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.