A decluttering rule that works

The impulse to collect and the desire for order are often at odds with one another. I know from experience: I'm regularly adding to my trove of vintage objects and I'm living in a studio apartment, two facts that create friction. What's a guy to do when the result becomes intolerable?

If I were on trend, I'd be photographing my messiest corners and sharing the images publically, as it's now au courant to display your clutter to the world. I'm a private person, however, and the most I'm willing to do is share my tried-and-true method for re-establishing a semblance of good housekeeping.

When aspirational images like this one haunt me with their sparsely populated nooks...

... I resort to The 15-Minute Rule, a technique I learned from a wise therapist. I set a timer for 15 minutes and tackle the area that's bugging me the most, quickly sorting the decorative from the useful from the disposable. When the alarm goes off, I stop.

The aftermath always looks a little closer than before to those perfectly styled vignettes in furniture stores. The angst over too many things in too little space begins to subside.

Why it works

Contemplating my own messiness is paralyzing. Deciding from the start on just 15 minutes is a way of breaking through the inertia and doing at least something.

Once I'm up and running, I usually find out that the task at hand is speedier to execute than I thought. The visual noise of clutter misleads us into thinking it's more powerful than we are.

Setting a timer is key. It means I can relax into the flow of doing the job. It's a way of creating calm instead of stress by guaranteeing an automatic endpoint, turning an unpleasant slog into an energizing sprint.

There's a sense of accomplishment after just a quarter of an hour – which may lead to another sprint, later in the day or immediately.

Micro moves that help

While in the middle of a 15-minute sprint, I'm also relying on some of those micro-decorating moves I've been teaching you. Clustering, bringing items together in compact groupings, is essential to defeating disorder.

Stacking, the simple act of putting one thing on top of another, is another powerful way to make a space tidier fast.

Our growing micro-decorating library will continue to explore design tactics that double as decluttering tools.

In the meantime, hope you have the occasion and nerve to give The 15-Minute Rule a test-drive. Let me know how it goes!

Until next Wednesday,