Is your New Years resolution to be more organized?
Do you feel like you have so much going on in your life that you can’t keep up? Less clutter, less stress. More organization, more relaxation.
De-clutter your life in 21 days! In a world of material extremes – you have compulsive consumerism on one hand and the still-trending minimalism movement on the other – this guide will meet you somewhere in the middle.
HOUSEHOLD
Day One: Turn all of the hangers in your closet backwards so that the opening is facing you. At the end of the season, you will be able to see which items you did not wear. Donate them!
Day Two: Get rid of any unused water bottles/thermoses. Do you need 15? While you’re in the kitchen, get rid of any cookbooks you don’t use. If you like a couple of recipes from each, photocopy them and put them in a folder.
Day Three: Go through your tupperware!
Day Four: How many blankets do you have? Do you need that many? Put the ones you don’t need in your car and give it to the next homeless person you see. While you’re at it, put some bars and water bottles in a baggie as well.
Day Five: Go through your medicine cabinet. Throw out expired items. If your products are in a closet or a box, organize them by type and put everything into gallon size Ziploc bags. I have included a link at the bottom that specifies how to properly throw out prescriptions.
Day Six: Give away any accessories that you haven’t used in the past year (shoes, jewelry, belts, hat, purses). Trust, me it will feel great! If you haven’t used it recently, you probably won’t remember it.
Day Seven: Get rid of all old beauty products – make-up, hair products, stuff in your shower. I’ve included an article at the bottom that gives a great guideline for how long these things should be kept.
Day Eight: Go through your pantry. What’s expired? What will you never eat? Donate! Get a large lazy susan for your canned goods so they don’t get lost on the back of the shelves.
Day Nine: Look at the surfaces in your home. When our environment looks cluttered, it makes us feels stressed and out of control. Can you find homes for things? Can you get rid of useless trinkets? Make it easy for you to be able to do a 5 minute power pick up at the end of each night to put things in their place. The less that is “out”, the less maintaining you have and the more you can relax.
Day Ten: Give away books that you haven’t touched in two years. Write a message on the inside and gift it to someone you know.
Day Eleven: Do you consistently have anything laying around… bills, keys, books, pacifiers, chapstick? Create homes for them. Put a small basket by the front door for keys, sunglasses, chapstick. Put a small basket on the coffee table for small items. Get a couple of glass jars for pacifiers – leave one upstairs and one downstairs. Create a “to-do” shelf or box of things you need to get done – clothing items to return, a book to give the neighbor, a photo frame that needs to be fixed, etc.
Day Twelve: Take a look at your planner. Is there anything you can say “no” to? Be intentional about what you schedule this year. Make sure you have down-time set aside for yourself, for you and your husband, for you and your kids. I used to overbook myself and wondered why I was constantly tired and stressed out. I learned the hard way that in order to listen to God’s promptings in my life, I needed to have some free time in my weeks.
“STUFF”
Day Thirteen: Go through your “memories” box(es) – those old yearbooks we all think we will look at later, baby trinkets, concert stubs from an old boyfriend- create something from the memories you really want, and throw away the rest. What is the use of a memory if it is in a box? Put things in shadow boxes, make a quilt out of your college t-shirts, frame that one page of your yearbook that’s important to you, make a stuffed animal out of that baby outfit you’ve been holding onto.
Day Fourteen: Go through your car. Look in your trunk. Better yet, your center console. Any old gems? No? Just trash?
Day Fifteen: The junk drawer. Or box. Or… closet. Safety pins? Mini mason jar in your medicine cabinet. Menus… do you really need these? Batteries? Find a home for everything.
Day Sixteen: Do you have old greetings cards that you’ve saved? Either make them visible… put them in a scrapbook or put a binder ring through for display… or trash!
Day Seventeen: Go through your wallet. Do you have any unused cards you can get rid of? Make a list of any gift cards so that you don’t forget what you have.
ELECTRONIC
Day Eighteen: Unfriend people on Facebook that you no longer talk to. Leave any groups you don’t want to be a part of anymore, and “unfollow” ones that clutter your newsfeed. It will feel refreshing!
Day Nineteen: Unsubscribe from junk emails (make a separate email account for those)
Day Twenty: Delete any unused apps and old text chains
Day Twenty-One: Go through old photos on phone that are useless screen shots or memories that don’t bring you joy. This one is last because it may take you multiple days!
Which day was the most difficult for you? For me, it is always the “memories” box. Writing this has inspired me to go through it again!
Resources →
Day Five – Disposing RX’s
Day Seven – How Long to Keep Products
