At the end of the post, don't forget to download a FREE Tidy To Do List that will help you on your decluttering day.
It is the fist of the month and I am going to hold true to my 21 item purging goal. I am not done organizing my kitchen, but I can not let today go without acknowledging this momentous occasion. I am going to work on my living room because it is adjacent to my kitchen. It is pretty sparse, so I'm curious to see what I can find. But one thing I have learned from my kitchen, everything little thing adds up.
I want to go into detail on how approach "declutter day." The first day of each month you can refer back to this as your quick guide for a 21 item tidy. First on my agenda is to find a bag. Since I am a bag lover, that is not a problem. Grab one big enough that can carry household items around the home. I use an old 31 tote. I have seen others use a gardening bag. I like one with a shoulder strap so it's easy to carry around. In my tote I add a few garbage bags, all purpose cleaner, microfiber cloth, and some swiffers. Once you have your bag with supplies, it's time to tackle that area.
I like to start with garbage first. I usually find little wrappers, lost post it notes, soda cans, and broken dog treats. Sometimes I get a little extra treat like a missing cookie or a hidden stash of candy wrappers under the sofa cushions. Garbage counts as part of our tidy up! See, that part is pretty easy.
One of my children's favorite games to play was I spy, and I try to make decluttering fun. So - I make a game of it: what items can I find that don't belong. AAHH! I found a vase of Christmas flowers that we forgot to put away, some games, extra remotes, magazines, and even 2 dog bed covers that long ago lost their insert cushions. I put all this in my tote. As I go around my home to the other rooms, I'll put those items where they belong.
Part of today is looking in the nooks and crannies that we normally don't want to look at. Even thinking about the bookshelves gives me anxiety. I already know what I am going to find - during Covid I put a bin of the kids electronics that they no longer use, in the cupboard beneath the bookshelves. I have a second bin of home movies from the 90's that need to be converted. It is a huge undertaking, but worthwhile.
We need to take all of these electronics and find chargers for them so we can get any photos and videos we want to keep. After saving what we want, it's time to wipe out/reset the devices so our personal data isn't on them. None of them are worth donating since they are so outdated or have major problems. Best Buy still accepts old electronics, no matter where you bought them, for recycling. They won't take batteries by themselves, but if you have a broken device with a battery, that's fair game. We still need to find a VCR to convert the video tapes through a computer, so those will stay in a bin for now. Once we capture the footage we want, they will be recycled too.
Even though it has been a lot of work to get through all of this, and held quite a few surprises, I feel so good about what we accomplished. Now, I do have a pretty big mess to get to, so I'm off to clean the living room. Enjoy the rest of your day!
Tina
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