A Challenge: Striving for a Less Cluttered Home
We semi-recently rearranged our dining room in an attempt to de-clutter our main living areas. The dining room had become the catch all room and I was tired of it. In addition to the normal dining room table, the room also held my desk, two dog kennels, a bookcase, the car seat, and a highchair. It is not a large room.
Out went the desk first. Or rather, up went the desk to the office, and down to the basement went the other desk that had been in the office. The bookcase also got sent to the basement and we replaced it with a new, narrow, tall bookcase. We brought down a console table from our bedroom in place of the old desk and rearranged the dog kennels, car seat, and highchair. I still don’t like the kennels in the dining room, but we cannot think of any better place for them in our small cozy house. We also brought in some new art for the previously mostly bare walls. More on those changes later.
I can’t tell you how much this de-cluttering and rearranging helped improve my attitude about our small space. So when I started to see multiple blog posts popping up about simplifying the home and the problems with too much “stuff,” I was nodding along.
- Why Own Fewer Possessions? Jesus and the Minimalist Lifestyle by Kathleen at Becoming Peculiar
- Confessions of a Hypocrite. Or, Kathleen, the Failed Minimalist by Kathleen at Becoming Peculiar
- 8 Weeks to a Less Cluttered Home by Stephanie at Keeper of the Home
- An Experiment in Minimalism: Tackling the Bookshelf by Kathleen at Becoming Peculiar
- Why Do I Have THIS Stuff? Building a Sharing Community by Lindsay at Passionate Homemaking
I’ve decided to follow Stephanie’s challenge and slowly work through my home in little chunks each day, donating and throwing out the stuff that’s doing nothing but taking up space. She’s set up a 40 day plan with a goal to get rid of 10 items each day. Yeah, that’s 400 things at the end of the two months! That sounds like a lot, but really, I bet I have more than 400 things I could easily be rid of. (Our basement is a disaster zone and the place where stuff goes to sit out the end of its days.) The plan is designed to take about 30 minutes each day. I can totally do that! Plus, it doesn’t include weekends and some days won’t apply to me (like tackling the second bathroom… I wish!).
Would anyone like to join me? Technically the challenge started yesterday, but it’ll be easy enough to catch up or just start when it works best for you. Like I said, the schedule is flexible. I’ll be posting a half-way update on July 30th and a challenge wrap-up on August 27th. If you’re a blogger, post your own updates on your blog and come back to link-up here. If you’re not a blogger, feel free to give an update in the comments on those posts.
You can also join the official Facebook page and use the hashtag #8weekdeclutter on Twitter.
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Good luck Sarah! I like the fancy term of divestment – so happy divesting these next several weeks!
Thanks!
currently trying to convince my husband to rearrange the way I want to in order to de-clutter. He is equally opinionated and unconvinced.