Use the 'Move-Out' Method to Declutter Your Home

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It’s scientifically proven that you’re your most productive when you have a little stress or urgency—but not too much—pushing you to get something done. That’s why you clean your house better when company’s coming over, right? But what about when the place is a mess and you have no immediate plans for anyone to swing by? You could put off cleaning indefinitely, but that’s not a great idea. Instead, try manufacturing a little urgency with the “move-out method.”

The move-out cleaning method 

First conceptualized by Katie Holdefehr, author of Embrace Your Space and associate editorial director at Real Simple, the move-out method is a way to declutter your space with a sense of purpose. She includes a bigger explanation of it in the book, but essentially, you set a fictional “move-out” date and categorize all your stuff as though you were really moving. 

You’re not really moving, of course, but you do need to act like you are. That looming date is what will give you the push to get this done. Similar to the Core 4 method, you should also actually use boxes for this. Just as you would if you were moving and relocating everything from your home to another place, you should be pulling everything out of your closets, drawers, and rooms, laying it all out, and boxing it up (or at least sorting) it by category. 

Try starting small, setting a “move-out” date for one single room so you don’t get overwhelmed. Once everything is pulled out of the places where you store it and categorized accordingly, you have to make decisions about it—and this is where the real decluttering happens. Consider each item or group of items and ask yourself, “If I were moving, would it be worth it to bring this to the new place?” Imagine you were paying a moving company based on volume. Would the thing in your hand be worth paying them for? If it would be worth packing away, hauling, unpacking, and putting back in your nice “new” space, keep it. If it wouldn’t, get rid of it. 

Finally, move back in after cleaning out the space. Sweep and dust closets, wipe out drawers, and get all your storage spaces clean again, the way they would be in a new home. Then, move the things you decided to keep back into their spots. At the end of the exercise, you’ll almost feel like you did move, since you’ll have a similar experience to that first night in a tidy, just-unpacked place. 

Why the move-out method works

Keep in mind that this could take a while, but that’s beneficial for you in the long run. It might be worth it to allow your boxes of “packed” items sit in the room for a few days and let your items sit in “purgatory,” where you can reach them if you need them, but they’re otherwise out of sight and out of mind. After a few days, reconsider the things you were contemplating keeping. If any of them failed to serve you and you didn’t miss them, they might be more tossable than you thought.

The false urgency of an impending “move-out” date is a good motivator, as is the eventual feeling of being in a serene, just-like-new home.