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Were you able to find anything to declutter in your bathtub or shower? The removal of a few razors and travel bottles obviously isn’t life changing but not all these areas will be as cluttered as others. That kitchen counter? I’ll forever be in a battle with it. The freezer? Still in pretty good shape.
If you are just joining us, here’s the deal:
I still had this mindset of decluttering being a big ol’ chore up until a few months ago when I read this fantastic post from Nony at A Slob Comes Clean. It was like a huge light went off in my brain! Decluttering is simply the act of getting rid of what doesn’t belong, isn’t needed, or belongs in the trash. It doesn’t mean buying a whole slew of new bins for your things to go in or coming up with some type of system that you hope will change your life – that’s organizing. It’s a whole different ball game. Right now, I’m in the game of decluttering. I just want things GONE.
When there’s less stuff, especially less of what has no purpose in your home anymore, organizing can often happen naturally. You won’t be cramming thirty towels into the closet because you only need ten and they fit nicely. You don’t need to dig through a tub of medicines to find what you need only to keep coming across bottles that are long since expired.
Here’s my challenge: Each week, take on ONE area of your home. I’ve already made the list for you so that part is done. Go to the area, throw away trash, put items that you no longer need but are still in good condition into a donation box, and put other items where they belong. Simple!
You can read more about the challenge on the week one post.
Week 25: Under the Bathroom Sink
I made this one of my very first decluttering projects that I featured on the blog. Moving all the cleaning supplies to the linen closet made a world of difference under this sink and I’m so glad I did it. That being said, here’s the “before & after” picture from over a year ago.
And here’s the before picture I took this time.
It’s not terrible but it’s still cluttered enough that it makes finding what we need difficult. The biggest change from last year to this year is the addition of little boy underwear. We decided to keep the underwear under the sink so it’s easily accessible for the boys plus it makes accidents easier to deal with. Not to mention they are thrown in with all the other cloths to make a big pile of blah under here.
I’m donating these cloth diapers because we have SO MANY that we use as rags. Because we had two sets of prefolds we use the oldest set as rags now while we finish up diapers with the little guys (we are down to only nighttime diapers – woop woop!). But these diapers are different than the others so they don’t sit in the pile the same.
These disposable pull ups and diapers are heading to the little guys room with the small stash we have for road trips.
I plan on selling these two cloth pull ups. I really wanted to love these but I think I got them too small. They worked for Anders but Cade’s chubby legs made the snaps pop open. And then they got awesome at using the potty and we didn’t need them anymore!
And here’s the after! Shockingly better. I should figure out a better storage solution for the plastic grocery bags we use as garbage bags but this isn’t an organizing challenge – it’s a decluttering challenge!
Show me what you decluttered under your bathroom sink!
Share a picture in the comments or on social media with the hashtag #clutterbusterchallenge of what you found to declutter.
Come back next week for week 26 and we will go through our sheets and pillowcases, plus other bedding. I’m always shocked at how many extra we have when I swear we don’t buy them ourselves. I’m excited to clear some space in our linen closet!
If you are looking for a better way of keeping on top of your homemaking tasks now that you are steamrolling through all this decluttering you might be interested in a new course from Humorous Homemaking. Home Management How To: A Guide to Daily Success is open now! I’ve got a post about my experience with this course here but this is a great course for you to take control of all the household tasks in a way that is tailored specifically to your family and life.
