9 Steps to DeCluttering

I joined a De-Clutter Your Mess Challenge this past January and I must say it was challenging! I love to save everything and I mean EVERYTHING for “some day I may need this’ mentality. Well the one thing I learned in this challenge was there are seven days in a week and THERE IS NO ‘SOME DAY’ IN THE WEEK! So today I’m sharing my 9 Steps to DeCluttering and how I went about de-cluttering the rooms I’ve done so far.

STEP 1

Make sure you have water because you may get thirsty while feverishly working on de-cluttering. Once I start a room I like to keep going until it’s complete. But what I learned in the challenge was they suggested to set a timer for a certain time frame and take a break for a bit. I can’t do that because when I’m on a roll I can’t stop! But have water and maybe a few finger snacks like grapes, veggie sticks or your favorite crackers for munching.

STEP 2

Start out with three boxes, one for donating, one for trash and one for saving. After I put the things in the boxes I went back to the saving box and check to see what I had put in it and whether I was sure I needed the items.

STEP 3

If you can’t drop off the donation box right away, put in the garage so it’s out of the room you are working on. We have a donation box at our recycling center so it worked out perfect for making our many trips to drop of our trash along with the donations.

STEP 4

If you have a shredder, shred any papers that need shredding. We moved to SC in 1994 and we still had a closet full of old tax returns from the 80’s and 90’s! You can sometimes find a shredder truck that stops in the community and they shred one box free.

STEP 5

Re-organize the things you are saving and after dusting everything off put them in their place. I got good at this by the time I was on my third de-clutter room! I was excited to see the clutter gone and have neat and orderly rooms.

STEP 6

Your room is now de-cluttered! Step back and look at all you accomplished and how proud you are after de-cluttering an entire room. Even if you just did a small bathroom or closet it’s a great feeling to see the clutter disappear.

STEP 7

While you are de-cluttering, you may have found items that you could re-purpose into another room. That is totally the way to go if the items are useable and in good condition. It also saves you money on buying new things! I’m very frugal (okay you might say I’m cheap) when it comes to buying things if I have something that I can re-purpose.

While cleaning out my computer room/office to make Lia’s Princes Playroom I had three cherry finished two-drawer filing cabinets with a hutch sitting on them in my office. I still needed the cabinets but not where they were so I decided to put them in our big closet upstairs. Well once we got them up there I looked at our 20 year old round tables that were used as night stands so we decided to use the filing cabinets as night stands! As for the old night stand tables, we’re taking the smaller one and cutting the legs down to make a table for Lia’s playhouse!

STEP 8

I find if you limit your de-cluttering to one room a day ( or may even take a few days) it’s better to not start another project until the following day or two. Give yourself time to relax and regroup as to which room will be next. But once you finish your first room, the others will come a lot easier! I found myself tossing things I would never have thought of because of “some day” I may need them.

STEP 9

Now that your room is organized it will be easier to keep it that way. If it’s a main room like kitchen or living room, at the end of the day make sure everything is picked up and counters are cleared off. Once you start accumulating things they have a habit of growing and before you know it your de-cluttered room will be cluttered again. It’s almost like being on a diet, you have to watch what your put where! LOL

I started in our upstairs room that was our grandkids playroom and hadn’t been used for the past 15 years except for a “catch all” room of things that didn’t have a place or “I’ll figure where this goes later” room. http://themarthareview.com/de-clutter-one-room-at-a-time/ Once completed I was on my way to moving to another room and then another one!

Of all the rooms I’ve completed so far, Lia’s Princess Playroom was by far the most fun! A few weeks after it was completed I found the perfect pink and blue kitchen for her house! http://themarthareview.com/lias-new-kitchen/ Then last week Rich and I were looking for a case for my phone but came home with a hanging Unicorn light for over Lia’s kitchen area. Lia wasn’t home but was so surprised and excited when she came home and saw it.

Our kitchen was a major undertaking, we started out planning to get new granite countertops but ended up getting new cabinets also. We had a corner that had blind cabinets so lost a lot of storage space. We had them install an angled cabinet so there is no wasted space now. Lia even has her own baking cabinet now! http://themarthareview.com/our-kitchen-is-de-cluttered/

The downstairs half bath was interesting once I got to the cabinet under the sink. I made a two shelf unit to get rid of the dark hole in the back that you never see once things are in there. My shelf unit was made from things I had saved from other projects so again I didn’t have to purchase anything!

Then a few weeks ago I received some brushed nickel door pulls for review and they just happened to be the same color as the new ones in the kitchen. The bathroom is off the kitchen so we exchanged the old round brass finished pulls with the new ones! Sometimes it’s the little things that make a big difference when doing a makeover project! http://themarthareview.com/de-cluttering-the-downstairs-half-bath/

The next project will be the master bedroom and master bedroom closet….that will be a MAJOR undertaking and will take more than a few days. The closet is so full of clothes that neither hubby or I have worn since we moved here 21 years ago! But I’m looking forward to tackling this challenge too!