The challenge: to declutter a room

Do you ever feel that when you look around your room it is like you are living in chaos?  Do you ever feel overwhelmed with the amount of work that it takes to keep up in your rooms?  When looking for things, does it take hours to search for things because there is so much to sift through in your rooms?  If you have answered, YES to any of these questions then this challenge is definitely for you.

Why make the change:

Simplifying or decluttering a room can sometimes be overwhelming.  The amount of stuff that you have in your life along with all the things that you have to do can seem like an enormous mountain which you are unable to climb.  But guess what?  It is NOT something that you need to tackle in one day.  It is not something that you have to tackle alone.  This is the point to the 52 ways to simplify your life challenge.  I want you, to pick and choose which areas of your life are overwhelming to you and start simplifying them to bring you peace and contentment in your days.  It all starts with one thing at a time.  This challenge is just to declutter one room.

How to make the change:

Now it is usually better to declutter in small steps.  Like say just do one drawer or one closet, but this challenge is for those that want to do an entire room in one sweep.  I want you to pretend that your room is a clock.  Pick the noon time and start there.  Continue moving around your room in a clock pattern until you end up at your starting point.  Now during this clock momentum, I want you to go through the items in that time zone.

Work with one drawer or one shelf at a time. Here is how you declutter:

1. Dump entire contents of drawer or shelf in a small work area.
2. Next decide, immediately what is trash and throw that away.
3. Grab items that do not belong in this area to be put in their proper place
4. Sort through items and decide immediately if they are a keep or a discard.  If you have to give it a moment or two thought then just get rid of it. More than likely you will never need it.
5. Items that have not been used in 6 months, will more than likely not get used.
6. Wipe out drawers and shelves with proper cleaning tools.
7. Place items back in drawers or on shelf.
8. Continue this way until all areas have been cleaned.

When finished, decide which items to give to which people and sort into plastic bags or boxes and place near an area so that they do not get overlooked to deliver to them.  Throw trash away immediately, not giving you a second chance to keep it.

Working this way, you should be done in 1-2 hours.  If the room is really cluttered than maybe 3-5 hours.

When finished, sit back and enjoy a peaceful setting. You will be glad what you did.

 

 

The challenge: to clean a closet

How many of you, open your closet each day and look at its contents and think, “I don’t have anything to wear today?”  That is something most woman see while looking into their closets.  Even though there is a mass of clothing, an unlimited number of shoes and purses, us women can still look at it and think that we need more.  So off they might go and purchase more unnecessary items to help fill their emotional need for MORE.

Why make the change:

The reason for this simple living lifestyle challenge is to help you simplify your life.  Simplify means to get rid of, do without, do with less, and declutter.  We want to be able to open up your closets and see a uniformed layout of choices.  You should have  from 5-7 choices and then that is it.  It shouldn’t take long to sift through all the clothing..  It shouldn’t be something that takes much thought.   Clothing choices shouldn’t overwhelm you.  You want to make life simpler and it starts when you wake up in the morning and choose what to wear for the day.

How to make the change:

Here is the hard part.  Most everyone has emotional ties to everything that they  have.  That is why we live the life full of STUFF.  This stuff is starting to overtake us, overwhelm us and we need to make it STOP.  It begins with one closet.  This routine will take over a few days to do.

To begin, sort ALL your clothing into 3 piles.

1. The ones you want to keep.
2. The ones you want to donate to others.
3. The ones that are maybe.

Remember all clothing that is worn, ripped, or seen its last days, has to go immediately into the TRASH pile.

Then you are going to go through your keep pile.  You are going to check for any repairs that need to be done, make sure that they all fit you, and then start to organize them.

Organizing will be different for everyone, I will use the method that I use. I will begin to sort them into different piles.  Piles for:

• skirts–everyday, and dressy
• t-shirts to wear under tops
• long t-shirts to wear under tops
• short sleeved tops
• long sleeved tops
• summer sleeveless tops
• dresses
• sweaters/overcoats

Within my grouping of skirts for example, I will see how many long jean skirts I have.  I really only need 4-5 skirts.  I keep 2 nicer khaki skirts.  Plus a few flowy ones for warmer weather.

For my t-shirts to wear under tops, I keep it simple, I buy all brown.  Yes I have learned over the years to cater my wardrobe a certain color scheme, to keep it simple. I make it easy and keep 4 brown t-shirts to fit under my regular tops for modesty.  It is much easier to just grab a brown undershirt and know it goes with one of my tops.

Since my life consists of children and working at home, I don’t have the need for many dressy outfits.  I keep my clothing neat and clean, somewhat dressed up, but also easy to be able to do hundreds of dishes a day in.

I have a few dressier clothing for special occasions and church.  I keep one sweater for warmth, you only need 1.

My shoes are simple.  I have a brown and a black pair of leather boots.  My tennis shoes for exercising.  A few pairs of sandals for summer.

Next you are going to go through your maybe pile.  After you have gone through your keep pile, you know how many outfits that you own, keep that in mind when deciding what to do with your maybe pile.  Do you really need to be sifting through that outfit that maybe you will wear one day to this or that??  Get rid of the “one day” mentality.  That day may never come.  Stop buying things because they look cute.  Think necessity not availability.

Gather up your donations and take them to a woman and children’s shelter.  Check your local churches for donations.

You might have to do this a few times over the next month.  If you keep staring at it in your closet and you are not wearing it within the month, get rid of it.  With exceptions to special occasion outings.   Enjoy looking at your “lean” closet with order and purpose.