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After bragging on my big boys for keeping their dresser mostly cleaned off I walked in on Sunday afternoon to find it piled with all sorts of junk. Um, yeah. One “mom look” and a suggestion of why it’s nice to keep it cleaned off and it was done. We’ll see what it looks like in a few days. 

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 40: Kid or Guest Bedroom Drawers

Since the beginning of the year when I planned out this whole list of decluttering tasks I knew that this week I would take on the drawers for the little boys. Why? Because their sock drawer was ridiculous. Last spring we kept pulling out infant socks. As in itty bitty newborn socks. Um, they were two and a half. But being the true procrastinator I am I put off the task until this week. Obviously. 

I knew doing the sock drawer alone was not enough and this task actually landed at the perfect time of year. We have reached the end of summer so I needed to take out all the shorts and add in long sleeved tees and sweatshirts. These drawers are kind of pathetic! Can you tell I hadn’t put away laundry this week? What are my poor little boys wearing?

Oh yeah, they are living out of this laundry basket. Oops. 

I spent a morning sorting clothes into three piles – donate, drawers, and store away. I went through each drawer first to clean them out (and most of the items remaining are summer clothes) and get ready to be filled. Then I went through the laundry basket. I should have taken a picture of my piles but that didn’t occur to me until after I put the clothes in the drawers. Whoops!

In addition to the summer clothes that I put away in storage I also pulled out all the 24 month and several 2T items to box up for some friends. I grabbed this small box thinking it would have plenty of space… um… nope! But I know it will be a huge blessing to an incredibly sweet family. 

And finally, the drawers are all put together nicely. This will only last for a short period because there are two nearly three year olds digging for their favorite shirts and pants. But look at how sparse that sock drawer is now! Every sock matches and there are enough for about two weeks for two kids which is *in theory* enough as long as we do one load of laundry each day. 

I’m so glad I have this picture to look at and know that for a few brief moments the drawers looked nice. 

What did you find to donate or declutter from your kid’s or guest’s dresser drawers today? 

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 41 to declutter the closet racks in the kids’ room or guest room. Anything hanging up is fair game! Only one of our kids uses closet racks but since she keeps coming upstairs in tank tops when it’s only 45* outside it’s the perfect time to tackle this project.