Decluttering Quick Wins: 30 Minute Impact Challenge

Are you feeling overwhelmed by the clutter in your home? You’re not alone. Whether you’ve heard of minimalism or you just want a calmer, tidier and stress free living space, we’re here to help you. The good news is that you don’t need to overhaul your entire life to start seeing results. If you’re like I was, you probably don’t have brain space right now for a major project. You need a quick shot of decluttering quick wins. Just like one of those tedious project meetings you may have sat through, I’m that person today that asks “Have we got any quick wins here?” . The answer is yes we do!

Here are some decluttering quick wins that will make an immediate impact on your home in just 30 minutes, helping to clear your space and mind.

Why Start with Quick Wins?

Quick wins can be so effective:

We’re looking for decluttering quick wins today and so this is not going to be clearing out cupboards and finding yourself knee deep in your stuff. We’ll want to move quickly from room to room in our homes and make an immediate difference. When I say quickly, I mean up against the clock with a 30 minute timer.

Before we get started, here’s a bit of necessary preparation for decluttering your space and bring more calm into your life.

How Can I Prepare for a Decluttering Session?

Find two boxes or bags and label as follows:

• Trash/Rubbish
• Donate/Sell 

Now to get to action

• Motivating and energising music – Think about the songs that make you feel pumped up – perhaps ones you played to get motivated for a night out or a run.
• Set a 30 minute timer

What Are the Easiest Items to Declutter First?

We’re only looking at decluttering quick wins. There can be bigger decluttering projects in future where we dive deeper but for today we’re doing a home sweep.

Broken Items

One of the quickest ways to make an impact is to deal with your broken items. We all have them scattered around the home, slipped into a drawer or cupboard, waiting to be dealt with.

Ask yourself:

1. Can it be fixed easily?
2. Is it worth the time and money to repair?
3. Have you been looking forward to fixing it for some time?

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, it’s time to let go. Broken items not only take up physical space but also our mental space as they remind us of unfinished tasks. Put these straight in the trash box or rubbish bag.

Duplicates

Next, we’re scanning for duplicate items.

Common culprits include:

Here we want to keep the best quality item or the one that you use most frequently. Stick the duplicate in the donate or sell box.

Expired Products

At Barefoot Intention we like to avoid waste but there are some expired items that are just best got rid of. There are some simple and effective decluttering quick wins to bag here.

Check these areas:

We like to live an intentional and sustainable life and so please dispose of expired items properly. Where ever possible, recycling packaging in the relevant service.

Free Stuff/Freebies

This is another category of items finding their way into our homes that we can add to our decluttering quick wins tally.

Common examples are:

If your going to use this stuff bring it into your eyeline within your storage and commit to using it up from today. If it’s hung around for a while and you have no plan to use, then these can go to the trash too.

Note for future self – Set an intention to now allow these items into your life. The creation of these small single use items are inefficient and damaging to the environment, as well as cluttering your home.

What Should I Do with Items I No Longer Need?

Once you’ve identified items to remove, you have several options:

Trash/Rubbish

• Recycle – Sort and recycle by type where possible
• Trash – The rest can go in the regular trash

Donate/Give away

• Charity Shops/Goodwill – Check first with the charity shops for causes you like to support. What are they taking in at the moment. Do this before dropping these items off. Remember to only give items of saleable quality, so that your rubbish/trash problem doesn’t become theirs
• Giveaway – Advertise on Gumtree or Freecycle
• Friends/Family – Offer to family and friends if there are things you know they would want or need

Sell

• Online – Selling on Facebook Marketplace, or Ebay can be a good way to raise some quick money.

Yard/Bootsale

• This 30 minute Impact Challenge may not generate enough for one of these, but the sell box can be temporarily stored if you have a clear intention to continue this decluttering practice.

Remember, the goal here is to make quick progress and so choose the method that feels right for you.

What Are the Pros and Cons of Quick Decluttering?

While quick decluttering has its limitations, the pros often outweigh the cons, especially when you’re just starting your journey towards a more minimalist lifestyle.

So that worked – What can I do next?

• Minimalism Game – After your initial decluttering session, you may want to take on a longer challenge to continue the progress you have made. A classic challenge that all thinking about minimalism should try is the 30 day minimalism game created by The Minimalists. This is a decluttering challenge that starts on the 1st of each month and sees you declutter 1 item on the 1st, 2 on the 2nd and so on until you have decluttered 30 items on day 30. That’s a whopping 475 items in a single month.
• Support Us – Check some of our other posts on Decluttering, Decluttering photos and Decluttering books. Follow us on Pinterest.

Conclusion: Your Path to a Clutter-Free Home

Embarking on a decluttering journey doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By focusing on quick wins like addressing broken items, duplicates, expired products and freebies, you can make an immediate impact on your living space. Remember, the goal is progress, not perfection. Each small step brings you closer to the calm, stress-free home you desire.

Start today with this 30 minutes of decluttering, and watch as your space – and mindset – begin to transform. Your future self will thank you for taking that first step towards a more minimalist, organised life.