Things are slowly taking shape for our garage sale this weekend and my pile of things to get rid of has grown to a massive size. I think my stuff breeds behind closed doors or something because I really and truly have no idea how I can cull together such a huge garage sale pile every year–especially since I’m a minimalist!
Since I didn’t get this posted last night as planned, I’ll likely be posting two Clear Out the Clutter Assignments today. I hope I don’t overwhelm you! Just remember that you don’t have to do it all today. Take a week per room, if you need to.
Clear Out the Clutter Assignment #3
::Go through your Master Bedroom (including the closet and dressers) and ruthlessly clear out any and all clutter and unnecessary items you find. Consider passing on extra clothing to friends or donate it to someone in need. Or, add it to your garage sale pile!
::Tally up the approximate amount of items you’re getting rid of and input it into the Items Decluttered Tally Form in order to be entered to win some fun prizes!
What I Accomplished
I told you a few days ago that I don’t have a computer desk, but I do use my top dresser drawer for extra storage. And sometimes, it gets a little out of hand. Like today:
(Um, and for the record, I have no idea how that red froggie ended up in my dresser; it was supposed to be in one of the garage sale boxes!)
There, much better!
My husband also went through his clothes–without even being prompted to do so!–and gave me a big pile of them to get rid of. I still need to go through my clothes and see if there are any that I haven’t worn in awhile. Although, since I only have a few outfits to begin with, it’s not that big of a chore!
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Are you blogging about your Clear Out the Clutter accomplishments and progress? If so, leave your direct link to your blog post below (with pictures, if possible!) so we can visit your blog, cheer you on and be inspired!
Heather Lindsey says
Although I don’t have a blog set up, I am posting my photo album to my facebook account, I will be adding more and more as I get things accomplished. Being a single mom, we’re devoted to mostly weekends and the “clutter” was more intense than most before pics I’ve seen :S Thank you for this inspiration!!!
Cathi says
I havent even thoght about the Master Bedroom yet! 🙁 My office is the big mess in our house. It has slowly become the storage room for my sons outgrown baby clothes. I plan on having a ‘private’ sale for my pregnant friend and her other pregnant friends so they can ‘shop’ . Im hoping it will be less hassle than a full blown garage sale. But taking the time to do is hard to come by. I did give my friend a grocery bag with some size 2 diapers, a unopened box of breast pads etc. So, I was able to get rid of SOME stuff today. Baby steps….
Katie says
Slowly but surely making progress! Thanks again Crystal for hosting this! I’m not finished with our bedroom decluttering, but I have made a lot of progress in the closet…which was a major project in itself. I hope your garage sale goes well today!
Laura says
I haven’t started on our master bedroom yet, but I finally cleaned out the clutter from my guest bedroom. It looks so much better, like a new room! I love being organized, now if I can just keep it that way! LOL 🙂
Molly says
I have been cleaning out a ton as we are moving on FRIDAY! But I feel attached to all of my kids toys and books. Yes, they would rather play with a tp roll but I just “feel” like I need to keep them. There is nothing wrong with them, alot are nice and expensive. We must have 15 totes or boxes of toys and several boxes of books. This is after cleaning out donating, giving away and rummage sale! Any suggestions—we are moving to a smaller home.
Missie says
@Molly, You have to be ruthless with the kids’ stuff, or it will take over your life!
We usually go through our kids toys and clothes about once every three months. You need to be really truthful with yourself and ask, “Do my children enjoy this, or do I just want them to keep it?” There is nothing wrong with keeping something thinking they will one day appreciate it, but if you notice that YOUR keep pile is bigger than THEIR keep pile, you have to winnow it down.
One way we really cut the clutter is keeping on top of Happy Meal toys. Those things breed like rabbits in the toybox. 😉
Tabatha says
Funny how today’s assignment was the master bedroom! I started my bedroom today without even reading this assignment! LOL Its almost done as I go though my bedroom pretty often.
Carie says
I am glad for the motivation to clear out clutter. Even though I too am a minimalist AND we just moved from Minnesota to Alaska 6 mos. ago we STILL have bits of clutter that creep in. I am amazed at what crept into the moving trailer! We are outing it now though. Thanks.
Ann B says
I’m dreading this one. We have a huge walk in closet and even though I got rid of 3 large (yard bag size) bags of clothes a few month ago, I have my work cut out for me.
I dedicated one whole bar for clothes that I may get rid of in the fall. I have hung them backward on the bar, so that if I actually wear them, I will know it. If they are still backward this fall, away they will go.
We also have an office off of our bedroom that has turned into more of a storage area. I will definately need my husbands help on this one. I wonder if I can get him to get rid of his baseball cards?
Ashley T says
I have been trying to declutter my house as I call it 🙂 I have not done it in 5 years of being married so I figured we know what we do and do not use by now 🙂 However I am moving slow because of my pregnancy, so I have to wait for my hubby to help on the weekends. But I was wondering if you had some tips for organizing a freezer. I have a small deep freeze and a freezer with my fridge. I plan to do some freezer baking and have started a little. But I was wondering if you could give me tips on what is best to keep handy in the kitchen freezer and what things are best in the deep freeze.
Thank you so much for your blog I have learned so much over the past month since a friend told me about it!
Stephanie says
I have been dreading you posting this part of the assignment! I have been looking at our master bedroom for quite sometime thinking that I need to clean, clear, purge, and whatnot! Unlike most others, we stockpile food in our room because our cupboards are too small for a family of 6. We store food in a large shelving unit in the corner and canned goods in banana boxes under our bed! I’m not even going to mention the closet! All tho I won’t be able to get it done anytime soon, IT WILL GET DONE!! (hopefully this year 🙂 )
Sara says
I finally convinced my husband to let me get rid of his clothes that he can no longer wear. I told him, “Money Saving Mom said so!”
