I’m all for the Minimalists Game, albeit my remixed version, because it can build momentum and motivation for owning less, and help you tune in to your gut reactions to the objects in your home.

But I’m uncomfortable with the oft-cited suggestion of “just doing a little each day.” I get it, we have busy lives, and the thought of committing whole hog to a decluttering project seems overwhelming. But let’s do the math, assuming you spend just 20 minutes every weekday decluttering for the rest of 2019.

20 minutes a day X 260 weekdays a year / 60 minutes per hour = 86.7 hours.

That’s over two weeks of a full-time job spent contending with your stuff. Not to mention the time and energy you lose living with clutter during this interminable project.

If you find a clear-ish week on the calendar, commit to the process, tune in to your gut, and roll up your sleeves, we can declutter an entire rowhome in an average of 24 hours. It’s much more efficient, and then you get to actually reap the benefits of a tidy home: more time, more space, more energy, more rest.

Keeping your home tidy can be a daily habit: create your shopping list and nopping list, follow curfew, follow the one-minute rule, eliminate procrasticlutter, don’t shop on payday, etc. Maintaining a tidy home is akin to eating well.

Decluttering your home in the first place is not like eating well; you don’t really see the benefits if you do a little each day.

Decluttering is like a juice cleanse: muster up the willpower just once, watch in horror at the things that come out, reset your whole system, and then emerge into the next chapter of your life.

If you want help getting this one-and-done approach over with so you can move on with your life, book a six-pack of sessions and get a 20% discount.