The MMM Method - How to minimize your home (when you can't decide what to keep) — Minimize My Mess (2024)

Life doesn’t need to be this difficult.

You don’t have to do so much.

If you’re feeling tired and overwhelmed, or if you’re feeling like you’re spread too thin, and you never get a moment to yourself …here’s how to declutter without stress, regret or overwhelm.

I started off by minimizing my physical possessions (most of which were emotional/impulse buys). Then I minimized my commitments, my negative self talk, my impulse buys, toxic relationships, insecurities, digital clutter, negative money mindsets, expectations and complications.

But today we’re going to focus on our physical possessions using my fool-proof decluttering method.

Top tip: When you’re ready to get started, open up the free interactive decluttering tool to help you through this process.

What is the Minimize My Mess Method?

The Minimize My Mess Method (MMMM) is my blueprint on how to minimize and get rid of clutter, fast.

• No second guessing.

• No uhhming and ahhing.

• No grey area.

• It’s completely messy people proof because, hi - that’s me!

• If you follow the MMMM, there is no room for failure.

The MMMM takes away all of the analysis paralysis because all you need to do is answer questions and it will tell you exactly what to do next.

This is the method that we followed when we decided to downsize into a 600 sqft. one bedroom apartment.

With a toddler.

In a pandemic.

…And did I mention that our massive spare room at the old place was waist deep in clutter at the time?

Let’s start with some background - the MMMM is step 1 of the 4 steps to an easily tidied home…

The four steps of an easily tidied home are:

1. Minimize

2. Organize

3. Tidy

4. Clean

If you minimize the mess & organize the rest, you’ll be able to tidy rooms in 5 mins or less!

Each step gets infinitely easier if the previous one is complete.

• Cleaning is easier if you’ve already tidied

• Tidying is easier if you’ve already organized

• Organizing is easier if you’ve already minimized

Minimizing is letting go of everything that we don’t use and/or love.

It’s especially important for us messy people. We do not have the luxury of being able to own as many things as we want.

There’s a magic number of items that I can keep reasonably tidy, most of the time.

I can put systems in place and get into good habits, but if I have more things than I can personally manage, things are going to get messy.

The more I minimize, the less mess I have, the easier life is, and the happier I am.

It sounds simple enough but minimizing is much more difficult once you’re in the thick of it.

We often get paralyzed by indecision, and terrified that we’ll regret letting go of something.

The MMMM will demystify the minimizing phase, and provide step by step guidance.

A logical home means:

• Things you use more often are kept front and centre, closest to where you use them

• Things you use less often can be behind things, high up, low down, or further away

Ok, so you’re on board with being logical, but do you really need to label where things go?

I always tell this story, but it really puts things in to perspective…

In a poll on Instagram, 3/4 of people said they remember where everything goes in their home. So that means only 1/4 of us need to label where stuff goes, right?

Wrong :)

86% of people said that NO ONE ELSE in the household knows where things go.

If you live in a home with other people, it is not your sole responsibility to maintain it. Living clutter free with kids is a great read if you have tiny humans.

Labelling encourages everyone in the home to put things back in the right spot.

They don’t have to be anything fancy, I used painters tape and sharpie for years.

Labels also help to avoid any confusion, and make tidying quick and mindless …as it should be.

Organizing can also be really creative. You’re problem solving, so as long as the solution makes your life easier, anything goes! Here’s my clothes storage hack - it’s perfect for kids and messy people.

It took me over three decades to learn how to tidy.

For reals! I was tidying wrong that whole time. Before you laugh, go check out my to see if you’re making any of the same mistakes too :)

Tidying used to take forever, and I’d never seem to actually finish.

Now I can tidy any room in 5 mins & I’m not horrified at the thought of last minute visitors.

It still blows my mind that if everything has a logical and labelled home, tidying is not just easier, it’s actually in a weird way …fun?

There’s zero thinking involved, it’s just easy and mindless. I feel compelled to do it now.

30-something teenage dirt bag me would never believe me, but it’s true.

…The biggest tidying win I’ve discovered is the mighty power of a teeny-tiny-tidy!

