Happy New Year!
I always start out so good at the beginning of each year and then completely fizzle out by February! So, I'll do my best, but no guarantees!I'm going to do this blog a little different this year. I'm going to post what I'm doing with Close to my Heart, but I'm also going to post on life, family, friends, work, and how I'm doing on some 2020 goals that I have set. So, today's post is about one of those goals!
A friend posted a schedule of decluttering/cleaning/organizing for a month. Some of the areas worked for me, but a lot did not so I brainstormed a way to make it work for me and I've been successful for the first 6 days of the new year!!
I started thinking that it would be nice to tie in the number 20 somehow, so I came up with the idea to declutter 20 items a day for the year by 3 categories: Throw Away, Recycle, Donate. So, each day I need to either throw away 20 items, recycle 20 items or give away 20 items. By the end of the year, I will have decluttered 7,300 items out of my house, garage, and buildings! At the rate I'm going, it may just be out of my house alone!!
I began with my dresser. My husband and I share a 4 deep-drawer dresser. He has 2 drawers and I have 2 drawers. One drawer is personals (socks, underwear, bras). I began by dumping the entire drawer on my bed, which was not an easy task as it was packed!! I sorted every item. If there was a hole in anything, it went in the garbage pile. If I didn't wear it (socks only!!) I put it in the donate pile. I did the same thing with the 2nd drawer, which is my pajama drawer. I have no idea why that drawer is so full, but I can wear a different pajama set or pajama pants every day for almost a month! I then "Marie Kondo-ed" everything and WOW, the drawers aren't packed to the overflowing stage anymore!
I realized that trying to throw away, recycle or donate 20 items a day was going to be tricky for me because I don't want to throw away 6 items, recycle 2 items and donate 12 items, so I decided I would put items in those 3 piles and when one was up to 20, I would count that as my "day of (whatever pile it was!)" By the time I was done with those 2 drawers and my desk, I had the following results:
Wednesday: Throw Away 20 items
Thursday: Recycle 20 items
Friday: Throw Away 20 items
Saturday: Recycle 20 items
Sunday: Throw Away 20 items
Monday: Donate 20 items
That's already 120 items leaving my house one way or another!! Wowzer!!
Tomorrow (Tuesday) I will be gone all day for work, meetings and a basketball game, so I decided to get ahead tonight and find 20 items to get rid of. I cleaned out a bathroom drawer that holds my curling iron, blow dryer, a bag of make-up that I use daily (I have another bin for a lot of other make-up that I think will be leaving here soon!) and other personal items. In that drawer alone, I found 20 items to throw away! That was the easy drawer out of all of them!
It seems like a lot of work at first, but I'm sitting at my desk typing tonight instead of in my recliner because there is no other place to work! I'm also able to spend time on some other projects I need to get done because I have desk space to work on them!! And, I'm actually enjoying digging out this stuff, seeing what I've missed and getting rid of so much that I don't use, is damaged or outdated!
Like I said at the beginning, I tend to fizzle out by February, but this is something I can't give up on!
So, here's to 2020 goals!!
Please share with me some of the goals that you have set for yourself and how you are obtaining them!
