For September’s 12 Months to a Healthier You Challenge, we’re focusing on clearing out clutter. I committed to spend 30 minutes to an hour every week de-cluttering at my house.
You know what? After my decluttering session, I was so encouraged.
Why? Well, recently, I’ve been feeling like the clutter has been creeping in. And as you have probably figured out, I don’t like clutter. Er, more like, I loathe clutter.
So when it feels like clutter is creeping in and multiplying in closets, I can start to feel anxious about it. (I know, I know, I’m sorta weird. But it’s true.)
I figured that this challenge was going to be easy because I’ve not de-cluttered much at all since we moved in May. Well, guess, what? I had trouble finding clutter today! In fact, mostly what I found were things we use on a regular basis or have plans to use very soon.
As I analyzed it more, I think the reason I’ve been feeling like we have more clutter is not so much because we’ve been lowering our standards, but because we down-sized in house when we moved, my husband brought his office home, and our floor plan is laid out so differently here.
This left me feeling so encouraged! And it also made me have new appreciation for those of you who are currently living in really tiny houses or apartments.
Anyway, here’s a picture of what 30 minutes of digging through closets and dressers and drawers produced. A half-filled grocery sack.
I think I might try tackling the garage next week. That should produce quite a bit more clutter than a half-filled grocery sack! 🙂
Did you do any de-cluttering this past week? If so, how’d it go for you?
Marie Hickman says
I decluttered my son’s room. It took about 3 hours: putting DVDs and game CDs back in their cases, all the stray cords in baggies in a drawer – things he will not do well. Gathered old clothes for The Hospice Resale Shop and sold the better things on our local garage sale Facebook site.
Laura says
The challenge was perfect timing as our neighborhood had a garage sale last weekend…I was motivated by the deadline and went for it. I sold about 2/3 of what I had and donated the rest today 🙂 This week I am taking a slightly different approach and decluttering my personal email inbox.
Laura says
I meant I sold about 2/3 of what I had gathered from decluttering several areas of the house–lots of old clothes, toys, household items!
Jessica @ The Mom Creative says
You go girl! We got a new bedroom set and literally moved furniture in every bedroom in our house because of it. We also took a trunkful of items to Goodwill, which was awesome. I am tackling toys with a vengeance and think we can easily fill the trunk again by the weekend. I think it might be my pregnancy nesting mood kicking in and it feels great.
Crystal Paine says
You go, girl!!
Ashley turner says
I de cluttered my sons room 🙂 he enjoys his clean room 😉 thank you for the challenge
Heather says
My family of 4 lives in a much too large 3300 square foot house. We know a family of 7 (good friends of ours) that are down on their luck. They were living in a 5th wheel travel trailer. We invited them to move in with us rent free until they can get back on their feet. I haven’t decluttered since we moved here b/c there was just so much room to stick stuff. Well suddenly we needed to make a LOT of room. In the past 2 weeks we have hauled off MANY Suburban loads to Goodwill and MANY truck loads to the dump. Oh my! The garage is 90% clean. Cleaned out 90% of our storage building. Completely cleared out 2 bedrooms and our media room. It feels SO good to finally get some of this stuff done.
Brenda says
Heather,
Bless you for offering part of your home to your friends. While it sounds like you have a big enough space, it’s a sacrifice that not everyone would be willing to make. As someone who used to be “down on her luck”, I know that sometimes we just need a little help to get going in the right direction again.
Victoria says
That is such an awesome thing you are doing! That family will be forever grateful.
Amanda@CrunchyHippieLife says
How wonderful! So nice to know there are hospitable people helping others. 🙂
Ashley says
I’m really organized and try to own as little as possible, but still our tiny duplex is wall-to-wall stuff. A while ago when you had everyone cleaning their baseboards, it didn’t take me very long because not very much of our baseboards are even accessible.
Jessica says
My son has been sick- he got that respiratory virus that’s going around Ohio and it triggered his asthma, so we were at the pediatrician’s office and pharmacy today. Looking after his breathing has limited me the past few days, especially since he has been up overnight coughing and wheezing. Now my toddler is showing similar symptoms… 🙁
However, while my son was playing in the bathtub with the steam to open his nasal passages, I did clear out one drawer from the bathroom vanity. That’s something, I guess!
