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Last year I challenged you each week to purge/declutter a specific item from your home. There was a great response, so we will be continuing with these declutter challenges. However for the new readers I want to share with you some of the tasks we have already completed. If you completed these tasks it’s a great idea to go back over some of them to make sure you are still under control.
Task 1 – Turn coathangers
Task 2 – Soft toys
Task 3 – Organise Coffee Table
Task 4 – Remove 3 bed linens
Task 5 – Remove 5 items from under laundry sink
Task 6 – Little laundry cupboard
Task 7 – The ironing pile
Task 8 – Broom cupboard
Task 9 – Kids colouring books
Task 10 – The freezer
Task 11 – The kids wardrobe
Task 12 – Board games
Task 13 – Nail polish
Task 14 – Birthday candles
Task 15 – Contents of handbag
Task 16 – Expired beauty products
Task 17 – The Bathroom cupboard
Task 18 – Birthday Cards
Task 19 – Unused exercise equipment
Task 20 – Around your kitchen sink
Task 21 – Songs you don’t like on your ipod
Task 22 – Shoes you can’t walk in + {Review} Benjibox
Task 23 – My suitcase, only the necessities
Task 24 – Odd socks
Task 25 – Handbag collection
Task 26 – Wardrobe Cabinets
Task 27 – One Shelf
Task 28 – Junk Mail
Task 29 – Old Video Tapes
Task 30 – Broken Electrical Equipment
Task 31 – Play Jewellery
34 comments
Since reading your declutter ideas I have filled 5 garbage bags to take to our local St Vinnies shop – I am definitely not a hoarder by any stretch of the imagination but it is amazing how much stuff is still in the cupboards or on the shelves that I don’t really need or ever use!
Thanks, can’t wait for more posts
Wow that is an amazing achievement, good on you. Yes, keep checking back, I am hoping to post weekly decluttering tasks for you all 🙂
LOL, well it helps to keep it clean then 😛
Yay! These are my favourite posts, looking forward to the next job! It’s so inspirational and I always feel better afterwards, thank you.
One thing I really need to declutter is my second kitchen drawer! Too many unused utensils…must get onto that.
I do have a post about the 2nd drawer in the kitchen, just shows how i organise it and what I keep in there. Have a look under organise – kitchen 🙂
I’ve recently returned to work and find I need to do a massive declutter, to help stay on top, will be starting on your ideas on Friday and hope over the next few weeks, it’ll help the family run smoothly. (Just can’t let hubby see me take things to the Salvo’s, he’s a hoarder!!!!)
Lizz I should do a post on this, my hubby struggles to let go of things too and I often get the eye. But I think between us we have balance.
I love reading your blog and I am definitely on a mission to declutter, I may be a little behind everyone else as I am a full time carer and have a chronic pain disorder. I am not going to let these things stop me though. I have already given a very large box of my childrens’ old clothes to a neighbour and have bought myself a small wheelie bin that is easy for wheeling from room to room. I look forward to having a lot less clutter in my life as it will make things so much easier.
I’m jumping on board, and have completed the first 2 tasks, yay!!! Donating a huge box of my soft toys was actually alot easier than I expected, I thought I’d have a much harder time parting with the emotional attachments to my childhood teddies! Go me!! 🙂
Hi, I have done a declutter of my old soft toys recently too. I took photos of them first and I did find it a bit hard to let go but not too bad.
That’s a great idea Kelly 🙂
To make you feel even better know that these toys will be used and love by another child. Great work!!
I’m on board! Love the idea. I’m in the middle of 1 massive declutter at the moment so I’m hoping some more specific tasks will help me finish 🙂 Thank you!
Awesome, glad to have you on board!
I must say, you are such a great inspiration. I’ll definitely be with you in the challenge. The only thing is I tend to loose hope when i loose control. Its been so many time that I have started ‘the mission’ but with the kids it seems difficult and then i give up 🙁 Hope not to give up this time as I’ll try to follow you regularly
Don’t give up Hira, it will be one task a week which shouldn’t be too overwhelming. Today’s post is about how to declutter you may find some ideas in the post that will help you stay on path.
https://theorganisedhousewife.com.au/declutter-52-things-challenge/recap-how-to-declutter/
I’m on board.
