How the 20/20 rule can help you let go of bedroom clutter

Every bedroom has a drawer full of things that exist purely because you couldn’t quite bring yourself to bin them. The 20/20 rule gives you a reason to finally do it.

Like the 90/90 rule, this method comes from The Minimalists (Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus). The idea is simple: if an item can be replaced for less than £20 and in less than 20 minutes, there’s no practical reason to hang onto it. The “what if I need this?” argument falls apart when the answer is “then I’ll pop to the shops.”

It won’t overhaul your bedroom overnight. The 20/20 rule is a decision-making tool built to unstick you when you’re hovering over a random object, wondering if it deserves to stay.

What passes the test (and what doesn’t)

The fastest way to use the 20/20 rule is to open whatever drawer or cupboard causes you the most grief and start picking things up.

• Things that typically fail: spare phone cables, novelty mugs you’ve never used, old candles with barely any wax left, travel-sized toiletries, that universal remote for a TV you replaced two years ago. Under £20 to replace. Easy to get hold of again.
• Things that pass: your favourite pillows, a decent mattress protector, quality bedding, anything you’d genuinely miss or wouldn’t want to replace. The 20/20 rule isn’t about clearing everything out. It’s about spotting the difference between things that you need and things that are just taking up room.

When to ignore it

Not everything in your bedroom fits neatly into a £20/20-minute box. Sentimental items are the obvious exception. A letter from someone you love isn’t replaceable at any price, and the rule was never meant for things like that.

Seasonal stuff falls outside it, too. Your winter duvet might not be in use right now, but you’ll want it back in a few months. The same goes for extra blankets and heavier sleepwear.

The rule works best on the “grey area” items. The ones you don’t love, don’t really use, but feel oddly reluctant to part with.

How it pairs with other methods

The 20/20 rule doesn’t need to be your whole strategy. It slots in well alongside other approaches.

Working through the KonMari method and stuck on whether to keep something? Run it through the 20/20 filter. Using the 90/90 rule and not sure about an item that sits on the boundary? Check whether it’s easy to replace. If it is, that tips the balance.

Think of it as a tiebreaker for the moments when your brain gets stuck on “maybe.”

Why does it suit bedrooms so well?

Bedrooms are where “just in case” items go to live. The spare charger. The hairband collection. The three identical hand creams. Individually, none of them seems worth worrying about. Together, they fill drawers and surfaces until your room feels cluttered without any single thing being obviously responsible.

The 20/20 rule is built for exactly that kind of slow-building mess. It doesn’t ask you to overhaul your whole space. It just helps you make faster, clearer choices about the small stuff that quietly piles up.

You’ll find this method alongside eight others in our full guide to decluttering methods for busy bedrooms. It works brilliantly on its own for a quick drawer purge, or alongside a bigger method when you need a nudge to let something go.