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Clutter is more than just unsightly. Over the years, psychologists and researchers have linked clutter in the home or office with problems like low mood, guilt, anxiety, and poor life satisfaction. It can even impact relationships and lead to stress that affects physical health and weakens the immune system.
Clutter creates chaos, which then affects one’s ability to focus, says psychologist Diane Roberts Stoler, Ed.D. On the other hand, she says, people can be more productive and less irritable once they declutter and organize. And lots of us face decluttering challenges. A 2024 study from Talker Research for The Container Store reported that half of Americans say they have one room in their home that is “unsalvageable” because of its clutter.
Now is the time to recognize how an abundance of material things is taking up space in your home (and your brain). Put on your most energizing playlist, and usher in the new year by tossing and reorganizing your stuff. The following items should be the first to go:
1. Election Signs
No matter how you voted, you’ve likely had enough of campaign ads, and your neighbors (or spouse?) might have had enough of your yard signs. If the sign’s metal stakes are made of steel, you can take them to a special scrap metal recycler, along with other metal objects that you boot out as your declutter. Most of the signs are made of corrugated cardboard with plastic coating, which means you probably can’t recycle them. Check with your city waste department for solutions.
Other options: Reuse the signs by painting over them (with white paint or chalkboard paint) for kids’ crafts. Or cut them up to make organizing bins. You might even cover the signs with paper and use them for the yard sale you plan to hold after decluttering.
2. Expired Pantry Goods
Nobody wants to bite into a stale cracker. Take everything out of your pantry, check each label, and toss most items past their expiration date. And even though the date has not hit for opened items like crackers, cookies, or chips, it might be time to say goodbye. While the pantry is empty, wipe down the shelves, reorganize if necessary, and add any staples you now lack to your grocery list.
3. Stained Table Linens
Take inventory of your tablecloth and table napkin collections. Pay particular attention to the ones that get a lot of use. Get rid of or donate tablecloths that you no longer use, turn them into cleaning rags, or repurpose them if they have sentimental value. For example, cut around the stain to make a runner, placemats, or new napkins. Consider buying new linens to welcome the new year.
4. Plants and Plant Starts
Indoor plants add so much to a home’s decor, but indoor jungles, not so much. Start by trimming overgrown plants and pulling out dead foliage. Plant parents hate to admit when it’s time to let go of a plant baby that brings more brown than green into their decor. But passing by the sad or messy specimen regularly can add to stress. Take a cutting and start over if you really like the parent plant before removing it (and its container). Having said that, don’t start an entirely new collection of branches in water on your windowsill. Give starts away or give up for your own mental health.
5. Broken Christmas Lights and Ornaments
Christmas ornaments get damaged by enthusiastic children, curious pets, or mere clumsiness. If you can’t repair it with a little glue, let it go. It’s also time to go through all seasonal decor and get rid of damaged or dingy items, or those you don’t use anymore. Consider upcycling fragments of sentimental ornaments into playful wall art.
Test every strand of holiday lights and get rid of those that aren’t working. Sort the good lights into bins for indoor and outdoor. Consider either purchasing a few holiday light storage reels or containers, or DIY-ing your own storage solution.
6. Empty Shipping Boxes
The temptation to save at least one of every size of shipping box is real. And no time of year matches the holidays for boxes coming in. Sure, it makes sense to save a few good boxes to wrap or ship gifts, or cart the pies and spirits to your family get-together. You might even repurpose some for sorting and transporting all the other items on this list that plan to donate. But stop there. Break them down and place them in cardboard recycling—or into the garden to tamp down weeds. If you can’t let go of that sturdy “just-in-case” box, break it down as well so it’s at least flat and easier to store.
7. Word Art and Quotes
A sweet (though some say corny) trend from the mid-2010s is on its way out: signs filled with word art and quotes. But keep calm and carry on…by getting rid of at least some of your many sayings. Although these signs can be attractive and funny, walls loaded with cute and farmhouse-style quotes are on their way out, says real estate capital firm New Silver. Take down at least some of those signs and maybe give the wall a new coat of fresh paint in one of today’s top paint colors. After all, “less is best.”
8. Mismatched Food Storage Containers
Those who love to cook and bake for holiday gatherings also like to share. Take control of your food storage containers now to avoid the frantic, last-minute scramble for usable receptacles, and especially their matching lids. Throw away containers lacking lids, and vice versa. Donate or repurpose any you don’t need. Save space in the cabinets with a container for your container lids, or by replacing your mismatched food storage collection with stackable or nestable storage.
9. Screen Clutter
You might not trip over screen clutter, but constantly scrolling through pages and pages of app icons on your phone, or 15 streaming channels for which you have no subscriptions, is a waste of time that clutters your mind. Use down days during holiday breaks to finally organize these home pages: Search online for help from the device maker (Apple, Roku, FireTV Stick, etc.) and straighten out the digital clutter. Once that’s done, edit your phone’s photos. Do you really need to keep those glamor shots of last year’s restaurant meals?
10. Old Makeup
Most types of makeup are past their prime after about 6 months, especially mascara. Between 70 and 90 percent of beauty products examined in a U.K. study were contaminated with bacteria. The worst offenders were blending sponges, which you touch and reuse regularly. Stay healthy and beautiful by replacing sponges every few months and tossing out cakey makeup. Make room for fresh palettes and trends to come in the new year.
11. Outdated Electronic Devices
Your first flip phone brings back memories, but it and its successors just take up storage space. Before you drag old phones or tablets to your town’s next electronic waste event, take the time to find out if they’re worth anything as trade-ins. Apple and other phone manufacturers and service providers offer cash back or rebates in exchange for old electronics. You also can wipe the storage clean and donate or recycle electronics.
