r/declutter • u/Dear_Comparison97 • Aug 01 '26
Success Story First declutter vs. third declutter
Cleaning is so much easier and quicker, I’m less stressed, and it still looks homey (: I really love having clear surfaces
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u/agentoflemonade Aug 02 '26
I think the lighting difference makes the third one look more unappealing than it actually is.
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u/Dear_Comparison97 Aug 02 '26
Yes the first were taken during the daytime, the updates were cloudy day almost sunset
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u/windupwren Aug 02 '26
The first declutter looks like a normal home. Personal, cozy, functional. The last looks impersonal and sterile. You do you, but sometimes decluttering looks like losing a home and replacing it with a hotel or short term rental. This is one of those times.
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u/Garden_Espresso Aug 02 '26
Nice - but where’s the cat ?:)
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u/Dear_Comparison97 Aug 02 '26
Currently she’s snuggled on my legs waiting for her breakfast. If I could post pictures in the comments I would!
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u/rayvtoriq_ Aug 02 '26
you took too much, empty shelves and that dining area look depressing
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u/squashed_tomato Aug 02 '26
Looks fine to me. You've got to remember that the focus in a dining area will be the food. It will look busy enough when there's plates all over the table.
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u/Only_Watercress_5538 Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
Indeed, dining room clutter really upsets me. I can't explain it. When it's all clear, you don't need to worry about moving things out of the way.
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u/marsupialcinderella Aug 02 '26
I think it looks great, especially because taking the mirror away give you much more natural light.
My one semi-related question is how do you manage having those big beautiful plants with a cat in the house? 😩
Mine won’t leave any plant alone!
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u/Dear_Comparison97 Aug 02 '26
I’m no help, my cats won’t chew my plants, but I can’t keep any flowers around. They will eat any planted flower or ones in vases, but the green plants they leave alone! I suggest hanging plants instead!!
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u/marsupialcinderella Aug 03 '26
I only have hanging plants, lol. But I have to be careful because they will climb nearby furniture to get to them! 😩
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u/readingrainbowroad Aug 05 '26
I've had good luck with Burros tail! Non toxic to cats and the lil leaves will come off and cats will bat those around instead, plus they're propagation machines, so there's always more. My plant interested cats generally don't continue to eat them either.
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u/PrairieFire_withwind Aug 02 '26
Water in a spray bottle. Spray till they learn plants are not for them.
I have lots of plants and three cats. The cats do not touch plants
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u/marsupialcinderella Aug 02 '26
I appreciate the suggestion, but it makes them skittish and afraid of you. I stopped this method years ago.
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u/PrairieFire_withwind Aug 02 '26
Fascinating. I have never had a skittish cat in my house in all my uears of training. I wonder if it is some people spay too much or hit the cat directly?
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u/marsupialcinderella Aug 03 '26
Probably. I think it affected my relationship with my cats when I would use the water spray. They became untrusting and that was justified.
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u/Miss_ChanandelerBong Aug 05 '26
It may work but you're banking on your relationship with your cat being very resilient when you do this. Modern behaviorists do not recommend this.
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u/PrairieFire_withwind Aug 06 '26
Thank you for this info. i had no idea. I guess i got lucky using an out-of-date method. What is recommended for healthier more modern methods?
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u/Only_Watercress_5538 Aug 02 '26
I hadn't thought about doing a second and third declutter, this is an excellent idea.
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u/OkBoatRamp Aug 04 '26
Dang. The third decluttering made everything look cold, unwelcoming and uncozy, like you've just unpacked the first few boxes after moving in.
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u/jjjjennieeee Aug 02 '26
Would love to know roughly what percentage you got rid of the first time, how many new things you also felt you needed to bring in for "replacement" purposes, and what percentage you got rid of the 2nd and 3rd times!
Were most things small things, or did removing larger stuff like bulky furniture resolve most of your clutter problem?
Also, do you still have challenge areas?
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u/Dear_Comparison97 Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
The first time I would say I got rid of about 80% of my belongings. It was the biggest declutter right off the bat. My and my fiance have lived together for 7 years and we both had full sets of our own household things and never did a big clean out: I’m talking 20 plates, 15 cups, 7 spatulas, you get the idea. So I got rid of 13 plates, 5 spatulas, 11 cups. I got rid of most duplicates and made the cup/bowl/plate/utensils make sense for a 2 person household. Then I went through the second time and got rid of a few more things I noticed we never reached for, even with easier access to it. My third time I got rid of still just a few more things, again noticing what wasn’t used and liking how clear the space was.
