Lifestyle Influencer's ‘20/20 Decluttering Rule’ Makes Cleaning Your Messy Junk Drawer So Effortless

It is easier to hold onto things but difficult to let them go. Cracked coffee cups, broken clips, unused utensils, sheaves of old newspapers, loose bibelots, obsolete electronics- the list is endless. Over time, it becomes uncomfortable to let these memories and feelings go. These worn-out items may indeed become objects of interest for poets, but for householders who desire tidier homes, they’re just tawdry trumperies in their junk drawers. In a resurfaced clip, Texas-based lifestyle influencer, Mai Zimmy (@mai_zimmy) shared an ingenious hack to instantly declutter your messy junk drawers: the 20/20 decluttering rule.

Until a few years ago, Zimmy was a massive hoarder. In a 2020 video, she shared how her kitchen was littered with leftover food items and half-used supplies; objects scattered all around the house in jumbles, room spaces were pilfered by trash and hodgepodge, drawers overflowed with unused things, and clothes spilled out of closets. Fast forward to January 2024, she still had clutter in some of her “junk drawers.” But while she filmed a video about the 20/20 rule, she quickly demonstrated how easily it can be decluttered.

“Consider using it on an area like your junk drawer that is really mostly just crap,” she said while shuffling through a handful of stationery items and art supplies in her drawer. She flashed a silver-grey ring-shaped bauble in her fingers, emphasizing that it was just a gimcrack, of no worthy purpose, and hence, should be thrown away. “If you are struggling with decluttering decisions, the 20/20 rule says you should consider letting go item if you can replace it in less than $20 and within less than 20 minutes,” Zimmy explained. As she wrapped up the video with a neater, more organized drawer, she said, “The 20/20 rule works great with the space.”

Reflecting on the tacky rule, @raydoo__ said in a comment, “The 20/20 rule is really helpful most of the time you keep things you don’t need and when you need them you can’t remember where you put them so you just buy another.” @angelafl25 said, “It initially sounds incredibly wasteful, but maybe not. Need to take a walk around the house and think about that.”

The actual “20/20 rule” is attributed to a duo who call themselves “The Minimalists,” namely, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus. “We often hold on to things just in case we need them: We don’t let go because we might need something in some far-off, nonexistent, hypothetical future. We pack too much stuff in the remotest chance we might need something for trips and vacations,” they wrote in a blog post about this rule. In an Instagram video, Zimmy shared some "oddly specific things" that people might consider letting go while decluttering.

They stressed that people needn’t hold on to these “just in case” items, because most of the time, they aren’t the items that are needed at all. “Instead, if we remove the just-in-case items from our lives, we get them out of the way and free up the space they consume,” they explained. Ultimately, it is difficult to let go, but it is even more painful to hold on to memories that no longer serve any purpose.

You can follow Mai Zimmy (@maizimmy) on TikTok for more interesting organization hacks.