Hi, welcome back to our 12 items per day – “let it snow, let it go” decluttering challenge. We’re on the homestretch now, only 2 days left!! How are you doing? Are you sticking to the plan and piling up the items to discard? Maybe you’ve even made a couple of trips to the donation spot?! Yippee – way to go!!
Just what we need – small, one baby step at a time accomplishments to continue building our decision-making muscles! We’re seeing big changes in how we look at and deal with clutter in our lives.
This 22 day challenge hasn’t been about becoming an expert-clutter-ridding-fiend. If you’ve gotten to that point, I’m incredibly impressed! Please, share your thoughts, tips and techniques in the comments! We all want to learn from you!
But…maybe you’re a bit more like me?! Some days you were a power house and got right into it! Mixed in were days where you simply enjoyed thinking daily about decluttering. Most of the time there were days where you just did so-so at keeping up with the project, maybe only 6 items instead of 12. But you (we) didn’t quit!
So what if you haven’t completely met your goal on a daily basis? The important point is you (we) haven’t quit and given up. Quitting and giving up is the point where you haven’t yet made the decision to be committed to change.
Don’t be too hard on yourself. You can do this, you might just need to tweak your strategy. That’s okay!
If you haven’t set yourself up for 100% success, remember you’ve tried and failure no matter how big or small, still helps you get closer to success. Success in this 12 items per day plan is about learning to make decisions about lots of different items that fall into the category of “clutter.”
Success in this plan (forgiving as it is) comes by following 4 steps daily:
- Deciding you are willing and able to do this in small steps so you can learn more about yourself and how you think about your belongings.
- Deciding about what you really love and want to keep surrounded by you on a daily basis.
- Deciding it is okay to let go of items that spark sentimental memories you no longer need for happiness, and how letting go helps you open up your mind to new memories.
- Deciding to just do it as quickly as possible in whatever area works for you.
As you’re going through the next couple of days, congratulate yourself on steps you have taken! You’ve grown your decision-making muscles. You’re learning it is really okay to let it snow, and let it go!
Just in case you haven’t located easy spots to let things go, give these 5 quick spots a try over the next couple of days. Quick clearing of non-useful items will boost your immunity and get you ready for your New Year’s resolutions:
- Shopping bags – Just one quick trip to the grocery store or a Walmart or a Target you can easily bring home 5-6 bags or more. Make a commitment to only save a few, especially if you use them for some other purpose on a regular basis (like small garbage cans). Commit to recycling the rest on a regular basis. Walmart has a recycle bin right in their front door area. Before heading out each shopping trip, grab the bags from last time to recycle at the store.
- Check out your freezer – do you have anything with expiration dates 6 months or older? Any open bags of veggies you never got around to using in a recipe again? Any frozen flavored liquid tubes from when your now grown up children didn’t consume when they were living at home? Seriously…this may be the case, have you looked closely?
- Check out your canned goods pantry – unless you have grand kids or you get into the fun-kid-like meals of macaroni and cheese, or fluffy marshmallow s’mores fixings, the expiration dates may be a good indicator its time to clear out the cupboards of expired items. How about that dip mix you bought long ago and never used? Or items from a Tastefully Simple party where you bought every type of mix and never got around to using them? Toss them now!
- Mailing labels or note pads – you know the cute little “free” gifts that arrive in the mail enticing you to donate to causes. They send them to you every time they want to get more donations, even causes you’ve never donated to in the past. Sometimes I feel so guilty just tossing them. After all they are seasonal, pretty, creative and must have a purpose somehow!?! Even the ones where your name isn’t even spelled correctly. I find they are fun to donate to a day care or an assisted living center. They can use the notepads for scratch paper and if you cut your name and address off the labels, the remaining cute little stickers are fun for craft projects. Save enough labels for your own limited use. They do come in handy for filling out rebate slips or return address labels. Toss the rest! Never fear, they will always send you more!
Man o’ man, clutter is potentially everywhere in your house. Yikes, but we can beat it with our new clutter clearing habits!
Thanks for joining me in this 22 day journey of building decision-making muscles. You’ve done a great job learning more about how quickly small items turn into clutter in your life. You’ve learned more about how not making decisions adds to clutter in your life. Let’s rock the new year by continuing on by making decisions daily to not let the small things clutter our lives.
I’d love to hear from you about what you’ve learned, what tricks you’ve found, and what crazy fun things you’ve hung onto but have finally let go! See you soon, take care!
