When it comes to my job, helping people deal with the clutter in their homes is my bread and butter. Clutter is defined as a collection of things lying about in an untidy mass. Clutter can accumulate anywhere in a home, but what I encounter most often is cluttered surfaces in the common areas of the home like the kitchen, living room, and bedrooms. Sometimes clutter piles up because we simply don’t take the time to put items back in their proper place. Taking a few extra seconds to return items to their home instead of placing them somewhere quickly easily solves that problem. But what if an item has never been assigned a proper location, or home? What do you do with it when you finish using it? More often than not, that item will end up on a kitchen counter, desk, coffee table, or some other surface. When that same outcome occurs frequently, before you know it, the surface is no longer visible or usable.

One good thing about being stuck inside is that I can focus on anything inside my home that needs to be done. When it comes to organization (my favorite of all activities), I believe the top priority should always be decluttering. Decluttering simply means removing what doesn’t belong in a space. Most of us would agree that we just have way too much stuff. When a space is overloaded with stuff, any efforts to organize that space are wasted. My goal in this article is to give you a practical list of steps that you can use to declutter any area of your home. With this checklist in hand and a little bit of time, you should be able to tackle any space and make significant improvements.

You might have an image in your mind right now that symbolizes your definition of clutter. That image might be similar to this photo of a garage that I recently helped declutter and organize. That’s how most people visualize clutter. But clutter is a much broader concept than just piles of stuff.

As a writer, I am often inspired by ideas in unusual settings. Who thinks about organizing while hiking? Apparently I do, because so far, hiking trips are a frequent source of inspiration. This one came on a hike in Rocky Mountains National Park. My family was fortunate to travel to Colorado in August, and by far our favorite outing on the trip was this particular hike. The trail from the Bear Lake post to Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, and Emerald Lake is definitely one of my favorite hikes I have ever completed. After relaxing for a little while at Emerald Lake, we gathered our belongings to prepare for the trip back. I usually prefer a hike on which you can come back on a different trail so that you can enjoy different scenery on the return trip. Since that wasn’t a possibility that day, we started the trip back down the trail.

I noticed that although we were hiking exactly the same trail, the two experiences weren’t identical. For one thing, we encountered a few elk on our way back, which was quite exciting. And of course we encountered different hikers than on the way there. But most noticeably, the scenery looked quite different this time. Sometimes all it takes to see something differently is a change in perspective.

Are you wondering what this has to do with organizing?

“Your home should be the antidote to stress, not the cause of it.” —Peter Walsh

I recently discovered this powerful quote by Peter Walsh, a famous organizer and author. As someone whose profession is helping people organize their homes, I am well aware of how much stress our homes can cause us. We long for our homes to be a place of peace and rest, but so often that is not the case. The reasons are numerous and diverse. But I would venture to guess that the most familiar reason is because of disorder, most commonly as a result of clutter.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

As a professional organizer, you probably aren’t surprised to learn that I frequently review organizing resources. I read books, listen to podcasts, read articles, peruse websites, take classes, view webinars, and participate in email and Facebook group discussions. I do this because I want to be the best that I can for my clients, but also because I truly love learning about and talking about organizing.

This picture of a disorganized attic wasn’t taken at a client’s home. This is my attic. I’m not necessarily proud of it, but I think it’s important that you see it. Although my home is definitely well above average as far as organization goes, it still has problem areas, and this is one of them. Although you might think the home of an organizer would be nearly perfect most of the time, the reality is that it isn’t. And I am ok with that.