Lessons + Tips from The Great Declutter [Week 1]

My toss-together declutter challenge is going well. We’re only 5 days in but I’m more inspired to keep at it. I didn’t think there’d be much response as it was last-minute but I ended up posting several reminders, closing the group when we had 2 dozen members, and then another dozen or so messaged me to ask about joining. Needless to say, I will most likely host another one. The last one I did was quite a bit ago and more of Low-High Goals one. For this one, I knew I wanted it to be more flexible as everyone’s situations, styles, and schedules are different.

I’d love to do a recap on this week (and the coming weeks) but I’m still trying to recover from the holiday activities and prepping for the second semester of school so my brain is maxed out. For now, I leave you with 2 lessons I have learned and some photos from this week.

Lessons from Week 1

  1. If it’s still in your house, it’s still your clutter. (We’ve had boxes to donate and bring out of our house for a while but never got around to it. I still had to move them off of things when guests came over, so in order for it to be officially decluttered, it needs to leave.
  2. We need each other. Some members of our group of about 2 dozen amazing women are way better at this decluttering thing than I am, but without them and this group, I don’t think I would be motivated to kick clutter to the curb. There are so many other urgent things that need to be done. But I know I feel less burdened when I have less stuff/clutter.

Photos from Week 1

The “counting items” and checklist have been done so I was thinking of how to make it a bit different. We came up with Declutter BINGO at our house. :p I’m doing a mash-up of the BINGO + Declutter Like a Mother challenge by Allie Casazza which is 30 minutes a day for 30 days in specific areas. This week, we worked in the bathrooms and closets. I’ll share more later (I’m super impressed by the progress members have made!!) but everyone in the group has designed their own challenge which is fun.

Questions to Ponder

  • What are you learning about yourself and/or your stuff as you declutter (or not declutter)?
  • Do you need to tweak any part of your plan?
  • Have you found any tips or tricks that others may find helpful?