When the sun is shining through the windows and birds are chirping outside, it’s natural to get an itch to clean and declutter.

A good deep clean in honor of spring’s entrance is a great idea, but you may find that with your busy lifestyle, you’re still needing to get to the bottom of clutter accrued from the holiday season. These tips can help anyone declutter, even if you only have a few minutes to spare here or there.

Just Get Started

Once you know you need to downsize, it can be all too easy to become overwhelmed. Your mind immediately drifts to the spare room closet filled with craft supplies, or the garage filled with boxes of who-knows-what. Thinking of these areas can make it easy to put off the spring decluttering process until you feel like you have more time. Avoid this trap. The reality is, if you live a busy life, there will likely never be an “ideal” moment for decluttering and spring cleaning.

The best time is now. Simply start with the easy stuff first. Make progress by starting with easy-to-purge objects and you will be surprised at how much more smoothly the process will become. Tough decisions can be saved for when you have more momentum.

No Keep Piles

When starting a big decluttering project, it can be tempting to pull everything out of the contained area in order to sort through the items. While in small spurts this may be helpful, for busy people who may be interrupted at a moments notice, this method is far from ideal. Instead, take individual items out of the space that obviously do not belong there. With each item, decide immediately whether it should be donated, disposed of (or recycled), or placed in its proper home in the house. While many organizers recommend using a keep pile or box, if you feel you may be interrupted during your decluttering process, skip this idea and simply return items immediately to their proper place as you come across them. This prevents an unfinished keep box or pile from becoming the unintended result of your decluttering project.

Think About Your Ideal Space:

Walk into the room you want to declutter, when you imagine the space at its ideal form. You probably don’t picture mounds of clutter in the corners and on any surfaces. Picture what the room could look like in an ideal world: a perfectly styled bookshelf instead of one overflowing with books and paperwork, childrens’ toys organized and accessible, instead of strewn haphazardly on the floor. Once you’ve pictured the ideal, you are primed to realize exactly how much your room can hold without chaos regining. Based on this mental exercise you will know what a full (but not too full) room will look like. You’re officially primed to keep only what will fit well. Start with the obvious necessities first, and fill up your space with your favorite items until you’re out of room. Anything remaining gets tossed, donated or sold respectively.

Three Box (or Bag) Rule

When you finally decided to declutter, it’s easy to get caught up in the urge to purge and get lost along the way. This is a mistake that will cost you. Instead of sorting through items willy-nilly, use a system to increase your efficiency and strengthen your resolve.

A variation on the four box method is the perfect solution for the disorganized declutterer; gather three boxes and label them individually: donate, trash, recycle. This method ensures that you’re not coming across the same items repeatedly.  While the original method allowed for a fourth “keep box”, as we learned, this can be detrimental  if you’re short on time or face a distraction. Simply put your “keep” items away immediately.

The beauty of this method? No longer are you trying to decide which items to toss, (a difficult task if you are prone to sentimentality) but, instead, you are choosing which items truly should be kept. This shifts your mentality, allowing you to evaluate which items deserve shelf space, and which may not be as important after all.

Regardless of whether you need to sift through a few extra items to make room for the things you acquired during the holiday season, or you simply have needed to declutter your home for a while and haven’t gotten around to it, there’s no better time to start than now.