Choose a Decluttering Focus – 7 Day Declutter Challenge

Although I’m naturally wired to keep clutter to a minimum and have a fairly organized home, I still have spots that I never seem to get on top of. I was doing a terrific job of finally tackling some of those areas this spring  when I was (finally) diagnosed with a disease that has been plaguing me (undiagnosed) for years (Eosinophilic Esophagitis). It required that I pretty much drop everything extra in my life in order to cope with the necessary lifestyle changes that  accompany it.

So I had been planning on doing a Declutter Challenge here in June, but am just now getting around to it. Over the many years I’ve blogged I’ve become reluctant to do this kind of thing because whenever I say I’m going to do a series of some kind, life interrupts. But I think I can put this one on auto-pilot and even if I’m unavailable for a day or two, it won’t stop anyone else!

For the next seven days, I’m challenging anyone who wants to participate to declutter at least a part of their home. I have a number of spots in my home I need to tackle and I’m going to report each day what I’ve accomplished. But even if I can’t report that day, I’ve already created a post that will load for each day so YOU can share what you’ve accomplished.

Choose a Decluttering Focus

There are three areas I am focusing on. I want these totally cleaned out and organized before we start up again in the fall. They are:

• the learning room (where we keep our homeschooling stuff)
• the unfinished basement
• the office

The vast majority of clutter I need to deal with is paper. I got a good start on my office files and office closet in May, but want to finish up. I really want to go into this fall with the piles and piles of paper in the basement finally weeded and organized. This has been hanging over my head for literally years. The learning room just needs an end of the school year clean out so I can start to organize our new materials for this fall.

If decluttering your entire home sounds overwhelming, is there just one room you could clean out? Or can you commit to just purging 5-10 items a day? Even baby steps like this can help a lot! In the spring, I cleaned out our kitchen, linen closet, bathrooms, and bedroom closets this way. Every day I went in and found stuff to rid of. I was amazed at how much there was that could go in the trash or get donated to Goodwill. We got rid of lots of things via Craig’s List and a local Facebook group. I love looking at all the space in those areas now and want to have this in other areas of my home as well.

So are you in? What areas do you want to tackle? Tell us in the comments!

Can you find 10 things to clear out of your home today? They don’t even have to be big. Old makeup, expired meds, worn out kitchen items, old cleaning products, stuff you will never use, etc.

Each day I’ll share a bit about my spring purge and (hopefully!) what I’ve purged that day.

So go throw some stuff away and come back and leave a comment so we can celebrate with you.

Just five minutes and ten things.

Go!

See all the days of the 7 Day Declutter Challenge:

• Day 1: Choose a Decluttering Focus
• Day 2: Get Rid of Pre-Internet Junk
• Day 3: Let Go of Sentimental Objects
• Day 4: Setting an Example for Our Children
• Day 5: Things That Make You Feel Guilty
• Day 6: Cleaning Out Old Hobbies
• Day 7: The Last Decluttering Push