Turns out that building the habit of tidying every day is more important than how long you tidy for.

So every day, come rain or shine, in sickness or in health, I set a timer for 1-5 minutes and then tidy my little heart out.

It’s a game-changer!

I crunched the numbers, and I’m a gazillion times more likely to clean the kitchen if the counters are clear (because I’ve already minimized, organized and tidied)

I’m no domestic goddess though so I’ll likely be using a baby wipe and giving a solid C+ effort …but I dig progress, not perfection, so yay me!

The Minimize My Mess Method: How to minimize your home, easily!

If you a) wear clothes or b) have tiny humans, I would highly recommend that you tackle clothes and toys first, and then meet me back here:

1. The easiest way to minimize your wardrobe (or quick guide here)

2. How to clear toy clutter in 10 mins

And just a quick note to let you know that the MMMM will create mess before it minimizes it. Prepare yourself for a perfectly imperfect home for the next little while, but trust that it will be so much better afterwards.

Minimize My Mess Method (MMMM) Overview

• The general premise of the MMMM is that you will work through each area, answer questions, then gather certain items and move them to designated temporary storage areas (called a drop spot).

• Items that typically take longer to decide on, and get you out of the flow (e.g. sentimental items & paperwork), are kept aside to be dealt with separately

• There are three strategies, pick whichever sounds easiest to you at the moment:

  • Tackle whole rooms at a time

  • Take a more bite size approach and tackle one drawer / cupboard / surface at a time

  • Concentrate on loose items on the floor & horizontal surfaces first, then go back and tackle things inside of cupboards and drawers

• You can either review your drop spots just once at the end, or, you can review them a few times throughout your minimizing - it’s up to you. I wait until the end, but temporary drop spot mess doesn’t bother me.

• Batching tasks and grouping items together in their drop spots means that you cut down on the overwhelm, decision fatigue, and analysis paralysis.

Drop spots

A drop spot can be a box, a corner of a room, a shelf, a drawer, a bag, a bin, the top of your dining room table …it doesn’t matter, they’re only temporary.

The only thing that matters is that you assign labels - post it notes work great for this.

Start assigning temporary homes for these MMMM drop spots:

1. Put away pile - anything that you do use / love, that does have a home

1. Donate – anything that you don’t use / love, that you’re happy to let go of

2. Sell – anything that you don’t use / love, that you’d rather sell

3. Memory – anything with sentimental value (don’t worry about whether or not you want to keep it just yet)

4. Paperwork – any paperwork that isn’t sentimental

5. Maybe – anything you’re not sure if you want to let go of or not

6. Dump (Organize) – anything that you do use / love, that does not have a home

7. Outward bound – anything that doesn’t belong in your home. E.g. things you need to take out to your car, library books that need to be returned, items that you borrowed and need to give back

The MMMM Initial Sweep

Let’s get started! Start in your first area and remove these items:

1. Remove sentimental items & add to memory box

2. Remove paperwork & add to paperwork pile

3. Remove anything that needs to leave the house & add to the outward bound box

The MMMM Question Time

Head back to your starting point, it’s time to start reviewing items.

Bonus tip: Use my free interactive decluttering tool to help you throughout step 2.

1. DO YOU USE/LOVE IT?

2. YES

   1. DOES IT HAVE A HOME?

      1. YES - add to put away pile (leave where it is if it’s already home)

      2. NO - add to dump box

3. NO

   1. IS IT BROKEN OR DAMAGED?

      1. YES - recycle, repurpose or throw away

      2. NO

         1. DO YOU WANT TO SELL IT?

            1. YES - add to sell box

            2. NO - add to donate box

4. MAYBE - add to maybe pile

Keep going until you’ve reviewed every item that you want to.

Then it’s time to go through your drop spots!

Check out my post on How to get rid of stuff you don’t need anymore if this next phase feels overwhelming.

Tackle your drop spots

‘Donate’ drop spot

These are all items that you’ve decided to donate so all you need to do is drop them off or arrange collection from your favourite donation centre.

Alternatively, you could offer them up on your local Buy Nothing group so someone in your neighborhood could benefit.

