Are you decluttering your home, too? I’d love to be able to share your success story with other KOAB readers! Please consider submitting the before & after pictures of your decluttering project — you can do so HERE.
It’s Day #9 of the 31 Days of Decluttering Challenge and my children are thankfully back at school (I honestly don’t know how I kept blogging through two years of homeschool, because seriously, when they are home, it’s darn near impossible for me to get anything blog-related done!).
Of course, since it’s a Friday, I still didn’t have a lot of time to take on a big decluttering project. Instead I spent 10 minutes clearing off one of the biggest clutter magnets in my home: This side kitchen counter.
This little storage area is right off the main part of my kitchen. I guess you could call it the breakfast nook? My kitchen is a narrow rectangle — the front half of the rectangle has the prep, cook, clean area. The back half has my small Ikea kitchen table on one side and this storage area on the other. I’m not sure if you can tell from the picture, but the counter is only half-depth, so you can’t really do any prep food there.
But you know what you apparently can do on a half-depth counter really, really well? You can pile up all your junk!
Here’s how I brought it from “pile magnet” to “pristine” in less than 10 minutes:
* Moved everything off the counter (except for my Keurig and the digital photo frame, which I knew was staying there for sure) — sprayed the counter down with my Mrs. Meyers All Purpose Cleaner (I find a nice scent so motivating when cleaning!)
* Put the sugar away
* Put the spray paint away in the basement – with all our other paints
*Reshelved a few cookbooks
* Moved the key bowl back to its rightful place (not sure when or how it got moved)
* Put the pair of car headphones back in the car
* Folded and put away the clean dish towels
* Put the dirty cups and mugs in the dishwasher
* Went thru the many receipts hiding among the clutter – shredded the garbage, scanned the two I needed for our taxes
* Pulled out four business cards and entered the information into my cell phone, then tossed the cards into recycling (By the way — you all probably figured this out three years ago, but I’ve recently discovered that it’s better to save service people’s contact info as “Locksmith: First & Last Name” all on the First Name line, rather than first and last name, with their business under “Company”, which is how my iPhone would have me do it. My work-around makes it much easier to search for the person you need — when you can’t remember their name, but know you have a locksmith’s contact info in your phone somewhere.)
* Quickly sorted thru the massive pen/pencil cup – tossed the broken/dried-out ones, sharpened all the pencils, and found $.41 in the bottom (another small way decluttering saves money?!)
And that was it! Such a quick little clean-up, but it makes such a big difference visually when I walk into the kitchen.
Are you joining in with me on this 31 Days of Decluttering challenge? I’d love to hear from you! (In fact, I was sad because yesterday’s post didn’t get any comments!) So, if you’re with me, let me know: What did you declutter today?
Do you, too, feel the need to get a better handle on the stuff in your house? Join me for the 31 Days of Decluttering challenge! Maybe you’re willing to take on one project a day (remember: small ones count!). Perhaps you’d rather pick four problem areas, and give yourself a week to work on each one. Maybe you just want to tackle your basement for once and for all. It’s all good! Everyone is welcome to join.
Day One: Decluttering the Toy Storage Closet
Day Two: Decluttering the Top of a Bedroom Dresser (Finish What You Start!)
Day Three & Four: Decluttering the Master Bathroom
Day Five: Decluttering My Desk
Day Six: Join the Decluttering Challenge
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