I Tried The Viral “Container Concept” for Decluttering and It Transformed the Way I Live in My Home

I’ve always been a maximalist—which is a polite way to say that I’ve always toed the line of being a lowercase hoarder. My parents were both big-time collectors my whole life and I thought it was normal to have dozens of Rubbermaid containers filled with memories in the form of objects. I didn’t realize it wasn’t normal to hold onto everything until I was well into my early thirties and on the verge of a cross-country move.

By that point, I had a very “maximally” decorated apartment in the city and a rustic country house with all the items I deemed unworthy of displaying in my condo but still worthy of holding onto. I had a very understanding partner at the time who never seemed to be bothered by my excessive collecting over the years and I really thought I had it under control.

I had read The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up in my early twenties and donated all the clothes I had been holding onto from college. I was a home decor writer and on top of the latest trends (my apartment really did look good—it was just a little overstuffed!).

But after a breakup, when I was faced with packing all of my possessions into a storage locker and eventually shipping them across the country, I realized that owning a little less might not hurt my ability to move on as an independent and agile adult.

That’s when I discovered the pure genius of decluttering and tidying expert Dana K. White’s viral “Container Concept.”

What is Dana K. White’s Container Concept?

The container concept is a simple decluttering method that uses “containers” as visual limits to implement when deciding what items to keep and which ones to discard. The point is to use the container, for example, a pencil case, to be able to set a boundary with how many, say, pens and pencils, you keep in your home.

You start by filling the container with your absolute favorite items in the given category and once the container is full, the idea is that you then discard whatever doesn’t fit comfortably within the container. This makes decision-making easier as you’re ideally choosing the most essential items from a given category and understanding more clearly the ones that you can live without.

Why The Container Concept Worked For Me

Like I said, I’ve thought about decluttering before. I actually thought I was somewhat okay at it after going through my Marie Kondo phase—technically most of my possessions did spark joy.

But it wasn’t until I discovered this compassionate way of decluttering that the concept was able to stick long enough for me to, well, not just declutter successfully but actually become an unlikely minimalist.

Here’s what stood out for me when I began using the container concept to declutter my space:

It takes emotion out of the equation

I was one of those people who could find an emotional attachment to pretty much anything and would feel like I was personally offending an item that I no longer needed or wanted. The container concept allowed me to place the blame on the size of each given container rather than myself or my decisions, so I would no longer feel guilty about discarding or donating items I didn’t really need.

It makes decluttering visual

The container concept is great for visual folks like myself. It’s not as analytical as other decluttering or organizing methods and allowed me to easily see exactly how much space my clutter was taking up in the context of the given container. I could see more easily when I had way too much of a given item which made it easier to be rational about what to keep and what to donate/discard.

There’s a clear end

The container concept is all about limits—which I learned that I respond very well to. During my most ruthless decluttering phase using the container concept, my containers were suitcases. I decided to empty my storage locker and could only take six suitcases with me as I was moving across the country.

This is an extreme example, even for me, but knowing I only had six suitcases’ worth of space meant that as soon as they were filled up, the decluttering process was finished and I knew I had to donate and discard anything that didn’t fit.

It works for all categories

I found that the rules of the container concept could easily work across all categories—from books and paper clutter to clothing and linens—which made it simple for me to work quickly an efficiently while doing multiple rounds of decluttering and downsizing.

The Takeaway

The container concept can be modified to suit different needs and living spaces but for me, the biggest takeaway was by far no longer feeling guilty about keeping the “maybe” items in my space.

Following this concept was the only way I was able to downsize from two homes to one, eventually to a studio apartment, and now to just six suitcases worth of stuff as I get ready to move abroad.

I never thought that I would be able to emotionally detach from my possessions and using the container concept to shift the blame onto the containers rather than my decision-making has made it incredibly easy to not only get more clear on the items I want in my life but also to get rid of the “maybes” that I had been holding onto.

Now that I’ve gone through multiple rounds of decluttering using this concept, I also use it when I’m shopping for new items to bring into my home. If I already know a “container” is full, like my bookshelf, for example, then I have to respect that I don’t have the space for a new book. Instead, I’ll go to the library or use the “one-in, one-out” rule and donate an item before bringing in a new one in the same container category.

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