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?
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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
Many individuals that struggle with clutter also struggle with time management, which is why I recommend Crystal Paine’s productivity courses. As a mom of three who runs a thriving blog, she knows her stuff when it comes to productivity and making the best use of your time. She offers several highly effective courses that can help you gain control of your day instead of it controlling you, including:
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- Make Over Your Evenings
- Four Weeks To A More Productive Life
- Make Over Your Year
These courses are inexpensive, practical, and can make a HUGE impact on how much you can get done in a day when you apply what you learn. When I took them, I gained an hour and a half each day!
No money to spend? Crystal offers a FREE 5 day Make Over Your Morning Challenge that is full of what you need to get started in living your days with less chaos.
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