How to Declutter Your Out of Control Desk in the Time it Takes to Microwave Your Lunch

This week, I decluttered my dumpster fire of a desk in the time it took me to microwave my lunch, and I had a good time doing it. I used a handy decluttering hack from Flylady.

And no, I did not shove it all in a drawer. I properly decluttered the desk in about ten minutes, and I am going to show you how I did it.

First, I want to point out that apparently a messy desk is a sign of genius.

However, as genius as we may be, sometimes we need to clean it up just so we can find everything again. By the time the surface of your desk is this out of control, you are definitely missing stuff.

My desk was pure chaos, and I struggled to make myself clean it up. Do you ever do that? I do that often. I get so overwhelmed I am afraid to even start. During the whole first year after a move, I struggle hard with that. So I tried out this fun little decluttering technique that I learned from Sink Reflections, by Marla Cilly, also known as The Flylady.

It was so bad, I was literally picking up my laptop and working at the kitchen table or on the sofa to avoid being anywhere near that disaster area.

This is how bad my desk was:

Enter the 27 Fling Boogie. This is a fun, easy hack to declutter your desk fast.

I made a video to demonstrate what this means and how to do it. If you would rather read about it than watch the video, I am also including all the steps below.

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The 27 Fling Boogie concept is as simple as it gets. You get a container of any kind. I used a paper grocery bag. In the end, I had to use two grocery bags because I had such a ridiculous amount of stuff to declutter.

You take your box or bag and a trash bag, and then you just go to town cleaning off the top of your desk. Count out twenty-seven things. Then stop.

Why stop?

Well, if you collect too many items at once, you will probably run out of energy to find new homes for those things and instead you will just end up with boxes of clutter sitting around.

I have done that many times. In fact, I did that a year ago to my master bedroom dresser. I scraped everything off the dresser, put it in a box, and that box of cleaned off clutter is still sitting in the corner of my room.

That is why you only do twenty-seven things at a time.

There were so many papers on my desk this time that I collected groups of papers and called them “1”. I absolutely had to get that desk down to a manageable level. That is why I did two of the twenty-seven boogies, one right after the other.

Restricting the task to only twenty-seven things ensures that you don’t bite off more than you can chew. Also, I think calling it a boogie helps. Sort of.

I needed my desk back right away, so I did do two 27-Fling Boogies at once.

Sure enough, I did not get the second bag (the second set of twenty-seven things) put away that day. In fact, I did not get those things put away until two days later.

It was all progress though, which means it was all helpful. I was able to sit down and use my desk right away, that very afternoon.

Having a decluttered desk is a giant gift to give yourself. Once it is done you feel renewed strength and motivation. You might call it a motivation steroid, a mega boost.

I was a new person. In fact, the next few days after cleaning off my desk I got more done than in the months of days before that. I am not exaggerating. My son and I got an entire college application completed and submitted. He got his acceptance letter from all that yesterday! And it all started with decluttering my desk.

Plus, the filing is finally done, and I threw out all of the trash.

Oh! And I even sent out graduation gifts to a few of those seniors who had sent me graduation invitations back in May. Better late than never, right?

I love how the Flylady system is all about not beating yourself up over what you haven’t done or what you cannot do. The Flylady teaches baby steps and routines. Hopefully, with my routines, I will not end up with another completely buried desk for a long time.

It feels so amazing to have a nice place to work again.

Here is a link to the book that got me motivated to finally get my house in order. And here is a link to the Flylady 101 class I talked about in this article that is helping me keep that motivation.

Come fly with us!