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The Decluttering Matrix: The Only Decluttering System You’ll Ever Need

When was the last time you did some serious decluttering around the house? Life moves fast and it’s only a matter of time before all of those items you’ve tossed to the side to start to accumulate. By the time you realize it, there’s a mountain of clutter in every corner of the house and now the thought of sorting through everything is overwhelming. Living among clutter can affect your health in multiple ways, including both physically and mentally.

Time passes quickly when your everyday life is filled with things to do and people to take care of, it’s no wonder decluttering is never top priority. Let’s deep dive why decluttering regularly should be a priority and how to make the entire process less daunting.

THE DECLUTTERING MATRIX THE ONLY DECLUTTERING SYSTEM YOU’LL EVER NEED

Why Decluttering is a Must

There are many reasons why decluttering should be a priority for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you live in an apartment, rent a room, or own a home; decluttering is for everyone. Your living spaces are sacred and should be treated as such. These are the places that you live every day, where you begin and end your day, which means it plays a heavy influence on your overall well-being and way of life.

A cluttered space pulls your mind in many different directions, even if you’re not intentionally seeking it out. Your brain will naturally observe and register items in a room which takes up valuable resources that could be offered to other things like finishing an important task.

All those papers that are sitting on your desk? Your brain uses energy to observe and process what it’s looking at, which is not a significant issue on its own. Where problems arise is when there’s stacks and stacks of papers, books, and other random items laid around and out of place. The more the brain has to process, the more energy it uses, which can build up to a significant use of energy that’d otherwise be best used on more productive tasks.

Think back to a time you walked into a messy room. You likely felt overwhelmed, because your brain didn’t know where to direct your eyes on where to look.

Now, think about a time you walked into the same room after it was cleaned and organized. It probably felt more peaceful and less noisy than before. This is a prime example of how clutter buildup can drastically affect your brain.

When the brain is forced to endure so much stimulus, it sends stress signals to the body which increases cortisol, otherwise known as the “stress hormone.” This means that clutter quite literally creates physical stress on your body.

This explains why your living space feels so much better after a deep cleaning and decluttering session. The more clutter there is, the more your brain has to give, which spreads to larger problems like anxiety, depression, or burn out to become more prominent.

In short, clutter stresses us out, but decluttering can help prevent this!

How To Use The Decluttering Matrix

There’s nothing more overwhelming than standing in a room surrounded by clutter, unsure where to look, more or less start decluttering. If you don’t approach your decluttering systematically then you’re likely going to continue to push off the decluttering all together.

Here’s the catch about clutter: It never gets easier.

Once it begins to build, it only grows until you address it.

A systematic approach to decluttering will help with task avoidance and finally create clean-thinking, clutter-free living or working space. The system we most recommend is called the, “Keep. Toss. Donate. Store.” approach which seems nonsensical at first, but many people rely on it to get major decluttering done in a timely manner.

The reason this system works well is because it simplifies your thinking and removes emotion from your decision-making. Though these items are considered clutter, it doesn’t take away their importance to us. At some point these items you’ve set aside hold a certain value or meaning to you which can make it difficult to decide what to do with them.

Teenager Girl Packing Suitcase and Organizing Belongings in Bedroom

How The System Works

This decluttering process is straightforward. Instead of looking at an item and asking yourself, “what should I do with this?” it’s more about asking yourself, “how much value does this item still offer?”

This method calls for you to decide if something holds enough meaning for you to continue to hang onto it or get rid of it. Remove those emotional barriers and keep everything strictly business!

The system has four layers of consideration that can help with your decision-making.

Keep. Donate. Store. Toss.

KEEP

As the name insists, the ‘Keep’ option is for those items that you want, or often need, to keep in your life. This is one of the harder options to consider, because you’ll feel inclined to want to keep more than you actually need to keep. These are items that you love and hold true value to you and cannot be replaced at a later date.

Such items can include:

  • Important documents (legal contracts, health records, etc.)
  • Family photos or heirlooms
  • Highly valuable memorabilia
  • Sporting, fitness, or other equipment that will be used at a later date
  • Other highly significant items
The best way to navigate this category is by being honest with yourself and understanding if you truly need to hang onto something or not. A common reality we all share is storage space in our home is limited, so to avoid overthinking ask yourself:
  • Is this item worth the little storage space I have?
  • Will I, or someone around me, use this item in the near-future?
  • Will I genuinely miss this item if I get rid of it?
  • When was the last time I needed this item?
Generally, once you ask yourself these questions you’ll find your answer and you can move onto the next part of the decluttering matrix.

TOSS

If you’re doing decluttering right then this category will likely have the most items in it. The point of decluttering isn’t to see how much you can keep, but more how much room you can make for yourself. Remember, the main point of decluttering is to help create a living and/or working space that helps keep your nervous system by creating an environment that’s productive and less noisy. This isn’t to say that everything must go, instead, it’s more about helping you utilize your space better by clearing out room and reorganizing, or relocating, cluttered items.

