Decluttering, Organizing, Cleaning, & Tidying: What’s The Real Difference?

Ever pondered decluttering, organizing, cleaning, and tidying, or wondered which one you should do first? And what is the difference really, between decluttering and organizing? And how is tidying different from organizing?

If you have a large job ahead of you, you don’t want to waste your time or energy doing extra work or end up doing things twice because you did them in the wrong order. Reading this post before getting started will help you avoid this, and help you get the most bang for all your hard work.

I sometimes encounter confusion about the differences between the four tasks. Not so much the cleaning…most of us are fairly clear on what cleaning is. But it’s the difference between decluttering, organizing, and tidying that can get a little more muddy.

While these terms are sometimes used interchangeably, they represent distinct processes that work together to create and maintain an orderly living space. We’ll talk about each one of them here.

Understanding the differences between, decluttering, organizing, cleaning, and tidying—and knowing the correct sequence for tackling them—can help you transform your home.

1. Decluttering always comes first.

Decluttering is the first and most important step in creating an organized space. It should be done before anything else for the best results.

• It is sorting and categorizing all of your belongings so that you can clearly see how much of everything you have and make better decisions.
• It is deciding what to keep, donate, sell, or discard.
• It is clearing out spaces inside of closets cabinets and drawers so that you can put new things away and organize things more efficiently.
• It is letting go of things that have no use, to make room for the things that do.

This process requires an honest evaluation of each item’s value in your life, considering factors like utility, emotional attachment, and frequency of use. Decluttering is often considered the hardest step because it requires you to do the hard work of evaluating and eliminating. After all, clutter is essentially, postponed decisions.

Decluttering and organizing work go hand in hand, but decluttering must come first.

you can’t effectively organize items you don’t need to keep and you can’t optimally organize a space if it has too much stuff in it. I have made this statement at least 200 times in my organizing career because it is at the core of staying organized: “The more stuff you have in a given space, the harder it will be to keep it all organized.”

It is also true that the more overfilled a given space is, the less functional it becomes. For example, it becomes a hassle to find, retrieve, or put away anything in a pantry or master closet that has way too much stuff crammed into it.

A survey done in 2015 showed that 54 percent of Americans are overwhelmed by the amount of clutter they have in their home. Additionally, 78 percent of that group have no idea what to do with it or find it too complicated to deal with. I imagine that the numbers today have only increased since 2015.

Since most of us have more stuff than what we need in our homes, it is during the process of decluttering that you have the greatest opportunity to make the biggest impact on your organizing efforts.

Though you might be tempted to run out and purchase organizing products before or while you are decluttering…don’t do it. Don’t buy any organizing products during the decluttering process. This is a super common organizing mistake that I see all the time.  It’s best to wait until you have finished decluttering and have moved on to the organizing process.

2. Organizing comes next.

Once you’ve decluttered, organizing should follow:

• You can now assign a designated home to everything you use.
• You can now clearly assess storage needs.
• Systems can be designed around how often and where each item is used.
• Now you can decide what organizing products you want to purchase and utilize to keep categorized and sorted items together.

Organizing is the strategic process of creating systems and designated spaces for everything you keep. It involves sorting and categorizing, determining their ideal locations, and setting up storage solutions that make sense.

While decluttering reduces quantity, organizing optimizes functionality and accessibility. Think of organizing as creating a “home” for every item you own.

3. The last two steps are cleaning & tidying.

With decluttering and organizing complete, it’s time to give your space a thorough cleaning.

• Cleaning is the removal of dirt, dust, and grime from surfaces and spaces.
• It is difficult to clean a cluttered space because you have to clean around everything.
• Once surfaces, furniture, and floor space have been cleared it’s much easier to dust and vacuum.
• Cleaning puts a polish and shine on the space you’ve just decluttered and organized, making that room feel more welcoming. You could say… it’s like putting the icing on the cake.

Cleaning includes activities like vacuuming, dusting, mopping, and sanitizing. Proper organization makes cleaning significantly easier, as there are fewer obstacles to navigate.

But there is one caveat to cleaning:

There is one exception to this sequence when it comes to cleaning. As you empty a storage space such as a shelf, cabinet, or closet during the decluttering process, this is the perfect time to give it a good cleaning. Doing this before you move on to the next step of organizing, allows you to start with a clean space before adding items back into it. 

4. Follow up with a tidying routine.

Tidying is what you do after your room has been decluttered, organized, and cleaned. It’s how you maintain that space. Tidying:

• Maintains the systems you’ve created.
• Prevents the accumulation of clutter.
• Makes deep cleaning sessions more manageable.
• Reinforces organizational habits.

Tidying involves returning items to their designated homes and maintaining the systems you set up during the organizing phase. While decluttering only needs to take place periodically, tidying is a frequent practice that prevents clutter from creeping back in.

Effective tidying involves establishing the habit of returning everything to its home once you are finished with it. Now that everything has a designated home, putting things away should be much less challenging than it was before…when that item didn’t have a home.

If you’re not already in the habit of putting things away as you use them, it may take some extra effort to establish this new habit. But do not despair, though challenging at first, after a few weeks it will become more automatic.

Decluttering, organizing, cleaning & tidying work best when done in order.

Following this sequence not only helps us to tackle a cluttered space more effectively but will also help us avoid becoming overwhelmed and giving up altogether. Each step builds upon the previous one.

Attempting to organize a room in the wrong order can lead to:

• Wasted time organizing items that should be eliminated.
• Inefficient cleaning around unnecessary objects.
• Difficulty maintaining systems that aren’t properly planned.
• Frustration, overwhelm, and abandoned efforts.

While decluttering and organizing are periodic projects, cleaning and tidying are ongoing processes. Decluttering and organizing require more investment of time and energy, but they make cleaning and tidying much easier in the long run. This approach not only creates a more organized space but also helps maintain it long-term with minimal daily effort.  

Feeling Stuck?

Schedule a coaching call, virtual organizing session, or a home assessment with me, and get the support and encouragement you need to move forward.