I tried the ski slope decluttering method—and it made organizing much less stressful

Decluttering can be overwhelming. If you're anything like me, you probably start strong but soon find yourself trying on clothes you forgot about, re-reading old holiday cards, or trying that face mask that's been living in the back of the cabinet for years. In the end, you don't declutter nearly enough and feel like you wasted an afternoon. If that sounds familiar, there's a clever organizing strategy that can help. Below, an expert explains the ski slope decluttering method.

The method is simple: Think of a room as a ski slope. Pick one end of the room as your starting point and move side to side (like you're carving down a mountain) until you find yourself at the other end. By focusing on one small area at a time, you're less likely to get sidetracked or lose momentum. It also makes it less likely you'll create a bigger mess in the process, which can reduce stress.

Anita Yokota is a licensed therapist-turned-interior designer, author of Home Therapy and Grounded Living, and the creator of the Ski Slope Method. I asked her about how she created this strategy, why it works, and where it can be most useful. Here's what she shared.

How the Ski Slope Method Works

Yokota shares that she first created the Ski Slope Method out of necessity. "As a therapist, I saw how overwhelming clutter can feel for people, and as a busy mom, I needed something that actually worked in real life," she says. Yokota realized that when a task feels too big, we tend to avoid it altogether.

With that in mind, she took the idea of breaking things down into smaller steps and turned the decluttering process into a physical system in real time—as in, literally moving through a room in a structured, visual way. "The 'ski slope' pattern gives people a clear starting point and a path to follow, so they’re not overthinking every decision," Yokota explains.

The idea is simple: Think of a room as a ski slope. Pick one end of the room as your starting point and move side to side until you end up at the other end. "You 'ski' your way across the room in a zig-zag pattern, working within the triangle-shaped zone you create as you move," Yokota says. The methodical approach prevents you from trying to tackle everything at once and helps you stay focused on the one contained section you're currently working on before you move to the next pass. "That structure makes the process feel manageable and gives you quick wins, which keeps you motivated to keep going," Yokota says. To avoid becoming distracted along the way, the method sets a clear path to follow and turns decluttering into a task you can actually finish.

Where to Use the Ski Slope Method

I was also curious about whether there are certain scenarios or areas of the home that Yokota believes the method is particularly effective for. "The Ski Slope Method is perfect for those moments when a space feels overwhelming and you don’t know where to start," Yokota says. While you can employ the method in any room, she says it's especially helpful in high-traffic spaces like a busy family room, a bedroom that has gotten out of control, playrooms, home offices, and catch-all spaces that never really get reset. Basically anywhere you notice clutter tends to build up quickly.

Why the Ski Slope Method Works

It seems like every time I set out on a decluttering mission, I want to throw in the towel halfway through the process because I somehow managed to make a bigger mess than the one I began with. Cue the "I should never have started this in the first place" thoughts. This is where the Ski Slope Method is a game-changer. "Because you’re working in those defined 'slope' sections, you’re not pulling everything out or creating a bigger mess," Yokota says. Instead, what you're doing is clearing one triangle zone at a time, which keeps the room functional—rather than it looking like an utter disaster—while you move across from one end to the other.

There is also a cognitive benefit to this approach, as Yokota points out: "When a space is visually and physically overwhelming, it increases cognitive load and makes it harder to make decisions." By narrowing your focus to one small zone, she says you reduce that mental overload, which essentially mirrors principles from cognitive behavioral therapy. By mimicking a zig-zag path down a ski slope, what you are actually doing is breaking a large, avoidable task into smaller, more manageable steps. "It helps interrupt the 'shut down' response and keeps you moving forward with more clarity and less stress," Yokota says.

The Bottom Line

So the next time you feel overwhelmed by the idea of decluttering a room, employ this zig-zag approach to make the task infinitely more manageable. The Ski Slope organizing method is an excellent strategy if you don't know where to start, you find yourself easily distracted, and you prefer a guided approach. It’s also worth trying if you can't complete a room in one go, as it keeps the space functional. If you work from side to side and focus on decluttering only the triangular section you're in, it allows you to put a pause on organizing the room when needed without the entire space being messy and unusable. Then you can resume the organizing process on the side of the "slope" where you left off.