I tried the 'didn't know' decluttering method to purge unnecessary stuff – it's a game-changer

Love it or loathe it, January offers the perfect opportunity to declutter our homes and give everything a reset for the year ahead.

If you're hoping to declutter items for a happier home in 2026, now is the ideal time to try one of the best professional decluttering techniques. And while there are so many to choose from nowadays - from the snowball method to the one-touch tidying rule - some of them are more fad than fab, which is why I'm always keen to put a new method to the test and weigh up whether it's actually going to help.

When I stumbled across the 'didn't know' decluttering method, I was eager to give it a try. It sounded deceptively simple, but how effective would it be in practice?

Having put it to the test to sort through both my bathroom drawers and kitchen cabinets, I can confidently say that I'm a fan. And it's not just me: two professional home organisers that I spoke to also recommend this method.

Below, I'm breaking down everything you need to know, including its many benefits and what it's actually like to use at home.

What is the 'didn't know' decluttering method?

The 'didn't know' decluttering method is pretty much what it says on the tin: it focuses on letting go of the things we didn't even know we had.

It's all too easy to forget what we're actually storing sometimes. Spare rooms, the cupboard under the stairs, the attic and the garage are common hotspots for this, as they have the capacity to hold a lot of stuff that we don't use on a day-to-day basis.

"The benefit here is simplicity," Shannon Murphy says, professional declutterer and founder of Simpl Living Co. "If you haven’t used something or even remembered owning it for over a year, it’s usually easier to let go of it. Unless it’s something you need for exceptional circumstances (like emergencies), these forgotten items are probably just taking up unnecessary space."

Shannon Murphy

Shannon Murphy is the founder of Simpl Living Co, a minimalist-minded professional organiser based in West Sussex. Her mission extends beyond merely assisting individuals in decluttering, although that is an important aspect. Her overarching goal is to empower people to adopt a life free from the societal stereotype that buying more will make you happy.

It's also a super easy method to apply in practise. As you're decluttering the garage, decluttering the loft, or even your book collection, you simply set aside anything you didn't know you had, and let it go - if you want to. As Shannon says, there are certain items that we might need to hold on to, but anything without significance or purpose can go.

What are the benefits of the 'didn't Know' decluttering method?

Before I gave the 'didn't know' decluttering method a go, I wanted to see if it was something that professional home organisers would recommend. Shannon is definitely a fan, as is professional declutterer Rebecca Crayford.

"A lot of decluttering advice asks people to make big decisions about every single item they own, which can quickly feel tiring and overwhelming," she explains. "But with the 'didn't know' method, the decision is often already made for you. If you genuinely didn’t know an item existed, you’ve clearly been managing perfectly well without it - making it much easier to decide whether to recycle, donate or rehome it."

Rebecca Crayford

Rebecca Crayford is the founder of RCLM, a business that helps busy, midlife women reclaim their time by decluttering, getting organised, and putting simple systems in place to make daily life run more smoothly. With a background in marketing and advertising, Rebecca understands the pressures of modern life and offers a friendly, practical approach to creating space – both physically and mentally.

Trying to make too many decisions in one go is one of the easiest decluttering mistakes we can make, and the 'didn't know' method is the ideal antidote. The decision is simple: I didn't know I had this, so I can let it go.

So, if you're looking for a way to declutter your home in a way that feels manageable, this could be the method for you.

Trying the 'didn't know' decluttering method

As I've already mentioned, I'm always keen to put a new decluttering method to the test. One of my recent favourites was the 'move out' declutter method, where I had to keep items based on whether I'd justify packing them up and moving them to a new home.

This (amongst other techniques I've tried) made a big difference to how my home feels. So it's fair to say that the didn't know decluttering method has a lot to live up to.

One area I've been desperate to declutter since the New Year is my bathroom storage unit. It contains six baskets, all housing an array of toiletries for both my partner and me. While it looks fine from the outside (that's the beauty of hidden storage after all), I'm constantly having to sort through a jumbled mess in each drawer when looking for specific items.

The danger with storage baskets like these is that we only really see the items at the top, meaning there's usually a litter of forgotten items underneath. After pulling out each drawer and working through them one by one, I was shocked at just how many items I didn't know I had – including, I'm embarrassed to say, toiletries that expired in 2024.

It was surprisingly easy to stick to the 'didn't know' decluttering method when sorting through these baskets. Toiletries are there to serve a purpose, and they hold little sentimental value, so any that I didn't know about clearly weren't serving their purpose with me. So, in the bin they went, and it was a reminder to myself to only buy what I need going forward.

I also decided to use the didn't know decluttering method to organise my kitchen cupboards. I swear by kitchen storage organisers like turntables and under-shelf holders, but I'm still fighting a constant battle when it comes to keeping things tidy, mainly because I have deep cabinets where items go missing at the back.

After going through the cupboards where I store food, drinks and cookware, I was again fairly surprised at how much stuff I'd forgotten about. There was bakeware I hadn't touched in years, and some neglected spices well past their sell-by date (as a side note, I'm a huge fan of these small kitchen storage essentials – each has made a world of difference to how tidy my space looks and feels).

My verdict: should you try the 'didn't know' decluttering method?

It's fair to say that I'm very happy with how my kitchen cupboards and bathroom drawers are looking now. Both of them have had a well-needed clear-out and I'm hoping to maintain their tidy state going forward.

The didn't know decluttering method impressed me with how easy it is to use. No one wants a technique that feels like more of a hindrance than a help, so the fact that this method is so simple was a big green tick for me.

If it's your first time trying the 'didn't know' method, I'd definitely recommend starting with an area that doesn't hold many sentimental items. The bathroom is a prime example, as are the kitchen cupboards. Letting go of expired food cans and toiletries is pretty straightforward, but it gets harder when it comes to items we might have forgotten about, but have some sort of special meaning - like old childhood relics and family photos.

I haven't been quite brave enough to use the didn't know technique in these areas yet, but I'm planning on giving it a go - even if I don't rigidly stick to the rule of getting rid of anything I'd forgotten about.

Will you be giving the didn't know decluttering method a try?