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Spring is a time for cleaning and decluttering. The new season brings freshness and a clean slate. It's a perfect time to get rid of all the clutter that has been piling up in your home.

But decluttering is not just about throwing out things you don't need anymore; it’s also about organizing your space so it feels more spacious and less cluttered. If you’re overwhelmed at the thought of decluttering your space, here are some tips that will set you up for success.

• Before you do your deep dive into your closets and drawers, you need to have a structured plan as to how you go about this mission. Write down all the rooms and areas you want to declutter. For example, start with an office closet, master bathroom drawers, kitchen junk drawer, and pantry.

This will help you break down what can feel like an overwhelming goal, such as “I have to declutter my whole house. Where do I even begin” into smaller slivers. You’ll be able to think, “I just need to focus on the junk drawer today” making it way more manageable. When you break daunting tasks into smaller slivers rather than seeing it as one big chunk or one step, the task now feels manageable, you see progress fairly quickly, and you will feel more motivated to get it done.

• Once you have your plan, the best way to declutter a room in your home is to start with one place at a time. After you have your list, pick one room or section from that list and start there and only focus on that task until it’s complete. Take everything out of the drawers or area you are wanting to declutter, and wipe down the surface areas and shelves so the items you do keep have a clean space to return to.

• If you want to organize your paperwork or your office supplies, start with one drawer or a section at a time. If you decide to start with paperwork, take out all the paperwork from your drawers and as you sort through every piece, form categories for the paperwork. There can be piles for things to recycle, shred, and piles for important papers like taxes, life insurance, and your will. Once you have the papers sorted into categories, you can trash and recycle what you no longer need, and create folders for the categories you are keeping.

For office supplies, keep the items in clear bins where you can easily see where they are and keep track of how much you have. For paperwork, creating easy to read folders will help you get to the documents you need without having to panic and ask yourself, "Where did I put my life insurance policy?" or “Where is my will?” This will help you streamline your office organization and make the decluttering process a lot easier.

• If you’re going to start decluttering your closet, pull out all of the clothing and shoes you plan to donate. Put them in a pile on the floor so that it's separate from the items you plan to keep.

• If you really want to stay on top of decluttering, create a 15-minute appointment for yourself each month to go through all your papers and office supplies, toss what you aren't using or need and check that all items are where they need to be. All it takes is 15 minutes (or less).

If you start to feel overwhelmed through this process, take a pause and reevaluate your plan of attack. Most likely you are still looking at bigger pieces and considering “This entire section of the closet is next and where do I even begin” and can sliver out tasks into smaller pieces and think “This one drawer is all I need to focus on next.”