I view January as the opportunity for a fresh start. It is a chance to reflect on our life the way it is now and make any changes that would benefit us. These changes are often things like changes for our health and wellbeing, our routines, home decor and organization and more.
This year, I will be participating in a “challenge” called 40 Bags in 40 Days because what I have decided to tackle this new year is my home. I have a lot of things, not necessarily valuable things, but “stuff”. My husband and I are opposites in many areas of life, which is a wonderful thing most of the time, BUT my “clutter” drives him nuts and to be honest, the amount of stuff in our home is starting to drive me nuts too.
I live life often thinking to myself:
“this would be good if……”
OR
“I will keep this in case we…….”
OR
“I could make a ………”
and this needs to STOP.
40 Bags in 40 Days Decluttering Zones
Bathrooms – Yes! Even my bathrooms need some decluttering attention. Specifically, the master bathroom. I am a product junkie, but this has changed ever since I became a Norwex Independent Sales Consultant because my personal care routine has become dramatically simplified and chemical free! So, it is now time to get rid of all of the products that I no longer use or need.
Kitchen – I started this decluttering process in December when my husband was cooking (I am a lucky lady) and he was getting rather flustered with the amount of kitchen tools we had in our drawers. My goal for this year is to get through every single area of my kitchen (yes, including my desk).
Childrens’ Bedrooms – As children grow, their needs and interests change. They grow out of their clothing, they learn how to read more challenging books and gain interest in new and different toys. My children, like many others, have a hard time letting go of many of these items and as new clothing, books and toys enter their rooms, their rooms become full and cluttered. I am in the process of teaching them how important it is to regularly go through their things and keep only what they use, wear or need in order to keep their bedrooms a cleaner living place.
Master Bedroom – The children and I have a few dumping zones in our master bedroom. I try really hard to keep “kid things” out of our bedroom, but at bedtime, we spend a lot of time in there as a family and toys, books etc. get left behind. There is also clothing and items in our walk in closet (that is quite small) that are piling up and no longer being used that need to be cleaned up and donated.
I alluded to the fact that I will be tackling some of these projects throughout the year. You see, this Declutter Challenge is just the START for me. I have a BIG job ahead of me and unless I were to make it my full time job, there is NO WAY I would even come close to completing it in 40 days, BUT I will be tackling each one of these areas over the next 40 days in order to make more goals for myself in the year to come.
Each Friday I will be sharing an update of how what I have decluttered in my home. I hope you will follow me and perhaps even become motivated to clean out your living space of things that you no longer need. Please also feel free to join me on Facebook on a daily basis to share with me your progress if you have decided to join me in this challenge.
Bookmark or pin this post so that you can come back to read my updates!
Feeling Lighter
5 Tips for Decluttering Your Basement
Helping My Kids Learn How to Declutter and Purge
First Declutter THEN Clean with HELP!
I am so looking forward to having a de-cluttered house! Good luck
Me too! Me too!
I did this a few years ago now, donated close to 150 boxes and 20 green garbage bags of clothes and linens, took two people 2 weeks, and it was so liberating!! I keep a box going now and add to it regularly and just went through the clothing 4 garbage bags full to donate. I never want to be that cluttered again
I am hoping to get to the point where I am satisfied with the state of our house and then just be on maintenance like you are Debbie! I can’t afford 2 weeks straight, so that is why I’m doing a bit each day, although something tells me that I won’t be near done at the end of 40 days….
I’m looking forward to this challenge and seeing the results.
Thanks for following along!
January is always a good time to feel motivated! My goal is to start working on our basement as well, as we even have a HUGE pile of empty boxes still not broken down after we moved here in Feburary (where did the year go? How have we almost been living here a WHOLE YEAR?). Unfinished basements so quickly clutter up… I am driven nuts every time I need to go down to the shelf or freezer for anything. So, I am going to start there.
I also have stuff to deal with in my guest room and the bedroom we use as an office, as I mentioned on your FB post. A goal for our home after we’ve been here a full year is to paint over the horrible builder’s paint (we’ve only painted 3 small rooms so far, need to do the main areas of the house). I feel like we are still living a bit of a cluttered life until we do that; we’ve been avoiding putting some things away until after we move everything around again to paint the walls behind stuff.
You’ve got me motivated!
Ms Key – 2 years ago at the end of January, we had a huge flood (our powder room into our basement) and it made me do a huge purge. I have no idea how it doesn’t look like I got rid of anything, because we filled a pick up truck FULL of stuff, but……one of the things that got wet was a HUGE box of empty boxes that I was keeping (on purpose). Since then, I haven’t kept a single box! It feels so good to purge, doesn’t it?
It felt so good to finally take care of two things that have bothered me for years! Next it’s the front hall closet and the dishwasher! Oh the basement…
It feels SO good, doesn’t it?!
The dishwasher? There is clutter in there? I’m confused!!!
No lol my dishwasher is portable so the top of it is constantly covered in crap and then that crap is put in a bag and put into a bigger pile somewhere else in my house lol
LOL gotcha – that makes much more sense! The top of our dishwasher is our drop zone too, funny enough!
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As of January 1st of this year, all of our home needed to be decluttered. I saved lots of ‘stuff’ and I felt I had to get rid of most of the clutter at least. It is daunting but I am working at it and am doing fairly well. Thank you for the spark to get started.