While it can feel chaotic and overwhelming to have clutter in your home, you can probably just throw most of it away. How much of your kid’s old artwork do you really need to keep forever? There’s nothing valuable in that pile of junk mail. And what are all those cords doing in that drawer anyway? I’m not saying it’s easy to get rid of, but you can make it easier. All that clutter is overwhelming in volume, but when you break it down, it can be completely manageable. You didn’t collect it all at once, so don’t try to get rid of it that way. Just use a calendar.

The calendar method is pretty simple, if you think about it: on the first day of the month, you declutter your home, but with the intention of doing it for the entire month. You start slowly: on the first day, you find one item to throw away (or donate). On the second day, you throw away or donate two. Add another item each day, so that you slowly build up your decluttering muscle over the course of the month.

In a 31-day month, you’ll eventually say goodbye to nearly 500 pieces of clutter, and yet you’ll still need to pace yourself. Don’t throw out anything too difficult to get rid of in the first few days. You’ll have plenty of time to throw out every receipt, unused appliance, and expired food container. Try to focus on one room at a time, and make sure you keep the numbering system on track. Consider devoting one month to one room, the next month to another, and so on, so that you can work your way through the entire house at a pace that doesn’t feel taxing.

The best way to do this is to buy a large day planner and use it as your calendar, as it not only tells you the numerical day of the month, but also gives you some space to write. At the end of each day, write down everything you threw away or donated. Try one like this, with large pages for each day: