The idea of getting your life decluttered and organized might sound like a tall order for most of us, but the truth is we can do it if we break it up into smaller parts with the help of a few easy to follow rules.

Here are the rules, I don’t suggest you use all of them, especially not all at once. Try a few of them out, see how they work and then add a few more.

Get yourself organized at the start and end of each day. – As soon as your day gets started, write your 3 most important tasks for that day also write some other things you would like to get done. Then, clear off your desk. I always work better in a clean workspace. Then work on those 3 main tasks throughout the day. At the end of each day, clean up a little and check off things you did on your list. Another good thing to do at night is get everything ready for tomorrow so you have less to do in the morning.

Whenever you get up from your desk, put something away – Whenever you get up for a glass of water, to go to the bathroom, to take a break… pick up something off your desk and put it away. If your desk is clear, look for something nearby.

When you walk through a room, find one thing to put away . – If you’re going from your kitchen to the living room, find one thing during that trip that you can put away. You don’t have to start putting everything away, just one thing.

Put your clothes in a different closet or box, and only take out what you need . – Move all your clothes to a different room, or a box. Only remove the clothes you really need to wear. After about a month of doing this, you’ll see what clothes you don’t wear and what things you can consider donating.

Declutter on Saturdays . – Every Saturday, spend a few hours (or half a day) decluttering one part of your house or workspace.

One in, two out – When you get something new (buy something online, get a gift), get rid of two other similar things. For example, if you buy a pair of shoes, donate two other pairs. By doing this you’ll think more about each thing you buy, and you will be getting rid of things you don’t need. Eventually, you’ll want to switch to a “one in, one out” rule when you think you got rid of enough things and are content with what you have.

Limit how many things you have . – Consider only letting yourself own 30 pieces of clothing, or 30 books, or something like that. Get rid of everything else, don’t allow yourself to go beyond the limit. The limit you set is up to you, but it should be a little bit outside of your comfort zone.

At the end of each month, clean up things on your computer . – Clear your desktop, organize folders and back things up!

Every three months, purge . – Spend a weekend purging all your unneeded belongings.

These rules are just suggestions and you can change them to what you think will work for you.

How to Implement the Rules

These are a lot of rules and I don’t think you should apply them all at once. In fact, I think you should start by trying one rule per week. Really focus all week on making that one rule happen. If it goes well, keep it. If not, toss it out. The next week, try another.

Pick a specific day that you will review how well that rule worked for you. Then you pick out a new rule to try the following week. Write the rule down somewhere so you will remember to do it during the week.

One at a time, you’ll find the rules that work for you. Your life will slowly become less cluttered, and more organized. And you’ll be set up to make great things happen in the rest of your life.

If you enjoyed this post and want to get notified when I release new content then you can join my email list: click here to sign up.