However, more often than not, the reason items get set aside is because we’re done using them.

Proper Disposal is Proper Ownership

Your responsibility for an item isn’t over when you’re done using it, it’s over when you dispose of it. However, many items have disposal guidelines that must be followed, and often for good reason. Simply throwing something in the garbage, because you don’t need it anymore doesn’t mean that’s it.

Take a few moments to read the disposal directions on the item or even look it up online for best practices. There are some items that are considered hazardous and require a specific way of disposing that can’t be accomplished through your general trash. Additionally, some other items may be accepted by companies that can repurpose them or, at minimum, will properly recycle the old items for you.

Some examples include:

It may seem menial, but being a good steward of our planet and community involves proper ownership and disposal!
Decluttering Success Stories

DONATE

Not everything that you want to get rid of, needs to go in the trash. Often, even if we lost value in an item, that doesn’t mean the item itself has nothing to offer. One of the best things you can do is donate an item that can still be used by someone else. Not only does donating help save room at the landfill, but it’s another way to enrich someone else’s life. There’s a lot of donated items that are still in great condition and can be used for many years by someone else.
What About Selling?
Much like donating, selling an old item is another great way to enrich others’ lives while clearing up space in your home. Everyone loves a good deal on something they want and with the access to many online marketplaces, it’s easier than ever to make a quick couple extra bucks off some of your clutter.

However, it can be a test of your ethics, because you must ensure you’re not selling an item that’s in poor condition just to make money. In the end, don’t throw something away if you can make some extra money on the side provided it’s in the right condition.

Maybe decluttering isn’t so bad after all!

Decluttering Success Stories

STORE

The final category, and our personal favorite, is storing your items. Storage space is a precious commodity that we take advantage of until we run out of it. Despite our biases, it seems like you can never have too much storage space. Yet, the issue is our workspace and household storage never grows even if our collection of items and clutter does.

If you come across an item that you must keep, but can’t justify the space then a storage unit is the perfect solution. Another avenue to consider can be getting a storage unit to place other items in that aren’t part of your decluttering, so you have more room in your home or workspace to store those items that you want to keep.

For instance, if you’re sorting through a pile of clutter and come across some precious family pictures that you need to keep, but the picture books they’re stored in take up so much room! Even though storage units are perfect for items like photos or business records, you may want to keep these particular albums close by. You can get a storage unit and make room by moving other items like seasonal decor, outdoor holiday decorating items, or even sporting equipment to a self-storage unit.

For more sensitive items, a climate-controlled, or heated self-storage unit, are perfect for creating ideal storing conditions, which are often better than even your common home storage spaces like attics, basements, garages, and crawlspaces.

Decluttering Success Stories

How To Use The Decluttering Matrix

The Decluttering Matrix Flow
There’s not a wrong way to use the Decluttering Matrix, however, there is an efficient way. It’s important to remember the whole point of this system is to make decluttering easier and quicker. As long as you adhere to each category then you are still creating a sense of organization, but you can optimize the entire matrix.

Think of the matrix like an “if-then statement,” a common condition software engineers code to execute certain tasks in a certain order. This creates a streamlined system that allows decision making to easily flow from beginning to end. Let’s use an example to illustrate how you can approach the Decluttering Matrix. The flow, or condition, should go as follows:

🤔 “Do I want to keep this item?”

✅ If yes, ask, “do I have the space or need to keep the item at home?”

✅ If yes, then place in the, “keep,” pile. 

⛔ If no, then place the item in the, “store,” pile. 

🤔 If you don’t want to keep the item, then ask yourself, “can I donate (or sell) this item for someone else to use?” 

✅ If yes, then place the item in the, “donate,” pile. 

🗑️ If you say no to all of these categories, then place the item in the, “toss,” pile. 

To help save even more time later, sort each of the, “tossed,” items into their own respective disposal piles as you go through the matrix with each item. If you’re unsure the proper disposal for an item then place it in its own pile for later research and keep moving forward.

This process can seem excessive, and maybe even like it’ll take more time, but the reality is the framework itself will help you. When dealing with piles of random clutter, you must strike the balance between being efficient and getting through the clutter and not overwhelming yourself causing paralysis by analysis. Going into a pile of clutter with a gameplan makes it far less daunting and much easier to approach, all of which is the point of the Decluttering Matrix.

Remember, clutter doesn’t get better on its own!

author avatar
Gaige Byerley Digital Marketing Associate
Gaige Byerley is part of the Digital Marketing team at West Coast Self-Storage and is a writer creating engaging content on self-storage, relocation, decluttering, and everyday living.
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