Declutter Challenge Week 2 Update

I hate cleaning, but boy do I like decluttering and organizing! What a great feeling getting rid of things that we no longer need and are only taking up space. This week’s tasks were to declutter our living spaces and one “junk” area (junk drawer or cupboard). Find the strategies here if you missed them.
I thought this was going to be an easier week for me because I generally keep our living space tidy. Of course, when the kids are here it’s more work to keep it neat, but when they are at school it usually looks like this:
I think the best way to keep your main living space tidy is to consistently require your kids to pick up their things before going to bed. If I didn’t do that, it would look like a tornado hit it a lot of days.

I took this week to change out some decorations in favor of a more fall look. My decorating is pretty simple; I love the idea of taking more time to decorate, but I rarely actually take the time to do it. Here’s the table by our front entrance decorated for summer:I changed out just a few things to give it a more fall look.

Pretty subtle, right? Ha! Meghan commented that she wants better decorations for Halloween, so next month I may try to put more effort into my decorating. Maybe.

Now, even though I keep my living space tidy most of the time, I do have this one cupboard that needed some serious attention.

This became a dumping ground for anything I wanted out of sight quickly.  My task became bigger than I expected when I realized I really needed to get our DVDs organized. They were all over the place and I needed to create a better system.

After I put everything else in its correct place and threw away what needed to be tossed, I was able to get down to business with the DVDs. I finally got all of them together and could get them all into their matching cases. There were a ton that the kids have outgrown, so those went into the donate pile. The rest were separated into home movies and the kids’ DVDs. The home movies are now stored in one storage case (which doubles as a decorating piece on the shelf above) and the kids’ are all together in a basket under the table. This is a task that needed to be done a long time ago and it feels so good to get it done!With all of the clutter now out of cupboard, I was able to straighten out the photo albums so we can actually get them out without creating an avalanche. The white box is now home to all the extra remote controls and wires we don’t use everyday. 

The second task, cleaning out a “junk drawer”, was supposed to be the smaller task. We don’t necessarily have a junk drawer, but our mud room does have two junk cabinets. This ended up being just as big of a task as decluttering our main living space.

These two cabinets were crazy out of control! Sorry about the not great pictures. We don’t have a ton of natural light in the mudroom and my camera just doesn’t like low light conditions. I had some big piles of “stuff” as I was cleaning these out. I am embarrassed to admit some of the things I found in here. Diapers when it’s been over two years that Luke’s been out of diapers. The tray of a portable high chair whose base has already been donated. Random home decorating things I decided I didn’t want to use so I shoved them in there. Again, any time I wanted something out of sight, into the mudroom cabinet it went. Like it would disappear when I shut the door. Ahhhh isn’t that better?! So much better. Here’s the bottom cabinet up close:And the top cabinet is home to only a flashlight! You know you’ve gotten rid of a good amount of things when you have a whole empty cabinet. 

I’m going to announce next week’s challenge today, but instead of giving you strategies I’m going to break that into a different post. Make sure to check back tomorrow for strategies to help you with declutter challenge this week!

Declutter Challenge Week 3 Big Task: Pantry and Refrigerator

Declutter Challenge Week 3 Small Task: Nightstands (if you don’t have a nightstand, pick a drawer or small area that needs some attention)

See you here tomorrow for the strategies to tackle week 3! Please share how it’s going for you if you’re joining in on the declutter challenge by commenting on the Facebook post or in the comment section here!