The 5 Most Motivating & Enjoyable Decluttering Challenges

1. 30-day minimalism game

The most popular decluttering challenge you will most likely have heard of is the 30-day minimalism game. The idea of this one is that you have got 30 days in a month, and each day of the month, whatever the date is of that day is how many items you need to declutter.

On the first of the month, you would declutter one item; for the second, you would do two; for the third of the month, three items; and so on.

You'd get to the end of the month, and you would have decluttered over 465 items from your home. That's how powerful it can be, even though it feels like you're only doing a couple each day and not that big of an amount.

There are ways that you can tackle this challenge to make it more successful with the larger number of items. If you're trying to get rid of 30 items, that might be where you tackle a highly cluttered area. It could be when you tackle stationery, where you're more likely to find 30 items to declutter.

It might be that you tackle the shed or the garage, where you can get rid of lots more junk in there. Think about high-traffic areas that are going to have lots of items.

When you come to the smaller numbers, like one, two, and three, that might be furniture or bigger, bulkier items. It will have a tangible impact on your home when you declutter those individual items, even though they are a small number.

2. Try on your wardrobe

This is a really good, fun one. When I tried on my wardrobe to declutter, it helped me to identify what fit, what looked good, what I liked, and what style I wanted to continue wearing. It meant I got to shop my wardrobe and see what items I had.

Anything that didn't match or didn't fit would be items I would donate, sell or recycle. So that was my process, and it was a fun way of doing it.

I found items I forgot that I had and then realized that I could mix and match them with other items, which was helpful, and it allows you to assess exactly what you have in your wardrobe.

3. Do little acts of decluttering every month

I set some little acts of decluttering challenges, and they are little daily acts of decluttering that you can do every day that will help you tackle a little area of your home.

It's really specific, small, and niche, and it's something you can do over a longer period if you want that flexibility.

4. 10 spaces for 10 minutes

My fourth challenge is a new one I haven't encountered before. I wanted to share this one because I thought it might be another way of tackling certain areas. The idea is that you declutter ten spaces for ten minutes, and you declutter 100 items. It's pretty straightforward.

Pick ten spaces around your home. An area might be a bedside cabinet, under the sink, under the bed, wardrobe, or toys.

Go through and find ten different spaces that you want to tackle. Then you have to set a timer for ten minutes, and in that ten minutes, you have to go through that area and see how much you can declutter.

The idea is that you're trying to aim for ten items in ten minutes. That is an achievable thing to do. That is one item a minute. It gives you thinking time and time to rummage and do a little tidying up at the same time.

You'll declutter over 100 items when you've finished your ten spaces.

5. The 12-12-12 challenge

My final decluttering challenge for you is the 12-12-12 challenge. This one has been floating around for a little while. You have twelve items you want to get rid of, twelve items to donate, and twelve items that you can put back into their proper home.

Although it gives you some decluttering aspects, twelve items to find, you're also finding twelve items that can be put back in their correct home. If they don't have a home, find them a home and find them a home that works and is usable and is going to make sense.

This means that you could do it in any area. It could be your whole house, and try and find twelve random items.

What you can do is you can have a bag for the rubbish, you can have a bag for selling or donating, and then you can have a box or something that you can put your twelve items to rehome, and you can sort those twelve items out.

It could be that you do that in one day, or it could be that you do that for twelve days in a row. That's entirely up to you.

It's a small achievable challenge that will allow you to have some items decluttered and some items put back away. It's reducing that visual clutter as well.

Decluttering challenges

Those are my five favorite ways of making decluttering fun. I'm going to see if I can make a 30-day minimalism declutter jar and see if that will work for me and try it out again. Comment below if you tried any of these and which one you liked the best.