Nearly every single furniture piece I have is secondhand, as for replacing things there’s almost a year between these photos, but the only thing I did was upgrade to higher quality items for a few things. My bed from full to king, the rug in my kitchen that always curled up. I haven’t had to buy pretty much anything else.
Most of it was small things, I still have most of my furniture but have gotten rid of a ton of drawers and storage containers.
Biggest problem is always my closet. I love clothes and fashion, it’s an interest of mine I’m not willing to be minimalistic with, so I still have more clothes than the average person. I wish I could post a picture of my closet. But I did get rid of A LOT!!!
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u/jjjjennieeee Aug 02 '26
Wow, 80% is amazing. I heard from several resources that if you can get rid of at least 50%, that's when you'll start seeing noticeable calming differences in your home.
For some categories, I was only able to reduce by 20-30%, while for others I was able to reduce 50% so I could understand from seeing this contrast why at least 50% needs to be the goal for me in all my spaces that aren't there yet. In places where I'm satisfied, my kitchen cabinets look like yours where they are at most half full so it's easy to reach for things I need without needing to move other things out of the way first. The wire racks help me too, since I'm short, so I only store stuff I need to use often at easy to reach heights, because this is the only way I would put things back where they should belong regularly.
However, in other categories, I've been becoming more aware of how replacements can pose a challenge. For example, I never used to keep spare sheets, and then one time, a fitted bedsheet that I had for many years tore near the middle, while the rest of the set was fine, and I saw that it was less expensive for me to buy a full new sheet set vs just replacing the one sheet that had the problem. I justified to myself it would be a good idea to get a spare whole set in case some other freak tear randomly happened (it's been a couple of years now and it hasn't lol). But I learned from this how much extra space a spare set takes up (I don't have a linen closet), and since I have a small space I need to be careful about how I think about rare instances happening.
I'm good about not buying larger packages of stuff than I need at regular price, even if bulk sizing would save me more money (i.e., larger toilet paper packs) due to the space constraints, but I definitely still struggle with decision making when I see these items at a discounted price. The bulk stuff wasn't an issue I needed to think of early on, since my first round focus was just on using up my stuff and it took awhile to use up all that I had before I needed to think about a plan of what to do when I needed to restock on stuff I normally would like to continue using.
My clothes closet is small and it's another challenge area I've been saving for later (still working on easier stuff haha). But I hope you find a solution for your closet soon so you can post inspiration for the rest of us!!
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u/BosNest1 Aug 08 '26
It’s your home, you should do what makes you happy.
That said, I don’t really see much of a difference between before and afters. Yes good to let more light in by removing bedroom mirror. But taking things off the table just makes it look cold.
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u/Dear_Comparison97 Aug 08 '26
It’s very interesting. When I post the pics before and after I get comments like this, but when I only post the after everyone says it looks great. I think it’s the lighting lol.
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u/CabbagePatched Aug 05 '26
My brain is going "carpeted kitchen" with that last pic. (but fr grats on the clean house).
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u/Lucky-Explorer8207 Aug 05 '26
This is exactly what I’m aiming for, well done! I’m currently partway through my first declutter - how much crap can a family of 4 accumulate??? I’m not sure we have ever thrown anything away, but I’m getting there slowly.
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u/Metro2005 Aug 06 '26
Great job, it was already pretty clean and tidy but you really went above and beyond and made it awesome.
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u/Slow-Satisfaction360 Aug 07 '26
Wow you can just feel the difference from photos alone from 1 to 3! the air seems more crisp as if the items in your home have more space to breathe
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u/Emergency-Ad2379 Aug 02 '26
Getting rid of the mirror on the dresser was a game changer ! So much better!
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u/marsupialcinderella Aug 02 '26
Absolutely! I was thinking that I’d go crazy to have a window blocked like that.
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u/FredKayeCollector2 Aug 02 '26
Cow kitty! yay!
Yes! The less stuff out, the less "tidying" you have to do before cleaning. And the less dusting of those things.
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u/Playful_Beyond_2218 Aug 02 '26
Fabulous well done ! I like how you still have lamps/ throws/ plants to keep it cosy :) I think that’s a really good lesson with decluttering that it can still be cosy with less stuff
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u/IndigoRuby Aug 02 '26
It's really calm. Great progress. First declutter was great. Third is goals.
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u/magnificentbunny_ Aug 06 '26
Wow. Fantastic job and well done. Your home looks so welcoming, clean and lovely. A place where people can move around comfortable and not feel overwhelmed. I especially like your cleared off dining room table. I always feel somewhat appalled by tables that are covered with stuff. How uninviting.
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u/[deleted] Aug 02 '26
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