What I Decluttered This Month: The Main Floor Closet

Last updated on August 3rd, 2019 at 03:47 pm

If you read my 90/52 update from last month you know that I have quit trying to declutter for a certain amount of time each week–for various reasons discussed in that post the timer style of decluttering was not my thing. But at least I tried it and now know that style of decluttering doesn’t work for me.

Instead from now on I am going to pick one area each month in my home that has gotten re-cluttered since I did 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home and give it a good go through, then I will share what I did with you. This month I chose to declutter our main floor closet. 

What I Decluttered This Month: The Main Floor Closet

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What The Closet Looked Like Before I Decluttered It

 

This is the only closet on the main floor of our home. It holds a little bit of everything including craft supplies, water, pop, spare light bulbs, and old photos that I still need to organize.

It was also holding items people in our family had stuffed in there that we didn’t need to keep–not anymore though.

What I Threw Out This Month

It took me about an hour and a half to go through pretty much the entire closet. I didn’t go into the boxes on the two top shelves because I knew they were full of old photos and mementos and I will deal with those another day. For now, they are out of our way.

In that hour and a half I filled an entire contractor-sized trash bag full of stuff that was either broken, ripped, or expired. If you are decluttering larger spaces, I highly recommend using contractor grade trash bags for the items you want to throw away. They don’t rip when you put oddly shaped items in them and they hold a lot more than kitchen trash bags do.

What I Donated This Month

A while back I received and wrote a review for a Luncia 18 L sided cooler so we no longer need the one that my husband got from work. I also got rid of a few other items in the closet and placed them all in this box from my last order from Amazon (I love having an Amazon Prime account— a steady supply of boxes is just one perk 🙂 ). The box was roughly half full of clothes before I put the stuff from the closet on top of it.

So far this year, I have filled and dropped off eight boxes to the thrift store. My Ford Escape fits about eight boxes, so that means I have a full carload of less stuff in my home. Hopefully by the end of the year I can make it several carloads gone.

What I Emptied

By the time I was finished reorganizing things, I had an entire sizeable empty plastic tote.

Earlier this year when I spent some time decluttering our attic I found that we had close to a dozen of these totes sitting empty. A few years ago, we were routinely buying more plastic totes to store stuff; now it warms my heart to report that we were able to donate all those empty totes to a tornado victim. She needed them to pack up the belongings in her house that were left after the tornado took most of it away. And I was able to say, don’t worry about getting them back, we don’t need them.  

I love it when I can fill a need with something we no longer need. I think we should give even when it does cost us something, but seeing things I once needed or loved passed along to someone who needs it or will love it like I once did makes my day.

What I Sold This Month

July was a slow month for reselling for two reasons. First off, it was beautiful weather so I spent more time enjoying it and less time listing items. Second, I think eBay buyers are doing the same thing, or perhaps they are out buying items at the yard sales the beautiful weather creates instead of spending money on eBay.

However, I still did sell three items and pocketed $69.36 after fees and postage, bringing my total for reselling items to $705.05 for the year. As I stated in my Resell It Challenge, my goal is to see if I can reach $1,000 this year and it looks like I am well on track to achieving that goal.

What The Closet Looked Like After I Decluttered It

 

It is so lovely to be able to easily walk into the closet again and grab things off the shelf. To make that happen, I removed the bottom wire shelf so that our dog food container and recycling bin could fit under what is now the new bottom shelf. Beforehand, that area was just a wasted space that was collecting junk.

Right now our pop supply is a little on the high side due to summer sales. In fall it will dwindle to just a 24 pack, which will mean even more floor space.

What did you declutter this month? 

 Join us in the Snail Pace Decluttering Facebook group and be supported in your decluttering journey.

3 More Posts To Help You With Your Decluttering

• A Super Simple Yet Highly Effective Way To Eliminate Clutter
• How To Start Decluttering When You Feel Overwhelmed
• 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Free printable plan

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Stop Feeling Like You Are Drowning In Clutter And To-Do Lists

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