30-Day Declutter Challenge
Happy Monday friends!
I read somewhere that you shouldn’t start every blog post like I did above or similar but ya’ll, how else do you start it? Seems so weird to me not to greet you and just wing it jumping right in. Which maybe sounds silly saying that out loud but it really does seem….impersonal?
Just a random thought before we get started I suppose but nonetheless, I am so excited to share today’s blog post.
Ya’ll I may be in the minority but I love deep cleaning my house and decluttering. I love getting rid of stuff that no longer serves us whether it is donating things we no longer use or trashing things that are broken/worn out, it just brings me a ridiculous amount of joy. I usually do a little declutter challenge for myself the week after Christmas and then again the first week of summer break. I find that doing this every 6 months or so helps keep me on top of things and makes doing it much easier because it hasn’t been a whole year since I declutter.
When I was decluttering the house, I knew I wanted to share it with you guys but I also know that I am in the minority of people who love doing it and who don’t get overwhelmed by it. When I talk to you guys or my friends/family I always get the same thing…you love the end result but are overwhelmed with starting and completing so I thought I would take what I do and put it into a 30 day challenge where you can complete it but just in bite sized pieces. Now, if you are like me and really nerd out on these things, feel free to just use this as a checklist and knock it out in a day or two like I do.
For everyone else, here is my 30-day declutter challenge….feel free to print this or save it to your phone and work through it as you go, I promise it isn’t as scary as it seems!
Here are my tried and true tips/tricks…
Get your family involved. Your husband and kids should be cleaning out their own spaces. They may need a little help/guidance but my kids have been helping with this since they were toddlers and now at ages 20, 12 and 10 it is a breeze for them to do it without me (or with little support).
Take pictures. As you go take before and after photos. This will encourage you to keep going and will be a great motivator when you just don’t feel like completing another area.
Don’t buy anything…yet. As you clean spaces you will find that you need organization stuff but chances are, you may have unused things in other areas of your home. So keep it organized and make a list on your phone of what you need. When you clean out your closet and find that extra bin, take it to the bathroom where you needed one more.
Be ruthless. Now is not the time to be emotional. If something is broken it is gone. If a cord can’t find the matching whatever, it’s trash. You will buy it on Amazon anyways so just throw it out. You haven’t worn it in 6 months, donate it. I promise you will not regret getting rid of it.
Have fun. Turn on your favorite music really loud. Laugh at the mess and nonsense you find. Laugh at your kids hoarding stuff. If you don’t laugh you will get annoyed and I find that it is better to laugh at the mess and be proud of the clean up on the other end than be irritated all the way through.
Look, life happens and we all get busy which means that our homes and cars and offices at some point reach the point of no return until we tackle it. Don’t feel alone because we are all there or have been there, that is why you see these challenges all over, right?
You got this and if you need a little pep talk along the way, feel free to reach out….I totally geek out on this and would love to help you and chat through whatever is making it feel like too much!
