My Signature 5 Minute Declutter Method™

Learn how to use the life changing 5 Minute Declutter Method™ created by Lela Burris to stay on top of your home and life organization without feeling overwhelmed.

Ever feel like you’re spinning your wheels and can’t seem to get and stay organized? Spend an entire weekend decluttering and organizing your kitchen, only to have it messy again in a month? Don’t feel like you failed, because this is actually really common, and almost even normal for us humans. But I found a hack that keeps my home and life Organized-ish almost all the time, and ever since then I shout it from the rooftops on my blog, social media, and with every client I work with. That secret is called The Five Minute Declutter Method™ and you guessed it, it takes just five minutes a day.

How The Five Minute Declutter Method™ Works

Get ready for the most simple tutorial ever… Every day, sometime during your waking hours, whenever is convenient for you, just set a timer for five minutes and declutter something. When the timer goes off, stop. Seriously, that’s it!

When I say declutter something, I mean straighten up a drawer, throw away trash in your command center, delete unwanted or duplicate photos from your phone’s camera roll, trash expired condiments in the fridge, purge the random stuff that ended up in your purse, or delete old tv recordings.

You aren’t doing some kind of full-on organizing session or major cleaning adventure. You’re not looking for a big makeover with glorious before and after photos. You’re just doing daily maintenance to keep all the small areas of your home and life from piling up.

During those five minutes, you set an actual timer, not just looking at a clock, and race against it to make the most progress you can. Don’t reply to a text message, don’t respond to “Mooooommmmmmm!”, don’t let yourself get distracted. It’s just five minutes of undivided attention. I promise you can handle that. And if the timer stops and you want to keep going, you definitely can. Sometimes you just get in the zone and want to power through for more time.

The Math To Prove It

I know it sounds like 5 minutes is practically nothing, and it won’t get anything done at all. But over the course of a month, 5 minutes is actually two and a half hours. I bet you’ve never had 2.5 hours of free time to focus on organization, huh? Multiply that by 12 months of the year and you’ve knocked out 30 full hours of clutter-bashing!

And if you really want to be a rockstar, you can change it to a 15 Minute Declutter Session. Same premise, but 15 minutes instead of five. I have recently started doing two 15 Minute Declutter Sessions myself. I do one 15 Minute Declutter session during my work hours to clean up my desk drawer, file paperwork, or trash old downloads on my computer. Then I do another 15 Minute Declutter session in the evening to freshen up a small area of my home. This is something you can work towards, but don’t feel obligated to start there.

Not Sure What To Declutter?

I know, the idea of a 5 Minute Declutter Method™ sounds easy, but you may be stumped on what you’ll actually work on every day. I’ve got you covered. I made you a list of 50 things you can declutter in 5 minutes or less so you can pick and choose whatever you want. They’re all grouped together in a handy-dandy PDF you can download and print or screenshot to refer back to anytime you’d like. Feel free to add to the list, or repeat areas more than once. This is your process and you can make it your own. To get that list, just pop your email address below and I’ll send it straight to you.

Try It For Two Weeks To Build A Habit

You aren’t doing a full organization job here, you’re just taking some time to delete old stuff, throw trash away, put things where they belong, add items to a donation box, or just clean up that spilled spot of who-knows-what that’s been inside the silverware drawer for the last six months. I encourage you to set a reminder in your phone to recur daily at the same time to remind you to knock out your five minute sesh. After a couple of weeks, it will become a habit and you won’t even need the reminder anymore. So grab that list and start your first session right now!