How To Properly Clear Out A Room

Clearing out a room is a big task. You have to roll up your sleeves, put some gloves on, and get to work shifting a decade’s worth of furniture, items, and materials you’ve hoarded. And for many people, this is enough to put them off entirely! You can use up many weekends and spare afternoons trying to clear out junk rooms, and it’s hard to stay focused and motivated when you’ve got so much more to do. And that’s why we’ve brought you this post; here’s how to properly clear a room without draining your energy entirely.

Determine What’s Worth Keeping

Before you do anything else, you’re going to have to complete an inventory. Even if you don’t quite know what’s in the room, you can set up boxes, bags, or sections for three separate goals: keep, throw, donate/sell. As you go through, move everything you come across into one of these three areas, and be ruthless about it!

Don’t worry - anything you do decide to keep, but are not actively using, can be stashed away in a unit from a company like Storage Area. You’re going to sell or donate these items at some point, but they can’t stick around in the house anymore!

Move Anything Big First

Now you’ve got your piles sorted out, it’s time to actually start moving. But don’t bother with the smaller items yet - you’re going to want to move the big things, like sets of chairs, old wardrobes, and even desks and sofas, out of the way before anything else. It’ll help the room to look a lot more empty, which in turn will make your job seem a lot more manageable. If it’s hefty and awkward, lug it out and leave the small boxes and drawers and bags until later on.

Then Start at the Top

Once you’ve got the big stuff out of the way, don’t bother with tackling the floor just yet. You’ll want to start at the top of work your way down; get everything from off the top of shelves or hanging from rails into their sorted areas. Move slowly down, going from left to right, and only tackle one side of the room at a time. It’s all about working in a system, and preventing you from getting overwhelmed by trying to sort too much at once.

Set Up a Sorting Area

Speaking of sorting, you’re going to need to clear a little area somewhere in the room for all your sorted items to go. Line up the keep, throw, donate/sell sections here, and make sure nothing enters this area without a pre-inspection. If you don’t have any clear space in the room, open the door and use the hallway outside as the sorting area - this will also stop you from wandering off before the job is done!


If you want to clear out a room in your home, you just need to work smartly. Use tips like these to help.