12. Books and Magazines You’ve Read
If your bookshelves are stuffed to the gills, consider winnowing your collection and donating your discards to charity book sales or used book shops. Keep those volumes that have a special place in your heart. Likewise with magazines: Keep a few on hand for guests to peruse, whether in the den or the bathroom, and recycle the rest.
Moving forward, instead of sacrificing money and space to buy more books, borrow from your local library. Or take the digital step and opt for e-books and e-magazines online or through library apps like Libby, which you can access through your local library card.
13. Clothes That No Longer Fit
The hope that two-sizes-too-small clothes will fit again one day should have its own expiration date. Those pieces just crowd the closets with clutter. What’s more, they set you up for “a never-ending cycle of guilt, shame, and disappointment,” says registered dietician Katy Harvey.
Go through your closet and discard anything that doesn’t fit or is no longer in style. Donate items you don’t need or want to those who can make good use of them.
14. Outgrown Toys, Games, and Puzzles
Kids grow out of their toys and games quickly, and those they play with often can start to look like they belong in the room of Sid Phillips from Toy Story. Give the playroom a refresh by donating unused toys, passing along gently used playthings to family and friends, and throwing out whatever’s been loved too hard. Pick out one or two items as keepsakes if you are bitten by the nostalgia bug. As you sort, toss out games and puzzles with missing pieces—they’re not worth the frustration.
15. Too Many Tote Bags
Consumers are carting home groceries in reusable bags to save on one-time plastic use, and a recent study found that most people have from six to 20 of the bags at home. How many is too many depends on your family’s size and whether you tend to shop less often or stock up once a week. Get rid of bags that are older or dingy, and store the keepers in a basket, never-used trash bin, or other container. Leave a few in your car if possible, nested inside a sturdy tote. Wash the bags often, even after each use, drying them before storage.
16. Coffee Mugs and Tumblers
Coffee cups are fun souvenirs, gifts, and even collectibles. But each member of your household can drink from only one at a time, right? Add two insulated tumblers each for your commute, since caffeine is a must when heading out the door and you might not get a chance to wash yesterday’s travel mug before you need it again. Keep enough mugs overall for company or days the dishes don’t get done, and cull the rest. If they’re too sentimental or pretty to part with, add them to a display or repurpose them into pen or charging cord holders. You can even drill a hole into the bottoms of a few to make them into small planters.
17. Accumulated Emails and Texts
Don’t head into the new year with a cluttered inbox. Once that package you ordered arrives, you don’t need the emailed notices with shipping updates; nor do you need to keep every text message with the one-time “secret code” to log in to your bank. Delete and unsubscribe from junk mail, and sort everything you need to keep into labeled folders. You’ll feel more ready to face the next year, when the messages will build up again.
18. Papers and Broken Stuff in Your Junk Drawer
If it’s been a while since you last organized it, your kitchen junk drawer is probably overflowing. Now is the time to get it under control: Toss out expired coupons and flyers, recycle old batteries, and throw out receipts you no longer need. Get a drawer divider and use it to group like objects, such as chargers, batteries, rubber bands, and other junk-drawer denizens. Test pens, pencils, and Sharpies, and toss those that don’t work. Maybe you can find a nearby spot for the working pens in one of those culled coffee cups.
19. Kitchen Utensil Surplus
Transform your kitchen utensil drawer from clutter-central to clutter-free with the help of a few dividers (or a flatware organizer) and a whole lot of purging. Get rid of duplicates, warped whisks, and 3-year-old twist ties, and donate any utensils that you never use. The same goes for the condiments saved from takeout orders you hold on to, fully intending to use them. Toss the takeout menus too—the menus are probably all online.
20. Expired Medicine
You can free up a fair amount of shelf space in your medicine cabinet by getting rid of expired medications you no longer take. Check with your pharmacy or local police department to see if they take back prescription medicines for disposal. While you’re in the cabinet, take stock of pharmacy staples like antacids and cough syrups to toss, and replace expired bottles.
21. Unrecognizable Packages in Your Freezer
What’s in the unlabeled Ziploc bags at the bottom of your freezer? Throw away anything that’s been chilling there for longer than a year. If you have no idea how long an item’s been in the freezer, toss it anyway. Reorganize freezer items into your newfound space. Then, be sure to label freezer contents in the future with dates. If you’re throwing away a lot of food, it might be time to adopt a new meal-planning strategy that will help you make better use of the food you have.
22. Bath and Beauty Products You’ll Never Use
If you always swipe the free toiletries in a hotel room, you’ve probably amassed quite a stockpile of small bottles. Gather them together, along with all those gifts of soaps, bubble baths, body lotions, hair products, and other beauty items that aren’t your preferred brands, and donate them to a shelter or social services program that collects hygiene products.
23. Bills, Statements, and Other Paper Mail
After you’ve paid your bills and reviewed your other incoming mail, you probably don’t need all of that paper cluttering up your house, especially given that this information is available online now. Clear up your desk space and take the pile right to the paper shredder. Cut down on the amount of paper that enters your house by signing up for paperless billing, and think about stationing a small recycling container right where you bring in the mail.
24. Your Old Movie Collection
When was the last time you actually watched a movie on DVD or Blu-ray? If you still have these discs taking up valuable real estate in your home, it might be time to let them go—and that goes double if you don’t have a DVD player anymore. With so many movies streaming online, it’s hard to justify storing physical copies of shows and movies. That space may be better used for toys, crafts, and hobbies.
25. Dingy Sheets and Towels
Sort through your linens and get rid of thinning, ragged towels and worn-out or stained sheets. Use the discarded towels as rags or donate them to a local animal shelter. To keep the closet under control, hold on to no more than three sheet sets per bed and three sets of towels per person. If the count falls short, take this opportunity to give yourself a linen upgrade.