We moved five times in three years and each time I ened up with boxes of ‘stuff’ that didn’t have a home. We are in this house three years now and still these boxes lurk in the back of a cupboard or the shed, etc. Each time I tackle them I manage to whittle them down a little but there are always bits and pieces that don’t have a home but I feel the need to keep – this is my biggest challenge. But I also want to work through your lit of tasks – mountains always seem more manageable when broken down into little steps – thank you so much for the inspiration.
if you haven’t touched the items in your boxes since you moved in more than likely you don’t need the contents. Look forward to you joining in with us!
I’m in. 9 months ago I moved from a big house to a small house then added another child. I have 4 children now. Everything always seams to get stuffed into the main room. I’m fed up with it
I am in too!! I have just made the decision to take some much needed time off from study to focus on my family and my home. This comes at a great time for me.
I’m definately in. I think I am doing well but there is still a bag or a box or something hiding in a corner or cupboard waiting to be sorted.
I have got bags of stuff to go but got problem with a husband who does not like to let go of stuff even if he does not ever look at it!!
I have the same problem!! But hubby is an apprentice and goes away one week a month to school – so I now have a sort later pile 🙂 and on bin night when he puts kids to bed, (he enjoys the one on one time) I do a quick trip outside and throw them out 🙂
I have been on & off the de-clutter bandwagon for years, just too much of a perfectionist!! But I have just spent 30 mins decluttering the kids dress up box. Threw out broken/ripped garments & have a bag of others to give away as my kids wont fit into them anymore.
My problem is always the toy room, plus there is no “system” to encourage the kids to keep it tidy..even I don’t want to go in there! Going to try your tasks & not burn myself out either!!
Hey there JD5. Have you ever heard of this person — Procrastinating Perfectionist? It’s me. Sad but true. I am so organized but like you it has to be perfect so I over think it and put it off. Drives hubby nuts! I am changing and you can too.
When our kids were little we had a great system. Each child had a large toy box and a book shelf. We would have an old pillow case with each child’s name on it. Toys that were left out over night were picked up (by the adults) the following day after the kiddies went to school (they had another opportunity to remember). Toy(s) were placed in the corresponding named pillow case and put in our bedroom closet for 5 days. It’s amazing how they remembered to pick up after that happened a few times!
We also let family & friends know that the kids don’t need toys right at the start when they were babies. A special item is okay but a toy for the sake of giving? No. Our kids love books. They read them and take of them. One son became a writer (making good money!) and another is an English teacher. Our daughter became a chef/caterer and has written several books. The library is still our favorite place!
Suzanne from Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
books are a wonderful gift to give and your so very right, to give a toy just for the sake of giving can lead to more clutter. I have now resorted to giving money to friends kids, so the child can save for something a little more expensive, or get something they really want.
Today is the day I start de cuttering our home. With little miss here, i don’t want her picking up things that she doesn’t need to. For me this will be a long process, but a worth while one. Am aiming to do one room per week, and this week I start mine and the hubby’s bedroom. Wish me luck!
Good luck, great idea that you start in your room as this needs to be a room that you both feel comfortable and relaxed in. Keep me up to date with your process J
Hi, I am a new reader, and today I decluttered my bedroom, I have decluttered it before but when I read your information on decluttering I found I could take it one step further, to the point I now have coathangers one side of wardrobe to follow your coathanger system, and i have pulled things out of cuboards I have empty draws now, you give a good system of asking questions and I like you take a photo to scrapbook, I am not a scrapbooker but I will be now, I have also told my 11 year old about this system and how to work out what to keep etc, and she is off doing her bedroom (yay is was a mess),, Thank you so much for doing this website, I have to do the soft toy thing, hmm thinks I will skip that one not quite ready everything else i can do easily soft toys bit of a mission
Welcome to the website!! Add the soft toys to your to-do list for a later day J
I talked to my daughter and we sat down and did it together, we have gone from two huge over flowing tubes to the same two tubs but can put lids on them, we will revise it again in 6 months time, I would like to get to having just one tub, I am so proud of me and my daughter, we are making great changes in this house, I have good routine for daily life and cleaning and I declutter every 6 months, but you have made me look at things in a new light, we have cleared out so much, I was amazed at what we have found that I didn’t realise that it was clutter, and I have thrown out things that I thought I never would, you have changed my way of thinking for the better, so I thank you so much for you website, I highly recommend it,
Thank you, I am so pleased your doing this together J
Hi,
Your website is brill.:)
Thank you for all the tips.
Best wishes from the UK.