Cyrisse says
@Sara,
That’s funny but it worked! =)
Jessica @ Boy Terrain says
Love the idea of a top drawer instead of a full desk – great tip for eliminating clutter! 🙂
Lydia says
Your messy looks like my clean 🙂
Andrea says
@Lydia, that’s exactly what I was thinking! Glad I’m not alone 🙂
jennifer says
yeah, i was thinking that, too. crystal, where do you keep your stapler, stamps, address labels, envelopes, etc.? if it would be simpler, you can just video your entire house layout and organizational system and post it for all of us to peruse! 🙂
thanks for the motivation and inspiration!
Missie says
I cleaned out about three bags of stuff from my bedroom in the last month. We have a huge closet, and that’s where I store my stockpile of toiletries. Got rid of quite a few things I wasn’t using and didn’t love.
One way I recommend organizing your closet is by item and color. All of my short sleeve shirts are hanging together, and grouped by color. Same with long sleeved shirts, dresses, skirts, dress shirts, jeans, etc. It looks much more streamlined, and makes things much easier to find. If you are looking for a certain black short sleeved shell to go under this jacket, it takes about 10 seconds to find it. This has also been helpful in that it truly shows me what I have. I realized that I favor ALOT of black and red. Now I know exactly what I have, so that even though that black shirt is a good deal? I don’t need it. I am trying to branch out into other colors so my children don’t think I am perpetually in mourning! 🙂
Kristine says
I do the same thing, only just by color. My closet looks so much cleaner just by doing this! And you are right that it helps you know how much you have, and where your clothes are. I wish my hubby would do his side the same way 🙂 We split the rod in the middle (I moved the support beam just a smidge closer to his side – hehehe.
I think I might splurge and get all one color of hangers to make everything that much neater!
Cyrisse says
I absolutely admire you and your commitment to a clutter free world =) Because of you I have such an urge to join in and I might because things are certainly getting out of hand in our house. Tackling the bedroom is going to be my Everest =)
Just curious – how do you get your clothes to sell? Whenever I check articles about how to organize a successful garage/yard sale they say that grown up clothes are poor sellers. That there are ways to organize the items by color, size etc. but they usually still don’t sell very well. Just wondering.
Melissa says
@Cyrisse,
I have found that out of season adult clothes rarely sell and I either donate them or set them aside for the correct seasona nd head to a consignment store. Ours will outright purchase them from you and donate what does not sell.
For in season adult clothes, I place them out just in case. Sometimes I will sell a few items. We hang them on a pipe held up between 2 ladders. Because all of our items that don’t sell get donated to goodwill IMMEDIATELY after the sale, the clothing gets donated then. We also invite friends who may be interested in the clothing to pick out what they would like ahead of the sale and free of charge. So… the adult clothes get given away, sold and donated 🙂
Cyrisse says
@Melissa,
Thank you so much!
Reesa says
Well I am ahead of everyone here!!! I cleaned out everything but the bed frame! Hahaha – we are adding a shower into our Master bedroom so we had to move everything out. All our clutter from the bedroom went into the living room clutter challenge. Our poor daughter got stuck with all our clothes in her closet. We did clear out several items but those have already been tallied.
This is such a fun challenge! Thanks!
Laura @ Frugal Follies says
Great job there on the bedroom cleaning! You might want to make a slight change there on the bedroom assignment… most people don’t store food in their bedroom, as far as I know. 🙂
The bedroom is the worst room in the house, for me. Since we don’t have a basement or a storage room, and it’s too humid to store things other than tools in the garage, the default place to store them is the master bedroom. And it shows! This will be a huge assignment, but I’m determined to get rid of the clutter!
Crystal says
Oops! Thanks for catching my mistake!
jennifer says
au contraire! i have teenagers . . . some people DO store food (and leftover bowls, etc.) in their rooms. actually, it’s usually a package of something like gummy worms or boston baked beans. ick!
Jean says
@jennifer,
I have to admit that we live in a small place and I store all my free cereal, kashi bars and fishie crackers in my closet. Under the babys crib is the tomatoes that we buy by the case.
Kim says
I totally store TONS of food in my bedroom…under the bed is a great place to store long-term food (cases of canned food, etc.) It does need to be gone through, though
Jennifer K says
We worked on our Not so Master Bedroom on Sunday this week, and reorganized some furniture it was teh biggest task of all thus far
But needed to be done
Jenn K
Great job on your declutter job
Karen says
Crystal,
Thanks so much for this series. I started clearing out in January, with the help of a minimalist friend. I can’t tell you how much we have cleared out of a 2-room (not 2 bedroom) apartment! So, I’m not completing your tasks with this series, but mainly because I’ve done most of it. I wish I had a yard to sell stuff, but instead it’s all been going to Goodwill. That’s okay. Keep up all the great helpful tips and series!
Michelle says
Between my DH being a clothes hound and me having a bunch of clothes from before I had kids that don’t exactly fit right now our master closet is a nightmare.
Everytime I clean under our bed I find a bunch of toys too?? I’m pretty sure my middle child hides them there when he doesn’t want his brother or sister to take them, got to love middle children 🙂
Patty says
Sounds like a great plan! Anything to avoid school work, lol!
BTW, for unopened personal items – shampoo samples, all those lovely freebies we have around but may not ever use – your local women’s shelter is always in need!