52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week 45 Update

So I decided this week that I am just going to let the rolling under the bed containers stay cluttered and move onto the attic. With just seven weeks left in 2015, I want to make sure I leave enough time to start and finish decluttering the attic.

You see the attic is the room that while I was lost in the dark waves of the emotions of mourning  I shoved the majority of the stuff I didn’t feel up to sorting.  A pile of winter clothes—to the attic. A collection of books—to the attic. A bunch of toys—to the attic.

Which is why week one my attic looks like this!

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Yes, that is my attic, and sadly that is just one wing of three and all three wings look this bad. Out of all the pictures I have had to show of my clutter this year as I have worked through this challenge, this is the hardest one to let you all see.

Especially since the first year I started this blog I decluttered our attic, and then again the second year–but sadly after that, I didn’t touch it again, and I sent way too much up the stairs to it—stuff that should have gone straight to the thrift store instead.

I am approaching the attic a bit differently than I have other areas. I decided instead of breaking down the attic into sections to attack each week I would break it down into podcasts.

In case you are wondering what that means it means each week I will listen to a podcast of 30 minutes or more while I declutter and I will not stop decluttering until the podcast ends.

If you don’t know what a podcast is -they are a lot like talk radio shows, but you listen to them over I-Tunes. They are available on all sorts of different topics so it isn’t hard to find one you might like.

Podcasts make cleaning so much more enjoyable which makes the whole process go faster.

Another thing I did was I knew that Thanksgiving isn’t far away and I wanted to get a little ahead in case the busyness of the holiday takes me away from my goal. So yesterday I did three podcasts worth of work in one go. It was a long grueling afternoon-but the results were worth it.

What I plan to do for the next few weeks is show you what the attic looked like at the end of each podcast as well as what I threw away.

I was pleased to get this far in just over 30 minutes. I now have a place to stand and sort. I am hoping later to reduce the size of the piles by at least half.

I filled up two boxes to overflowing with things to go to the thrift store, and I also am taking a very old TV/ VCR combo to the thrift store as well.

I filled up half a trash bag with trash and that blue bin in the picture above this one (with the #16 on it) that is recycling.

All in all, I was thrilled with the progress I made during the first podcast, and I am looking forward to showing you what I got done during the second podcast I listened to–so come back next week.

What area of your home did you declutter this week?

Don’t forget to join the Snail Pace Clutter Removers  Facebook group, where you can share your progress, and receive encouragement.

A few great posts to help you with your clutter roadblocks…

• How To Start Decluttering When You Feel Overwhelmed By It
• How To Declutter When You Just Don’t Feel Like It
• 4 Essential Items For Efficient Decluttering

View the plan and grab your free 52-week planning sheet here

Update: I finished this challenge – below are the links to all my weekly updates showing my progress.

1. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week One
2. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Two
3. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Three
4. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Four
5. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Five
6. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Six
7. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Seven
8. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Eight
9. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Nine
10. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Ten
11. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Eleven
12. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Twelve
13. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Thirteen
14. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Fourteen
15. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Fifteen
16. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Sixteen
17. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Seventeen
18. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Eighteen
19. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Nineteen
20. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Twenty
21. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Twenty-One
22. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Twenty-Two
23. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Twenty-Three
24. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Twenty-Four
25. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Twenty-Five
26. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Twenty-Six
27. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Twenty-Seven
28. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Twenty-Eight
29. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Twenty-Nine
30. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Thirty
31. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Thirty-One
32. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Thirty-Two
33. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Thirty-Three
34. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Thirty-Four
35. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Thirty-Five
36. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Thirty-Six
37. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Thirty-Seven
38. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Thirty-Eight
39. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Thirty-Nine
40. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Forty
41. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Forty-One
42. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Forty-Two
43. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Forty-Three
44. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Forty-Four
45. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Forty-Five (you are here)
46. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Forty-Six
47. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Forty-Seven
48. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Forty-Eight
49. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Forty-Nine
50. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Fifty
51. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Fifty-One
52. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Fifty-Two

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