Well, yes, I can share that I am feeling lighter! It is truly amazing just how much clutter weighs you down. You don’t realize it until you free yourself from it and the weight that gets lifted is incredible.
Today is officially Day 9 of #40bags40days and I can’t believe how much I have decluttered already!
This week, the major spaces that I tackled in my home were my basement and my office
This Week’s Decluttering Highlights…
Toys – It is very important to me that I help my children learn how to get rid of items that they no longer need. Many of us attach ourselves emotionally to items and my children are no exception. However, they simply cannot keep every single toy that they receive. My children have three places in our home where they store toys: their bedrooms, the kitchen (we have an Ikea shelf) and the basement (shelves and bins/boxes).
My daughter has almost outgrown every single toy that she has ever played with, except her Maplelea Doll which she still loves. She had a couple of bins in the basement filled with toys that she was hanging onto that I encouraged her to sort with me so that we could donate the ones that she no longer used. Most of them, she had no problem agreeing to donate, but when it came to her dolls and doll clothes, we hit an emotional string. Specifically, she had two dolls (with a bunch of clothing) that she NEVER plays with, but she remembers playing with and so she had a hard time letting them go. We spoke about how we cannot keep everything and she hasn’t touched these items in likely over a year, so it was time to say goodbye. She laid everything out and I took a photo for her so that can always remember them.
Apparently, we didn’t know that my son has had his eyes on my daughter’s boy baby for quite some time, so my daughter gave it to my son, which he was thrilled about (and secretly so was my daughter because it meant the baby wasn’t leaving our house just yet). But other than that doll, everything in this pile is being donated.
I specifically remember being a child and having an extremely difficult time letting go of any of my toys. I am trying to teach my children to be accountable for their own items and helping them to learn how to make decisions about what to keep and what to donate so that they learn this very important skill. Likely, I could have taken those dolls out of my daughter’s room and she wouldn’t have realized it for months, however, she wouldn’t have learned how to let go of items that she is no longer using. This is a life skill that clearly I never have learned as well as I should have, so I am trying to start early with my children.
Games: My children have collected quite a few games over the past few years. This is a good thing, but somehow, I started to store them up high on top of our kitchen storage unit/desk where the kids cannot reach. It involved an adult standing on a chair to get a game down for the children to play. So, together, we sorted through the games and I have put them in one of the toy bins that we emptied out and it now lives in the basement so that the children can get a game out whenever they wish independently.
Basement Pantry: I have no image to share of this job and the truth is, I will have plenty of opportunities to take more as I have only started organizing our basement. I explain what I did in this video here:
One goal that I have for 2015 is to take more videos to share with you. What do you think?
Business Paperwork I am going to get into more detail about how I am organizing my office paperwork in a separate post, but basically I had papers, files, products and photography stuff all over my kitchen which was starting to overrun our living space. SO, I bought a large filing box and this week, I sorted through some of my papers and recycled a bunch of papers that I’m not using anymore.
This week, I gave my neighbour a HUGE box of toys, I accumulated a bag of clothing to give to my sister, I donated quite a few bags to a local charity and I have another box of toys that I am adding to along with a garbage bag that is half full.
What have you Decluttered this week?
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.
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Keep up the good work!
My OCD husband would love this, but this is him almost every single day! 🙂
It does feel good to ‘free’ yourself of junk though!
Thank you for your support, Michelle – it means a lot!
It really does feel good!
You are rocking this Amanda! SO proud of how you are taking hold of your clutter and moving it out.
Slowly as I am going through things I tend to feel a little overwhelmed with the process but am really trying to push through and keep moving forward with getting rid of stuff.
It is definitely an overwhelming process – it is somewhat emotional for me as well – ok VERY emotional at times. I have held onto many of the items for emotional (not need) reasons! You have been doing amazing too Tiffany!!! Keep it up – we will do this together.
Good for you! Getting rid of clutter is not an easy job by ANY means.. It’s incredibly overwhelming at times to say the least
It is VERY overwhelming, especially when you don’t even know where to begin! I have found that all it takes is to just JUMP IN! Thanks Soozle 😉
That is so sweet that the one baby got passed on to little brother. Love it. Looking forward to more updates!
Isn’t it though? My heart was full!
It too me 2 days last week to fully clean my pantry,thank goodness its done
Wow! That is amazing though, you must feel SO good!
I certainly do
YAY!!!!!
I am also working on decluttering my home. It will probably take more than 40 days but I am trying to do a little bit whenever there’s a spare moment.
Oh Heidi, if I’m honest with myself and YOU, it is going to take me more than 40 days too! This is going to turn into a YEAR LONG adventure for me!
It’s amazing how fast the clutter builds back up, I just did a declutter of my bedroom and spare room and it seems to be filling up again, a never ending job!!
Every surface collects clutter, it is a never ending issue. I’m used to hoarding and clutter and my husband isn’t. I say it’s a lack of storage. He would toss or give away immediately so there is no clutter, where I say to myself I’ll get to it later. We did the kitchen counter top this week. I need posts like this to give me tips and get me motivated. Thank you!
Me too – clutter just happens so quicky around here! Thank you for your kind words and be sure to come back this Friday for more tips 🙂 Also, feel free to interact with us on Facebook when we post Decluttering posts OR share a photo to my wall of a before/after!
Hi Amanda, you’re welcome 🙂 Thanks, a photo is a good idea only I don’t have the nerve to post before pictures. I would have to clear some to the point it didn’t look too bad. lol
Oh, but Anna – those are the BEST before/after photos! People only truly focus on how amazing the after looks! If you don’t fell comfortable sharing them in public, feel free to email them OR keep them to yourself, as they do serve as a good reminder.
True, but I’ll take some for myself for a constant reminder. That should keep me on track. Great tip-Thank you!
Exactly – keep them for yourself if you don’t feel like sharing, but it’s amazing the reminder it will provide you with!
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I need to declutter my closets so badly! I hope to find a weekend where I can get to it!
I think I will slowly start decluttering each room/closet of the house. This may be very refreshing.
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