My Take on the 30-Day Declutter Challenge (And Why You Should Try It)

Ever heard of the 30-day declutter challenge? The one where you get rid of 1 thing on day 1, 2 things on day 2, 3 things on day 3… until the month is over? I heard about it months ago and finally decided to give it a try.

Honestly… I had to tweak it for my own sanity. But sticking with it taught me a lot about:

• Learning to let go

• Releasing what doesn’t serve me

• Gaining mental clarity as less stuff translates to less mental burden

If you loved my last post, “New Year and Less Sht: Minimizing Clutter to Maximize Intentions”*, this is the next step — a practical, doable way to start the year with less chaos and more focus. If you haven’t read it yet, check it out after this post!

Why I Decided to Take the Declutter Challenge

As a small business owner working from home,

my personal and professional lives overlap

more than usual. As my business grows, so does the clutter — both in terms of stuff and mental load. I found it challenging to:

• Keep things organized and tidy

• Maintain a smooth, functional workflow

• Balance both personal and professional spaces and tasks

I thought the challenge could help me:

1. Reduce what I have to manage, tidy, and clean

2. Create more space for designated workstations and personal areas

I’m also someone who thrives on challenges, so having a daily guide was more motivating than simply thinking, “time to declutter.”

How I Tweaked the Challenge

Tweak 1: Accountability

It’s easy to skip tasks when life gets busy. I recruited someone I knew wanted to declutter too — my mom. Having someone to remind, cheer, and declutter alongside me was a game-changer. This not only helped me but also helped her. Who will you send this challenge too?

Side note: it was really fun checking in each day to see our progress and just how good it felt to be reclaiming our homes!

Tweak 2: Start big, not small

We didn’t stick to the 1-2-3 progression. Instead, we started backwards:

• Day 1: 50 items purged (nursery plant pots I saved to start seeds + broken pots I wanted to fix but never did)

• Day 2: 49 items purged (food storage containers I never used - got gifted to a neighbor needing them for organization)

• Day 3: A 27-gallon tote of housewares, 11 pairs of shoes, and a suitcase

  (all things I didn't need/use off to consignment)

Tweak 3: Items leave the house immediately From past experience, if things didn’t leave right away, they would sneak back into my closet or drawers. Our system:

• Broken or recyclable items → proper bins outside

• Items to give away → local Buy Nothing group on Facebook

• Consignment items → stored in labeled totes ready to go

This helped keep clutter from creeping back and reinforced the habit of letting go.

Tips That Helped Me Succeed

• Set daily reminders — a simple notification on my phone in the morning and a second as a check in at night time (sticky notes could work too)

• Have donation/recycle boxes ready — prevents items from sneaking back in

• Take before/after photos — seeing progress is so motivating! Share it with your accountability partner (:

• Break down areas into manageable sections — focus on one space or one type of item at a time helps avoid overwhelm

• Be flexible with the numbers — the exact count isn’t as important as consistency, also starting backwards worked very well as the longer we progressed the less we had or the harder it was to part with more things

Where I Struggled

For me, the challenge revealed that letting go isn’t about shopping habits, it’s about attachment. I had broken flip-flops from when I was 15 thinking “I could fix them someday" and cleats from 8th grade, just in case I joined a pickup sports game someday. Notice the someday in both cases?

Items that could be donated or reused by someone else were easier to release. The hardest to part with were things that couldn’t be recycled or donated — I hated “throwing them away” because it essentially meant sending them to a landfill which if you know me then you know that's the last thing I want to do.

Key realizations:

• Throwing a few things away is not the end of the world.

• Sustainable living isn’t perfect — do your best without beating yourself up over small things.

• Decluttering reduces mental burden — less stuff to manage frees time and energy for more important things.

Going Forward

Decluttering has also changed how I approach gifts:

• I communicate with friends and family about useful gifts like food, experiences, or small items I actually need

• I bring awareness to our sometimes very differing lifestyles and how silly little things are fun and silly in the moment but rather wasteful sometimes and I'd love to avoid that respectfully

Why This Challenge Is Worth Trying

Whether you do it as designed (1 thing, 2 things, etc.) or go hard from the start, you’ll inevitably gain new insights:

• About your habits and attachments

• About what truly matters in your home

• About how decluttering affects your mental clarity

One important note: decluttering does not give permission to replace old items with new ones unnecessarily. Sustainable swaps might look like replacing worn-out socks with natural fiber ones, rather than buying new socks just for the sake of it.

Final Thoughts

I did not complete the full 30 days and maybe to you that means I failed but to mean it doesn't. To me, it means I picked the busiest month of the year to try something a little overwhelming for a person like myself. If I did 1 item on day 1 and 2 on day 2 like the challenge is designed I would have parted ways with 465 items. That is ALOT. Considering the 50 planter pot and 49 food containers one days 1 and 2 I already purged 99 items which is 21% of the total anyways. I lost count as the days carried or daily check ins became phone calls instead of texts I could reference writing this anyways. I do think that in the end I did part with 465 items I just did it a bit differently as time allowed. So whether you try this challenge and stick to it 100% the way its supposed to be right to the end or you tweak it a bit like I did, I strongly believe its worth trying.

This challenge is essentially a step-by-step extension of “New Year and Less Sh*t”. If you want more tips on decluttering with intention, check out my room-by-room guide, and don’t forget to explore our sustainable living and mindful home tips too.