After years of living in a house, you start to accumulate a lot of things. I have decluttered so many times, but when I keep thrifting, I keep accumulating. So this year, is my year to declutter my home and my life.

Over the years, after many attempts to declutter and organize, I have developed a system (I think it’s pretty clever-lol!) that can be applied to any type of declutter in your home or in your life. That method is what I call the DCO Method.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Every body and their little brother has developed a decluttering method…aka, Kon Mari, and so many others”. I get it, that’s true. But here is what I believe, only because I have tried every method out there, and still trying them. I believe you have to find what works for you. You can buy all the books, watch all the You Tubes, follow all the declutter pros, and still not get your home in order. Are you still with me? I know this, because I have all the books, watched all the You Tubes, and follow all the decluttering pros on social media.

But there was still something missing. Something wasn’t clicking with me yet. These other methods weren’t working for me for the long haul. While the Kon Mari Method is a great method and I am a complete fan of it, it overwhelmed me. I loved pulling everything out my closet and putting it on the bed; starting in the closet with a clean slate. But the pile on the bed was overwhelming and took hours or days to go through. (Yes, I know, I have too many clothes, but that is what I collect. Some people collect coins, I collect clothes).

So what I started doing was picking a little bitty section or area, like 1 drawer, or 1 box, and decluttering that 1 area. The overwhelm went away instantly.

Now, back to my DCO method. I came up with this acronym to help me to utilize these same exact steps with every single area of my home.

Declutter
Clean
Organize

Declutter. I still like the concept of starting with a clean slate, so that is what we are going to do with 1 little area. Choose a drawer, a box, a basket, a section. Remove all the contents from the area(the drawer, box, basket, section, etc), so the area is completely empty. Then go through every single item. You will have 5 different piles: keep, move(this is for items that don’t even belong in this area), trash, donate/sell, maybe. Every item will go into a pile. Make your selections thoughtfully.

A tip a friend shared on her Substack, was to break down your sections of your closet (she is a fashion writer). For example, declutter all your white button-up shirts. I love her idea for this, and utilized this idea. Go check @heymrssolomon out if you love all things fashion and clothes. She is a genius.

Clean. Then once you have decluttered the area, and gone through each item, and sorted each item into 5 piles, it is time then to clean the area. You always want to clean the area before you start putting any items back in the area. It probably needs to be done, and it makes you feel better.

This step flows into the other step quite simultaneously. You want to clean each item, or fold, etc, each item if needed, as you put it back in the space. Now, before you do that right now, continue reading on to the next step. Remember, I said this step flows into the next step.
Organize. So, as you clean an item to return to the area, do not put anything back unorganized. Every item you clean and put back, needs to be put back organized. This is so simple. If you want to think about how you want to organize an area for a few minutes before putting items back, do that. Whatever will help you to organize it, and keep it that way.


When you break projects down into small bite-size pieces, the mess isn’t as large, and the overwhelm is less, if there at all. Sure, I would love to be able to declutter my whole house in a weekend, but I lose steam, get tired, and way overwhelmed. It’s the small tasks that work for me. I have a long way to go in my house and life, but I am really working on it this year. Little by little, each and every day. I know this method seems so super simple, but think about it, don’t we as humans make things more complicated then they need to be? All the time. I am saying this to myself and to anyone who struggles with clutter, “You can do this. Keep it simple”.

What are some of your tips for decluttering and organizing? Are you like me and get overwhelmed easily? Share in the comments any tips you may have for this community.