My dining room buffet works double time — especially when I’m entertaining. It has all the essentials I need for a meal with family and friends, such as tablecloths, chargers, plates and glasses. And it’s also full of service items and linens that we don’t use (and maybe never will).
Lately I’ve noticed that even things that aren’t from the dining room have ended up in it. Open the cabinet doors and watch out for toppling books, hanging picture accessories, and even an extension cord. It was time to tackle the buffet and spend some time reorganizing to remove the junk that didn’t belong.
I didn’t want to spend a lot of time on this project, even though the overload was already creeping into the expected time it would take to go through and fully revise everything. That’s when I came across professional organizer Kayleen Kelly’s three-second rule for cleaning and knew this would be the best technique for me.
In this TikTok video, Kelly, who is known for her de-cluttering methods such as the Core 4 method and tips, explains that the three-second rule helps people make “quick and confident decisions when cleaning things up.” When you apply her method to an object, in three seconds you decide either “yes, you keep it” or “no, it goes.” She says that if you hesitate for more than three seconds, then the object stays, which takes the pressure off you to discard the objects immediately.
How I used the 3 second rule to crack
I applied her three second rule to every item on my buffet. First I pulled everything out as she suggested I see everything. With the help of my son, we emptied every last thing from the buffet cupboard and drawers in the dining room. I placed a full array of dinner essentials on my floor and resisted the urge to start grabbing and stuffing things back.
I went piece by piece. There were things that I immediately put in the “no pile”, but some items stuck with me, such as holiday napkins and glasses. I still liked them, but I only used them once a year. Kelly’s advice was to keep it if I hesitate, so I was glad I didn’t have to throw away my beloved cherry red holiday cups and dessert plates. During this process, I realized that I needed a designated place for my holiday things, so I started grouping them on one shelf of the cabinet. I came across six cheese spreaders and decided to discard the two mismatched ones and keep the set of four equal ones. I found some unused, discolored serving utensils in the back of a drawer and quickly put them in a pile.
After going through each item, I had a box of items to donate or discard, a collection of items I planned to keep, and a small stash of items that needed to be returned to their rightful place in my home. The lone extension cord was returned to its rightful place in the basement with other friends from the extension cord.
In the end, I put all my “yes” items back in the sideboard. I was amazed at how tidy everything looked and how much more space I had on the shelves and in the drawers. This whole process took less than an hour, most likely because I couldn’t waste time. I only had three seconds to decide whether to keep or throw the item!
I loved this technique because it took the guilt of not getting rid enough and allowed me to keep the item if I hesitated. The best part of applying this technique was the result of an organized dining room buffet and a sense of accomplishment for discarding and celebrating the relief of keeping the things I loved.