A-ha! I now know where to focus my efforts first when I start my decluttering in earnest on January 5th. Before I get into that, here’s a bit about my home: Myself, my husband, our daughter, and my sister, plus our dog, live together on one floor of a two-level house. We have a living room, a kitchen, and 3 bedrooms. Unsurprisingly, all of our rooms serve multiple purposes. For instance, the master bedroom is also the computer room. My husband has used it as his workspace for many months during COVID-19. But the room that does the most multitasking is our kitchen.

One end of our kitchen is dedicated to typical kitchen-related tasks: cooking and storing food, cookware, dishes, etc. But on the far end of the kitchen, there is a lot more going on. It’s the back entry (and the entry we use most often) to our house. We keep our shoes and coats and bags there. We keep our dog bowls and food there. There’s a small table where we have our breakfast oatmeal. But there’s only a small portion of the already small table available for eating - it’s mostly covered in stuff: boxes, papers, toys, tools, etc. Next to the table, we have a small storage unit where we keep our arts and crafts materials. We also have a piano in this space. Surely the piano would make more sense in the living room, but it’s in our kitchen because of sound-transfer reasons. This sad piano is also covered in stuff. In fact, my sister, the one who mostly uses the piano, wasn’t able to play it for several months last year due to all the clutter on top of and all around it. This far end of our kitchen - this breakfast nook/entryway/dog dining area/piano room/art supply area - is where I will be focusing my decluttering efforts first.

The reason I want to start my decluttering in this heavily-used part of my kitchen is that it is the part that people see first, upon entering our home. This is based on the “Visibility Rule” from Dana K. White’s book 📚, Decluttering at the Speed of Life. The idea is that, when endeavouring to declutter your home, you want to start with the most visible spaces first. And this is because it helps to keep your energy level and motivation high when you (and your guests) can see the results of your efforts. Interestingly, White suggests starting your decluttering work in the same area every time you declutter. Although it will take substantial effort and time to work through the space the first time, she argues that subsequent decluttering efforts in the same space will become faster and faster, enabling you to both maintain the decluttered-ness of the first space and gradually extend your decluttered area further and further into your home.

I’m looking forward to and dreading the start of my decluttering, but I can see how this “Visibility Rule” could help me to stay motivated. Frankly, I feel a lot of shame about the messy state of my home, and I like that this rule enables me to focus first on creating a space that I can be proud of in an area that will actually be seen. So, one day, once it’s ok to do so from a COVID-19 standpoint, I can hopefully feel good about having guests over. Happy New Year!