25 Days to De-clutter Challenge...

So I've been seeing various photos of 'lists' of rooms or areas of a house to de-clutter in a certain amount  of days - like a challenge.

Well, becoming a little bit motivated with that smell of Spring in the air, I've decided to make my own list and de-cluttering challenge! I've decided that I would work from the front of the house to the back (on one side- the bedrooms and bathrooms), and then move to the kitchen, main living area, garage (which is really a gym in our house), and then outside. Most of these lists I've seen have 30-40 areas or days on them, but I really struggled to find as many as I did, even with being super specific and spreading out the challenge a bit! But, here is my list, and I've broken it up into areas of my house as well:

To be honest, I don’t think it will take this long (believe it or not, I can be pretty efficient and diligent at times! ... But, I can also underestimate how long things can take me and how much mess they can actually make)... If it does take longer, it will probably be because of the Shed -or Laundry or Pantry, because those are my hiding places for boxes I have refused to make time to sort through for years- ... Overall I think we have a fairly uncluttered house anyway (probably because I dump the clutter in boxes and hide them in the pantry, shed and laundry), but of course I’m up for the challenge of REALLY de-cluttering my house and life!

I thought I'd add a questionaire photo I found entertaining:

To see this image better, click here!

My aim (and I am giving myself some more time because I can get distracted easily) is to start and finish this list (i.e. my whole house) during the month of September... All of September to completely organise and simplify my life! ... Which will be great, because Christmas is at our house this year :)

Well... Here we go!

1. Ensuite cupboards.
Wasn't too hard a job, really. I actually unpacked the toilet rolls from the plastic wrapping (which is rare) and lined them up neatly (even rarer)! I think the most trivial decision was whether to keep or chuck 2 year old skincare creams and such that I haven't used in at least a year (maybe I should start again, but with fresh skincare? ... Maybe next month).

I did find a little 'collection' somewhat amusing -and sentimental- and totally not worth throwing out, as there's been many times they have come in handy! Travel/sample shampoos and conditioners, soaps and moisturisers! Seriously, doesn't everyone collect these whenever they go away or stay in hotels?? And doesn't everyone's mother bring them back travel/sample shampoos and conditioners whenever they go on holidays or stay in hotels?? You'll be pleased to know that instead of them all being thrown into the cupboard randomly and as far to the back as I could manage, I found a box that I can keep them all nice and neat and in one spot... :)

The finished cupboards look like this (I forgot to get a 'before' shot):

2. Bedroom #1 drawers.

The bedroom in general was pretty simple as well. I easily decided that socks with holes in them (and socks that I've kept for months and months in hopes of finding their match) were to go out immediately. I tidied up the books on our bed shelf. There actually were a few more places than just 'drawers' and 'wardrobe' I discovered while cleaning, and I now fear that the wardrobe will be a much bigger challenge, as I currently have stored in there 2 boxes of 'stuff to go through later'... :(

Perhaps I'm starting a bad habit so early in the challenge, because, I have one tiny (well, average sized) box of undecided things that I bulldozed from on top of our chest of drawers that I don't have the patience to go through just yet... So, I put the box into the music area, to sort out later this month when I reach that area! Am I just motivated to get a huge amount done in such a short space of time and be really proud of myself? ... Am I just impatient and/or neglectful? Was it because I had knocked over two things on my list in one day instead of two, and wanted to keep this brilliant pace of de-cluttering success without any hinderance? ... Probably!!