Crystal Paine says
I’m so sorry that your son has been sick and struggling with asthma. 🙁 That’s so hard!
Heidi says
Thanks to your challenge (cleaning out 7 things a day) in May a couple of years ago, I have tried to stay on top of the clutter. I’m now challenging myself and readers to get rid of 5 things a day. It’s easier than I thought it would be. Thanks for your encouragement then and now!
Crystal Paine says
Great job! And I love the 5 items a day challenge!
Shelly says
I decluttered my living room thus week it had gotten a little out of hand over the summer. It looks so much better.
Sarah @ The Teacher's Wife says
We’ve been trying to de-clutter lots of stuff….and since the budget is tight, we’ve been trying to sell stuff on ebay, Craigslist, or consigning, but it’s been discouraging b/c that takes so much more work and time. I think I need to weed through stuff better and get rid of the stuff that we probably won’t make much on and only sell the stuff that is more valuable. This stuff has GOT TO GO! We have a baby due in October, so I’m ready to get this stuff gone! 🙂
Michelle says
I get you on the clutter thing. I get anxious when I know there are things to clean out and I don’t have time to get to them! I love organization and it’s a great feeling when it’s finished!! I actually really enjoy the process and love helping family and friends organize too!! We will be moving soon, planning on decluttering here as well 🙂
Lisa says
Planning to tackle the spare room when I’m done with my afternoon coffee and quiet time. The rest of the house typically looks great because it’s super easy to throw everything in the spare room – time to get that room organized and de-cluttered!
Pamela says
Thanks for your empathy! 🙂 We’re a family of 5 living in less than 1000 square feet, and it IS hard to keep things looking tidy even though I’m naturally minimalistic, organized, neat, etc….. I hope to have a bigger house someday; I’d like to know how if feels to have empty closets and cupboards!
Crystal Paine says
I love your attitude! You’re an inspiration!
Amy Lauren says
This is a great idea :). I did some de-cluttering last weekend so I could donate food to a local food drive, I went ahead and just cleaned out my whole pantry and got rid of a bunch of stuff we weren’t going to use or was expired. I think if I spent just maybe 10-15 minutes a day de-cluterring it would make a difference, so I should try it…
Victoria says
I kept my goal of decluttering our master bedroom 5 times this week for the length of a short podcast (I have been listening to Ask Pat) . I would love to say that I don’t have clutter but….we have a lot. Our home is small so most of our rooms do play double duty with the master bedroom acting as both my office and our bedroom and lately it has also housed all the stuff we took out of the homeschooling room that we recently made into a 4th bedroom for our oldest son. In those 5 short sessions (8 to 15 minutes each) I found the tops of my dresser, and our night tables, and found the floor at the end of the bed. My hope is by the end of this week to go through and sort most of the boxes down the wall by my husbands side of the bed. It is embarrassing to admit our room got so bad. I had no idea renovating one room would cause so much mess in another ! Thanks for the challenge I need it.
Nora at Simple, Easy, Frugal says
I love the idea of a 30 minute cleanout. To be honest, I could probably do quite well with 15 minutes!
I’ll be working on this tonight.
Lana says
I cleaned out the cabinet in the kitchen where we have OTC meds. We do not use any of those items anymore since we use essential oils and all of it was out of date so I chucked it. It was a good feeling!
Crystal Paine says
Woohoo! And that’s a great idea to clean out the OTC meds cabinet!
Amanda@CrunchyHippieLife says
We use essential oils too and it was so fun to toss all of our prescriptions and OTC meds – hubby no longer needs all 6 of his inhalers! Love these oils!
Jennifer H says
What essential oils do you use to help his breathing? I’m newish to oils and need help with my asthma this week!
Becky says
Amanda,
What are you doing to help with your husband’s breathing? Which oils, how to use, etc? Thanks in advance for your help.
Amanda@CrunchyHippieLife says
Hi ladies! We use doTerra’s Breathe blend to help with his asthma. I’ve been able to stop an asthma attack for him in its tracks, and he uses it before he goes out running and can now run close to 3 miles with no issues! Feel free to email me for more info at [email protected] if you’re interested in learning more 🙂