Declutter Your Home Checklist Inspired by 3 Atomic Habits

The Atomic Habits by James Clean has been a beacon of hope for everyone who wants to improve their lives, regardless of their backgrounds. In this book, Clear underscores the importance of habits and how they can help you achieve your goals. Beyond their broader impact on career success or life, habits are essential to maintaining an organized home. Tackle a major cleaning project by applying the top three lessons from this book. 

Benefits of a Clean Home

No matter how busy you are, keeping your home neat must be one of your daily priorities. A home is a zen space, a sanctuary to retreat to after an exhausting day. 

Evidence suggests coming home to a messy, cluttered environment can disrupt your ability to concentrate. Clutter generates visual distractions that may linger on your brain — for instance, kitchen garbage that must be removed. In fact, 55% of Americans cite clutter makes them stressed. That gnawing awareness and feeling may bug you until you tackle the mess. 

Meanwhile, a spotless living area can have a number of positive effects on physical and mental health. It contributes to a better mood and reduces anxiety.

Declutter Home Checklist Inspired by the Atomic Habits

A checklist can make a significant cleaning project less overwhelming and stressful. Here’s how to create one based on James Clear’s habit-building principles.

Small Habits Make a Big Difference

In short, do a tiny declutter to avoid the overwhelm. Clear emphasized the significance of small habits that make a big difference in life. It’s not about the drastic changes but the marginal improvements that compound the benefits in the long run.

How can you apply this lesson to rid your space of things you no longer need and use? The first step is to start clearing one area or divide cleaning into sections to avoid overtaxing yourself. Pick either the bedroom, kitchen or living room. 

Bedroom Decluttering Checklist

The bedroom is mainly a place for sleep, but some people also use it for studying and working. Here’s a general checklist to get you started with organization. 

• Pick up all the junk on the floor and under the bed.
• Throw the trash.
• Clear the surfaces and the top of the nightstand.
• Hide items or decorations you don’t want sitting out.
• Put the things you use daily in the top drawer to make them accessible.
• Change the sheets and make the bed.
• Vacuum and mop the floor. 

Tweak this list based on your situation or needs. For instance, if your home office is just beside the bed, add clearing your desk in the to-dos.

Do the rest with the other home areas. Write down what you need to clean before doing anything. This ensures you can maximize your time instead of doing things randomly. You don’t have to do everything in one day. You can schedule decluttering in other rooms on your next day off.  

Focus on Your System Instead of the Goals

Decluttering is like a muscle you need to exercise daily to get the most benefits. Similarly, cleaning habits take time to build. People who fixate on the result tend to overexert themselves, making chores a painful experience. You can make tasks enjoyable and less distressing by focusing on the system, which is the act of cleaning itself — and doing it regularly to establish a habit.

One strategy to make this work is ritualizing a task. Like how washing the dishes becomes automatic after meals, you can turn cleaning into a daily routine. Doing so has some amazing benefits. For instance, it prevents mess from accumulating and, by extension, helps you avoid top-to-bottom decluttering at the end of every month or year. 

A cleaning card system is a tremendous help in optimizing the meager time you have for managing the household. It’s similar to a home decluttering checklist, reminding you of the tasks to be prioritized, but are visual representations. You can print out images of home areas and turn them into cleaning cards with a checklist of tasks at the back.

For instance, the bathroom cleaning card will likely include the following areas, too: 

• Toilet
• Sink 
• Mirror
• Surfaces 
• Tub
• Floor
• Drawers

You don’t have to do everything on the list, though. The goal is to convert cleaning into a habit, and this card is only a guide to reference your decluttering tasks.

Build Identity-based Habits

Your habits reflect the kind of person you are today. Most people’s paradigms were adapted from when they were young. Experts discovered you’re affected by the experiences of your ancestors, both positive and negative.

Therefore, if you weren’t raised in a household that prioritized cleanliness and order, your home would likely be messy most of the time. Building a cleaning habit will be easier if you tie a positive trait to the identity you want to embody. 

Do you prefer to arrange things based on category? Or would you rather keep kitchen surfaces neat by hiding everything in the cabinet? Your personality will help determine whether spiced jars stay on tiered shelves visible in plain sight or hidden in closed drawers. Asking yourself these questions will give you an idea of how to approach decluttering and help you create a personalized checklist.

Additional Tips 

1. Identify a keystone habit. Learn what one task will have a ripple effect on other things on your to-dos. For example, waking up at 7 a.m. will give you that extra time to clean the kitchen. 

2. Stack your habits. If one piece of the domino falls, the rest follows. What’s one minor task you can do that will trigger a domino effect on your decluttering checklist? 

3. Be kind to yourself. Habits aren’t built overnight. It takes a while to convert an action into a daily routine. 

Make It a Habit To Organize Your Space

Decluttering is a personal process for many people. Since everyone’s situation is unique — such as the amount of clutter and time available for doing chores — customizing a home declutter checklist is the best approach to building the habit of cleaning.