Declutter your home in 30 Days

Whether it’s before a move, for building a new home or simply to feel more comfortable day to day, decluttering your home is a project that often seems too big to tackle. The good news: by spreading it over 30 days, one room or one task at a time, decluttering becomes much easier to accomplish without devoting an entire exhausting weekend to it.

Why declutter before a move?

Moving is one of the most stressful events in life. According to Statistics Canada data, approximately 2.1 million Canadian households moved in the two years preceding 2021, or 13.8% of all Canadian households. It is in fact considered one of the five biggest stressors in life.

Decluttering before a move concretely reduces this burden: fewer boxes to transport, fewer last-minute decisions to make, and a new home that starts off on the right foot rather than with the same items accumulated over the years. This is especially relevant if you are planning to buy a new property or if you are considering the custom construction of a home that truly meets your current needs, rather than simply transferring the contents of the old house into the new one.

The 30-day method, step by step

The idea behind this method is simple: for one month, you spend 20 to 30 minutes each day on a specific area of the house. No big, exhausting cleanup, just steady progress.

Week 1: Sort room by room

The first 7 days are for a quick first pass, room by room: bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room, basement. The goal is not yet to organize everything, but simply to identify what clearly no longer belongs: clothes never worn, broken appliances, duplicate items. A “sort later” bin can hold anything that requires more thought, so as not to slow down the pace.

Week 2: Decide what to keep, donate or throw away

The second week involves returning to the more difficult areas: accumulated papers, keepsakes, items with sentimental value. A simple rule helps you decide faster: if an item hasn’t been used in more than a year and has no specific sentimental value, it can leave the house. This week is also a good time to arrange a donation to a local organization, or an online sale for items still in good condition.

Week 3: Organize the remaining space

Once the sorting is done, the third week is for giving a clear place to what remains: storage bins, shelves, dedicated areas by type of item. It’s also the ideal time to rethink certain spaces, especially if a renovation project or a future house plan is already in mind, there’s no point investing time organizing a space that will be completely redesigned in a few months.

Week 4: Maintain the new balance

The last week involves setting up small habits to avoid falling back into accumulation: a “to go out” basket near the door, a “one in, one out” rule for new purchases, a set time each month to reassess certain spaces.

Tips to avoid giving up along the way

• Set a specific time each day, even a short one, rather than waiting for a large block of free time.
• Take before/after photos of each room, a good visual incentive to keep going.
• Give yourself permission to go more slowly some weeks, what matters is consistency, not speed.
• Involve the whole household, by giving everyone a specific area or responsibility.

Decluttering for a new construction project

For many people, decluttering is part of a larger project: selling their current home to move to a new property. In this case, the decluttering schedule can be aligned with the stages of the construction project. If you are considering a residential development or a lot for sale to build your next home, it’s also a good time to assess your borrowing capacity and clarify your budget with our financing team, as construction timelines generally allow the time needed to declutter without rushing, unlike a last-minute move.

Contrary to popular belief, buying a new home doesn’t necessarily involve a waiting period. Lachance has a large inventory of move-in ready homes, available quickly, as well as several existing homes on the market. If that’s the option that interests you, it’s best to start decluttering right now!

You can also request a construction estimate while you start your decluttering project, so you can plan both steps in parallel rather than one after the other.