter those tabletops in 10 minutes or less.

Refrigerator

Refrigerators can get cluttered and messy easily, especially if you have a big family. So, this area needs to be decluttered and cleaned frequently. Start by tossing away any leftover food that are more than a couple of days old. Take a quick look at the expiration dates on all condiments and other food items, and toss any that are expired. Keep all the similar items together in a group so you can easily find them.

Expired or perished food, empty containers or jars, and any kind of expired condiments – are all easy things you can declutter in 10 minutes or less. After this, wipe down the interior of your refrigerator for a neat and clean look.

Kitchen drawers

For many families, kitchen drawers typically become a catch-all for all of the stuff we don’t know what to do with. While decluttering drawers, you may even find a few things there you didn’t even know you had.

Start with any of your kitchen drawers that needs your attention the most – the ones with the most junk. Separate out all of the things you’re willing to get rid of. Remove any duplicates, any chipped or broken items, unused, unnecessary or extra things. If they are in good condition, put them in a donation box, and if not, throw them away immediately. Only keep the things you use and that belong in that drawer.

You don’t need to do them all at once. Start with one now, then do another the next day, and so on.

Pantry

You can declutter one shelf of your pantry in 10 minutes or less. Look for things such as expired or unused spices, cans, and food containers. Also toss any open packages that have likely gone stale or bad. Donate any foods that are still good but your family will not eat anytime soon.

When you start putting stuff away, group similar items so you can easily see how much you have of each item, and what you need to put back.

Clear out the kitchen counters

Having clutter on your kitchen counters is a common problem! Between the open cereal boxes, empty soup cans, dirty dishes, stacks of mail, wallet, keys, and the kids’ homework, the kitchen can become a cluttered mess pretty quickly.

Don’t keep all your small appliances such as sandwich maker, toaster, toaster oven, kettle, instant pot, etc. that you use on the counters. Instead, try putting them away in a cupboard that’s still easy to access but not on your counters so it doesn’t look cluttered or messy.

All you should have left on the counters is the stuff that actually belong there. If it still looks cluttered, it’s time to reassess how often you use each of those things and if you really need it out there on the counters.

Spending 10 minutes to clear your counters and put things in their proper homes can really help make your kitchen feel bigger and more functional!

Tupperware

Sorting through food storage containers like Tupperware is a quick little job that you can easily do in 10 minutes or less, and this will make you feel like you made some serious progress decluttering. That’s because this area often tends to be a mess in most homes!

Toss the ones with missing lids or well-worn lids, and the ones with cracks. Keep only what you actually use – either on a daily basis or occasionally. Donate the excess, or use them as organizing containers in other areas of your home. Organize by size or shape.

Bathroom counters

Your bathroom counter is also a place that attracts a ton of clutter. And when your counters are cluttered, the whole room looks messy and cluttered. Things such as makeup, skincare, soaps, etc. can easily be organized into drawers or little baskets.

If you want, you can keep a few essentials there for easy access and so your bathroom doesn’t look cold and empty.

Shoes

A lot of people own more shoes than they need. Some are unused, some are uncomfortable, some don’t fit, some may become worn out and battered. Take a look at your shoe collections. Have each member of your family try their shoes on. Sort out the ones that you no longer like, don’t fit well, or you just don’t need. These can be given away, or donated if they are in good shape.

Toss any that are torn or worn out. Keep the ones that are in good state, feel comfortable, match your taste, and can be used regularly. Then remove the ones that are torn, are missing their other pair, or don’t fit.

Makeup

If you have a small makeup collection, this is an area you can easily declutter in 10 minutes or less. If you have a larger collection, you might want to take more time for decluttering.

To start, throw away any makeup you have that are expired products, or products that didn’t work for your skin. You don’t need to hold onto them.

Keep only your every day essentials and some for more formal or festive occasions. Having a clean, minimal makeup bag makes getting ready so much simpler, especially when you are in a hurry.

Toys

You can easily declutter your children’s toys in 10 minutes if they don’t have too many toys. Analyze your kids’ toy collections. If their toys are broken and can’t be fixed, have duplicates, or maybe that your kids don’t play with them anymore, or they have missing pieces, or aren’t age appropriate – get rid of them! If you feel like some of them can be used by another child, donate them. And throw the rest away.

Medicines and supplements

A lot of homes don’t have medicine cabinets, but if yours does, most probably it’s stuffed full. Throw away empty containers. Check everything for expiration dates, and toss away the medications and vitamins that have expired or are more than two years old.

Pay special attention to eye drops and ointments since most people don’t use them every day.

CDs/DVDs

If you have an impressive collection of CDs/DVDs, this area might require a deeper decluttering process. But if you have minimal DVDs and stream most of what you view, you can easily declutter them in 10 minutes.

