At the start of 2024 I made myself a promise: get rid of 2,024 items from my home over the course of the year. Not all at once, not in a panic — just steadily, 15 minutes at a time, until I got there. I did get there (2,025 items, to be precise — I passed the goal by one in what I can only describe as December desperation). This video is me walking through exactly how I did it: the tracking system, the counting rules I set for myself, the mindset shifts that turned out to matter most, and what I'm planning to do differently in 2025.
What we cover
This is a reflection and a practical walkthrough combined. I share the visual grid system I used to track progress all year, answer the questions that come up most often about counting and what qualifies as decluttered, talk honestly about what actually changed in my home and in my head, and lay out my plan for the year ahead — which involves focusing specifically on my craft room and sharing that process along the way.
What you'll learn
How to set up a room-by-room tracking grid for a year-long decluttering project, including:
- Dividing your home into sections (not just rooms — I had 16 areas total, including zones like "the couch" and "the study" within a larger open space)
- Assigning each section a color or icon so you can colour in squares as you go
- Drawing a grid with rows of 35 squares so you never have to count individual squares — you just count completed lines
How to build a daily decluttering habit without burning out
- 15 minutes a day goes on the to-do list like any other task
- Some days it's 15 minutes, some days it's an hour, some days nothing at all — it evens out
- Working wherever you feel pulled that day rather than grinding through one room until it's done
The container method for sorting without interrupting your flow
- Everything goes into one container first while you're in decluttering mode
- Only when the container is full do you sort into donate, trash, or hand-down
- Counting happens at the end of the week or end of the month — not after each session — so the rhythm stays intact
How to check whether you're on track mid-year
- Divide your goal by 12 to find your monthly target
- Multiply that by however many months have passed
- Compare to your actual count — you'll know immediately whether you're ahead, behind, or in December desperation territory
The counting rules that kept things honest, including:
- A set counts as one item, not as individual pieces
- A used-up or broken item doesn't count — if every empty toothpaste tube was a decluttered item, the system would be meaningless
- Replacing something doesn't count unless you reduce the total number (brought in three blankets, donated four old ones — that's one item decluttered)
- Papers and drawings can be condensed: twelve folders reduced to six counts as six items
How to talk yourself into letting go rather than into keeping The mindset shift that made the biggest difference for me: instead of finding all the reasons to keep something, find the reasons to let it go. Ask — if this were in a shop right now, would I buy it? If the honest answer is no, that tells you something. This doesn't mean interrogating every pencil you own, only the things you're genuinely uncertain about.
Why the physical difference is harder to see than the mental one The changes accumulate slowly over a year, so you don't notice them the way you'd notice clearing everything out in a week. What I noticed most wasn't the empty shelves — it was the shift in how I think about stuff. I'm no longer emotionally tied to objects the way I was. I can look at my kids' school papers at the end of the year and let most of them go without the guilt spiral.
Tips & gotchas
The 15-minutes-a-day rule sounds small, but small is exactly the point. The moment decluttering starts to feel like a project you have to brace yourself for, you'll stop doing it. Keep sessions short enough that you don't dread starting.
Use one container as a staging area while you're in the flow of decluttering. Don't stop to decide where every item goes — that kills momentum. Sort the container when it's full, count then, and colour in your squares at the end of the week. Keeping the tracking separate from the sorting keeps both things manageable.
On the counting front: a set is one item, used-up doesn't count, replacing doesn't count. These rules might feel slightly unfair (getting rid of a massive exercise bike earns you exactly one coloured square, same as a pen) — but the rules exist to keep you honest about whether your home is actually getting lighter.
For seasonal stuff like holiday decorations, declutter at the time of the season. Pulling boxes out in February to decide what to let go of from Christmas is miserable and you won't do it. Do it while the decorations are already out.
The 80% rule: the ideal fill level for any storage space — a drawer, a wardrobe, a fridge — is 80% full. Never 100%. If everything is packed in, you can't see what you have, you can't find what you need, and you definitely can't add anything without it becoming chaos.
If you live with other people: ask before decluttering anything that belongs to them. You can set a boundary around your own space and your own things, but you can't make someone else want to let go of theirs. That's their journey, not yours. Focus on your own area and let that be enough.
Finally — and this is probably the most practical mindset tip I can offer — when you're unsure about something, try talking yourself into letting it go rather than into keeping it. Ask: would I buy this today? Does it earn its space? Am I keeping it out of obligation, or because I actually want it here? You won't get it right every time (I kept the triangle pencil, obviously) but this question cuts through a lot of the noise.
I want to film that process rather than disappear and come back when it's done, because I think there's something useful in watching someone work through the real chaos rather than just seeing the tidy reveal at the end. If that's something you'd find useful — or if there's a particular category you'd like me to tackle first — I'd genuinely love to know.
