Clutter can creep up on even the most organised of us, turning our homes into stressful, overwhelming spaces. In this article, decluttering experts Ingrid Jansen and Lesley Spellman, founders of The Declutter Hub – the UK’s leading authority on decluttering and organising your home – reveal the ten decluttering mistakes that are making your home feel more chaotic – and how to fix them.
Mistake 1: Failing to prepare
All good projects need a plan – what equipment do you need? How much time do you have? How much energy do you have? Do you have someone to help with logistics, someone to lift heavy things, someone to do a charity shop run? All these things need to be thought about. Fail to plan, plan to fail as they say and it has never been truer when it comes to a decluttering project.
Mistake 2: Allowing ‘stuff’ to be the focus
We’ve all heard it a million times – well meaning projects designed to ditch 10 things a day from our lives or 365 things a year. While this isn’t a bad plan for short-term gain, for long term success you need to focus on emotions and habits and not stuff. Once you have understood the emotions holding you back the stuff will follow.
Mistake 3: Employing an ‘all or nothing approach’
If decluttering your home is repeatedly one of your new year’s resolutions then perhaps you are succumbing to an all or nothing approach. Whilst sometimes we can’t avoid tackling a big decluttering project, long term we ought to try and incorporate decluttering into our every day. Little and often, slow and steady, tortoise not hare – this methodology will ensure your decluttering is done and stays that way.
Mistake 4: Tackling the worst room first
When we think about the decluttering projects that need to be done in our homes, our minds always go to the hardest things – we think about our garage, our loft, our spare room that’s become a dumping ground, or our books or craft items. We don’t think about the excess shampoo we have, the medication that’s out of date, the magazines that have been hanging around unread for decades. We need to build up our decluttering muscle by tackling easy things first. Then the tough rooms can happen further into the process.
Mistake 5: Starting with sentimental items
Once you’re in the midst of a decluttering project you will undoubtedly come across things that are highly sentimental. The decluttering muscle needs to be strong by the time you are into your sentimental items. As you go from room to room gather these together and tackle them together towards the end of your project.
Mistake 6: Flitting from room to room
It’s so important to think about what room, what area, what drawer you are tackling and stick to it. We see so many people get waylaid by finding something in a room that doesn’t belong and immediately taking it to its new home, only to find something else that needs attention. This is called flitting and means that decluttering projects end up being half finished. Having something that’s half finished means you don’t see the results of all your efforts. If you don’t see results you won’t be motivated to continue your journey.
Mistake 7: Underestimating the time it takes
Decluttering takes a while if you are going to do it effectively. Never underestimate the time it takes to carry out a task as it can become soul destroying to realise you are only 10% into a job that you had hoped to get finished in an afternoon. Break down the task into manageable chunks and then you’re way more likely to get to the finish stage.
Mistake 8: Tackling other people’s stuff
It can be all too easy to blame other people for the clutter in your home and to be honest, it often is other people’s stuff that adds to your clutter woes. But, to make good solid progress with decluttering, you need first to get your own things in order before you start worrying about other people’s stuff. Once the chaos starts to disappear and the calm appears, other people in your household will stand up and take notice, (we hope anyway!)
Mistake 9: Buying storage before you start
This is a big one when it comes to decluttering mistakes. How often have you dashed to the store to buy boxes, containers or additional furniture BEFORE you’ve even got started. Most of the time we have more than enough storage in our homes, we just have too much stuff. You need to declutter first, work out where you want to have something and then decide on what box to buy to either containerise, make it pretty or both. Use empty shoe boxes, jewellery, present boxes, iphone boxes and temporary solutions and then shop for the right product at the right time.
Mistake 10: Not regulating your shopping habits
Most of your clutter was acquired through shopping so the most effective way to keep the clutter at bay is to tackle the clutter at source. If it’s not coming in it doesn’t need to go out. Simple.
Decluttering can be a tough job for many of us but don’t become demotivated by making the same mistakes over and over. If you recognise some of these behaviours, make a concerted effort to avoid them and you won’t go far wrong. Good luck!
About the experts
Ingrid Jansen, 51, and Lesley Spellman, 56, are the UK’s leading authority on decluttering and organising your home as The Declutter Hub, which boasts a top one percent podcast with more than 2.5 million downloads, and a Facebook community of 60,000 members.
With a combined nearly 30 years’ professional experience helping overwhelmed homeowners as The Clutter Fairy and Organise Your House, the duo cut to the core of the emotions that hold us back from having a clutter-free, organised space that we want to live in and be proud of.
Ingrid and Lesley spent four years leading the Association of Professional Declutterers and Organisers (APDO) as President and Head of Mentoring, then they joined forces as The Declutter Hub to bring their expertise to a global audience.
Published in February 2025, Lesley & Ingrid’s new book – Reset Your Home: Unpack Your Emotions And Your Clutter, Step By Step – quickly became a bestseller and features their tried-and-tested approach to emotions-based decluttering and creating a calm space with long-term results. They also work with clients with mental health issues such as ADHD, ASD and OCD.
Reset Your Home: Unpack Your Emotions And Your Clutter, Step By Step by Lesley Spellman & Ingrid Jansen is £13.95, published by Bloomsbury and available now on Amazon.
