Join us for the 31 Day Decluttering Challenge starting July 1st and grab your free printable 31 Day Declutter Checklist below!
I don’t know how things are going in your corner of the world, but life has been a little crazy here lately with family visiting from out of town, a month-long bout with viruses and flu, as well as “tiny” problems like air conditioning issues when it’s 97 degrees outside.
In the midst of all the crazy, let’s just say that cleaning my house has not been a top priority …
The Problem
My office became the dumping ground for projects, art supplies, homeschool materials, papers and more — it’s so bad we may be about to film our own episode of “Hoarders” — yikes! (Although my pup doesn’t seem to mind.)
The Solution
In attempt to get things back in order, I’m hosting a 31 Day Decluttering Challenge.
I will be purging the piles and bringing some order to that chaos and I thought you might like to join me. It’s always more motivating when you have someone cheering you on, right?
To get started, check out the guidelines and schedule time on your calendar starting July 1st.
The Guidelines
The guidelines are simple – 10 minutes a day in one small area of your home. Just follow these steps.
Prep
Print the 31 Day Declutter Checklist linked below and follow along room by room, or focus on only one room for the entire challenge.
I will personally be working on that mess of an office. It’s not going to clean itself.
Declutter
1. Gather 3 large containers: boxes, plastic bags or laundry baskets. Label them “GIVE AWAY”, “THROW AWAY” and “PUT AWAY”.
2. Choose one area of your home.
3. Start with one small section of the room (1 drawer, 1 shelf, 1 cabinet) or one category (hanging clothes, books, etc.).
4. Spend just 10 minutes sorting* your items. I start with removing trash then grabbing the items I know I want to keep.
5. When your 10 minutes are up, disperse the items. Place the discard items in a bag or box then put them in your car to take to the donation center. Throw away any trash and take misplaced items to the rooms where they belong. Place your 3 containers in a closet to use tomorrow.
Share
I’ll be posting pics of my progress and I would love to see yours. Share on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter using #31DayDeclutter.
You can post photos HERE on my Facebook page or leave a link to social media or a blog post in the comments below.
If you’d like to join me for the July 31 Day Decluttering Challenge, I have a FREE Printable 31 Day Declutter Checklist for you.
Simply join the 30 Days to Organized group HERE
and grab your free 31 Day Declutter Checklist!
If you’re joining us, leave a comment. 🙂
Here’s to Clear Spaces!
*Marie Kondo recommends decluttering by category in a specific order. You can read more about the Konmari Method here.
You can incorporate the Konmari* method of touching each item and paying attention to how you feel about it. If the item “sparks joy” in you — makes you feel happy– place it back in the space. If the item makes you feel sad, confused or drained place it in the appropriate container.
For items that don’t “spark joy” but which are immediately useful return them to the space but make a note to replace them with something better soon.
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I’m with you. “If not NOW, when? If not ME, who?”
I started my own decluttering challenge in late May. I thought I would do it long ago, but for various reasons, the mental roadblocks dissolved the last week of May.
I live on a boat, which puts the problem in a fairly unusual setting. You would think that in our limited space, we would have made a commitment to clutterfree living long ago. NOT!
We both have our biggest challenges with books. Especially, when we can get free books from cruiser bookshelves. Those bookshelves are theoretically, “Take one, leave one,” but in actuality, some bring loads and take none, while others bring none and take loads. We became the latter. It has led to piles and boxes and bags of books.
The other big problem is unique to me. I write. I keep everything in little notebooks. I had piles and bags of notebooks and journals and little scraps of paper going back years. Where did I put so much “stuff” on a boat? I put it in the way. No matter where we went, we were always navigating around piles and bags and boxes.
The inspiration that finally drove me to fix this problem (to start, I should say. I have only begun.) was the discovery of OneNote. Microsoft OneNote is part of the Office 365 package. I have known about it for years, but the first time I tried using it, I didn’t really get the message. I tried experimenting with OneNote and Evernote side by side and still got nowhere until I acquired and became skilled in the use of an 8″ Android tablet.
My little Android tablet became my constant companion, and this spring I finally figured out how to install OneNote on my tablet, my laptop and my phone. That meant that if I used OneNote and saved everything to OneDrive, all my notes entered anywhere were available everywhere. I installed Kindle on all those devices, too, and the light began to dawn.
I could have all my little notebooks and all my scraps of paper and all my shopping lists, daily task lists, notes from reading books, lesson plans for teaching, recipes, and any scrapbook diaries of trips in OneNote and the notes function of Kindle. Everything was available to me even if I had no space to carry anything but my phone.
In the last week of May I started getting rid of paper and adding sections or new notebooks as needed. I began to carry my tablet to church, where I would read the Bible and take notes in Sunday School using only my tablet. After I had scrapped piles of paper and notebooks, I started on the books.
My next step is to acquire the new Surface Pro, a purchase planned for August. In addition to replacing my kludgy, intermittently crashing, elderly laptop, the new Surface Pro include THE PEN. Handwriting with THE PEN in One Note or Word can be converted to digital text. THE PEN can be used like a pencil to draw sharp lines or to shade sketched objects. It will be my final disconnect with physical writing.
I am delighted to read all your comments about decluttering, because I certainly still have clutter and messes that cannot be cleaned up with ink to text handwriting. 🙂 I am a faithful reader and thankful subscriber. I just had to share where I am in my journey. I hope my story, like yours, will bless someone who needs just a little more push to get going.
I cannot describe the peace and joy I experience as I declutter. I began to enjoy life more the first day. I look around at the space and light that have opened up for me and smile. Every time I head out somewhere with only my purse, containing my tablet and phone, instead of a big bag of books, notebooks and pens, I give thanks to the Lord above for the people who invented computer technology. I advise everyone to find that big solution waiting somewhere behind or among the paper pileup in their own lives.
This is so AWESOME Katherine! I am so proud of you and so happy to hear how decluttering has so positively impacted you. Thank you so much for taking the time to comment.
I would love to start this month, but realistically August is better for me. We are house and dog sitting for friends this week. We rent a basement and the owners are repainting and recarpeting the basement this month. So once all the work is done, we can put everything back in its rightful place. Or get rid of the items we no longer need. I’m also losing weight and hopefully will be a lot lighter in another month. So I will be able to get rid of more clothes that don’t fit.
Esther
That’s so smart of you to think about when decluttering might work better for you Esther. And congrats on losing weight!
I love it! I started the challenge with a friend who had apparently been doing a “get rid of 2000 things challenge ” already. She happily joined me and we love doing this together. It’s fun to check in on each other at the end of the day and fun to see each other’s excitement. Good to keep each other accountable too.
That is a fantastic idea to do the challenge with a friend Joy. So glad you have the encouragement!