Similar to shoes, move through this area quickly by pulling out what you don’t watch and keeping only those DVDs you know you’ll watch and enjoy again and again.

Sort through your movies, and music collections and remove any you don’t watch or listen to anymore. Your local public libraries and nursing homes love these donations.

Under the sink area

Whether it’s the kitchen or bathroom, under the sink can quickly become a catchall. Take everything out from there, and sort out the things to decide what you want/need to keep. Get rid of any cleaning supplies you no longer use. Toss any products that have expired or finished. Move any stuff that doesn’t belong there.

Your entryway

The first room you see when you walk into your home – whether you have a designated mudroom, or just a corner of your living room where you enter your home, these spaces tend to get easily messy and cluttered! It becomes the common dumping area for your shoes, coats, handbags, umbrellas, backpacks, and lots of other miscellaneous items.

Take 10 minutes to put your coats and shoes away, hang things up or put them away in the closet. Keep your purses or backpacks where they belong. Don’t just dump them on the floor. Then, move any remaining clutter to its appropriate place. Tidying up and decluttering the entryway can make your home feel so much more inviting!

Living room

Decluttering your living room doesn’t take long at all. Take out any worn out, old, and torn pillows and throws, and remove the decoration pieces and any other items that don’t spark joy.

Again, if you see that they are still in good condition, keep them for donation. If not, let them go! Before you go to bed every night, or as soon as you have some time, take a little bit to organize your décor, and fold your blankets. Waking up to a clean and organized home will make you feel so much better.

Top of your dresser and nightstands

Your dressers and nightstands have a way of attracting all sorts of random items that end up being clutter. Sort through all of those jewelry pieces, perfume bottles, vitamins and supplements, and miscellaneous items that have been piling up on you dresser or nightstands.

Throw away the items that are empty or broken, and donate stuff you no longer use. Your room will feel calm and more peaceful once it has fewer items that are neatly organized.

Purses / Handbags

Our purses and handbags hold many things including receipts, lipstick, mascaras, pens, checkbooks, phones, wallets, visiting cards, coupons, and keys! So if you don’t take time to declutter those areas, you’ll find that many items have expired and you are no longer able to use them. A purse is one of those things that you regularly or frequently use, and it needs to be clutter-free and organized, so you can find things as you need them.

Your purse or handbag is a small enough area which you can declutter in 10 minutes or less. So today, take that 10 minutes to declutter your purse – take out any papers you don’t need anymore, expired credit/debit cards, other slips, dried out pens, tissues, unused or unnecessary makeup – only keep the items you use regularly. You’ll feel so much lighter!

10 items from your closet

While it’s not possible to declutter and organize your entire closet in 10 minutes, you can easily declutter 10 items from your closet in 10 minutes or less. Pick 10 things you haven’t used or worn in at least a year, and put them in your donation box.

I know they’ll bless someone else and get much better use than simply hanging in your closet!

How to Declutter in 10 Minutes Without Feeling Overwhelmed

Set your focus

Know what room, closet, drawer etc. you will be working on during your 10 minutes decluttering session before you start. If you don’t have an area picked out ahead of time, you’ll probably waste your time trying to decide what to work on first.

Get a donation basket

Get a donation basket/bag ready where you’ll put all your stuff that are in good shape. Also, you need to decide where you will take any donations that you accumulate during your decluttering session.

Make a plan to drop off donations once a week or once a month. You can also schedule a pick-up for your convenience. This will ensure the items leave your home quickly and do not stay there for long, or find a way back to your home.

Start small

When dedicating 10 minutes to getting rid of clutter, you need to focus on one room or area at a time. It’s better if you start with the least cluttered area. The reason you want to do this is to create a snowball effect. Once you easily declutter and organize one area, you’ll be a lot more motivated to go on to the next one.

By starting with the smallest area to declutter, you build up your decluttering muscle and confidence that you can tackle even the big projects as well! You’ll also feel more efficient and productive as you do this daily or more frequently. So, by the time you tackle the worst room or area on your to-do list, you’ll feel like a pro.

Finish what you start before you move on to the next

It’s important to finish what you start before moving on to the next. Don’t start a new project until you finish the current one, even if it takes several 10-minute sessions. Otherwise, this will quickly cause you stress and frustration.

This is especially important when you are decluttering for the first time or unsure of the whole decluttering process. By getting a few small decluttering projects under your belt, you’ll have so much more confidence to move on to the more challenging areas.

I hope you found these ideas helpful. Don’t let a busy schedule prevent you from organizing your home. Find areas you can declutter in 10 minutes and work your way through your home, little by little! Small actions such as decluttering for 10 minutes a day can really make a big difference in your home that will make you love your home more!