‘Sell’ drop spot

These are items that you’d like to sell.

Set yourself a deadline (you don’t want them hanging around to too long), and get listing!

‘Sentimental’ drop spot

The reason I asked you to gather anything remotely sentimental and keep it together in a memory box is because it’s so much easier to go through this stuff all at the same time.

Read my post on how to part with sentimental items without feeling guilty if you’re feeling really stuck.

‘Paperwork’ drop spot

Paperwork feels so important but the truth is that we never look at 80% of the papers that we keep!

Here are my paperwork tips:

• Scan or take photos of paperwork that you need to keep a record of, but not a physical copy.

  • I’ve been doing this for many years and have only had to look through my “paperwork” photo album a couple of times to find something.

  • You can share your paperwork photo album with others if needed

  • If I think I’ll need to find the photo easily in the future, I email it to myself with a description as the subject, so it’s easily searchable

• We keep anything that has to be kept in one small folder. There’s not much there so I don’t bother filing things - it doesn’t take long to flip through.

Tips to cut down on paperwork in the future:

• Select paperless bills & statements

• Use a ‘no junk mail’ sign

• Recycle manuals because you can find all of the info online

• Let stores know if you don’t need a paper receipt - I love that so many ask before printing nowadays

• Use online takeaway menus rather than having a whole drawer of them in the kitchen!

• Utilize technology - I love lists in the notes app on my phone, and my husband swears by his kindle.

Read this for more paperwork decluttering tips

‘Maybe’ drop spot

The maybe pile is pretty magic because it instantly takes the fear away. You don’t have to let go of anything that you’re unsure of.

However, until you decide for sure whether you want to keep it or not, store these items out of view.

Box them up and write a date three months from now on the side. Review the items then to see if you’re any closer to deciding.

I know you’ll love the extra space you get from these items not being out on a day to day basis.

‘Organize / dump’ drop box

Aka doom pile ()

Aka LBT (lazy but tidy box)

Aka dump drawer

This pile often takes the longest to clear, as you need to take the time to find logical homes and to label them.

Use what you have to start with, rather than buying new storage products. It’s very rare that we get organization right first time, so you don’t want to invest before you’re sure.

Take your time rather than rushing - your home will be much better organized for it.

‘Outward bound’ drop box

Get those items out of the house and returned to where they need to be. This is a great drop spot to have close to your front door on a long term basis. Talking of which…

Finishing Touches

Do you want to keep using any of your drop spots for the long term?

If so, pick a logical home for it and yes, you’ve guessed it …label it!

You might notice that I haven’t suggested that you arrange anything into a rainbow, or buy fancy storage bins..?

I’m all about organization making your life easier and don’t think you should feel pressured to make it pretty.

I recommend that you concentrate on organizing to make your life easier. You’ll be saving so much time that you’ll soon have more energy for an interior design project to prettify it, if you’d like.

Conclusion

Gosh, you’re done! Woohoo - I told you you’d get rid of clutter fast!

You now know how to minimize, and can apply the Minimize My Mess Method throughout your home - without feeling overwhelmed.

Minimizing is the most important step as it’s going to set the foundation of your new, easily tidied home.

It’s usually where we stumble and give up the most too, so I’m pleased that you now have this step by step guide to clarify things.

Don’t forget to download your handy MMMM cheat sheet:

I’d LOVE to hear how you got on and how you’re feeling now that you’re done.

If you are feeling overwhelmed and need a helping hand, I have a free 60 day challenge for you:

• Part 1 - How to become a minimalist in 30 days

• Part 2 - How to organize your home in 30 days

If you found this helpful, I’d be really grateful if you shared it using the buttons below - thanks!

Further Reading:

• How to start decluttering when you’re too overwhelmed

• 19 places you can donate books (the last one is my fave!)

• Read this if you’ve ever called yourself messy or lazy

• How to stop shopping online

• Free calculator to work out how many clothes you need

• Fillable capsule wardrobe list template

• How to make the most of a small kitchen

• What to do with expensive gifts you don’t want

• How much money I made in my first 6 months of blogging