We’ve all been a little overwhelmed by the amount of stuff in our home sometimes. (It’s okay to admit it, you’re among friends here.) And while there’s no one-size-fits all solution to every house clutter need or every organization project, it helps to know what exactly you’re setting off to do before you do it. (You know, like the last time you decided to repaint the dining room before deciding what color it should be.) When beginning a house cleaning project, a lot of people use “organizing” and “decluttering” interchangeably. This might help people get in the right headspace to get things done, but the process and end goals can be vastly different for each method of cleaning. Understanding the difference can go a long way towards helping you plan your big cleaning project and taking the right steps to get it all done. If you want to simplify it, you can think of it this way: decluttering is when you get rid of stuff, organizing is just finding a home for the stuff you have. Obviously there’s a bit more to it than that, but this is a good thing to keep in mind when trying to prepare. Specifically, you’ll want to prepare in different ways for each task. Organizing often requires bringing in extra home storage like wall shelves, closet storage, and the like to keep things organized. Much of your time will be spent finding new homes for a lot of your stuff—emptying out dresser drawers, rearranging kitchen cabinets, and the like. When you get ready for an organization project, it often helps to take things room by room and make a list of everything you want to do, one by one. Need to clean up that utensil drawer? Got an office desk that needs to be rearranged? Don’t tackle it all at once, and be prepared to feel cleaner but no less cluttered than before. Decluttering, on the other hand, focuses more on actively trying to have less stuff. While the list-making and note-taking isn’t any different, you do have to prepare yourself for having less stuff and getting rid of a lot of things. This is often where people falter—getting rid of things is almost always hard, even if you know the end result will be worth it, and you might find yourself not donating or throwing out as much as you’d hoped. The question then remains—which one of these is right for you? Honestly, that answer depends on a lot of things. If you’re not interested in downsizing, or if you simply want to make your home a little more picturesque and aesthetically pleasing, a simple reorganizing may be enough to breathe some new life into things and get a new look into your home. Decluttering is a good ‘extreme option’ for messes that just won’t go away and rooms that can’t stay organized no matter what you do. Give it a thought next time you want to clean your home and see how it goes.