4 WEEK DECLUTTER CHALLENGE

This is going to be a relaxed 4 week declutter challenge for all of us to do while we are all at home! The 4 week declutter challenge is not designed to make you feel stressed that you have to do it, nor does it have to be strict. This is why I will be doing this over a 4-week period and would love for you all to join in with me!

We are living in difficult times of having to stay at home due to this pandemic called Corona Virus, so I thought it would be a great idea to be as productive as possible.

I myself am trying to set a few simple goals as I am in the very few people that do get to go to their 9-5 job, but I also wanted a bit more structure for after work as both hubby and I are now home more hours than before.

My hope is to be productive and also not to get on each other’s nerves. If I keep busy then I will not notice the huge amount of time that I am at home and therefore will not have time to let anything bother me. Or at least this is my aim. I have also incorporated other routines and tasks in my existing daily routine to keep us occupied. If that is something you are interested in let me know and I can write a post on that too.

Let’s get into the 4-week simple declutter challenge

 

 

 

WEEK ONE

Concentrate on the hardest area of your home. My hardest area to keep organized is my home office. As a full time accountant I am very organized in every aspect of my job and especially my office but when it comes to my home office, well, things get a bit hazy there.

The reason being is that I do not have a designated area for an office and therefore my organizational area around this goes down the drain. My future plan is to find a functional and pretty desk and a spot in my living room to make a home office. If you have any suggestions on doing this, please let me know!

So what I will be doing is…

SORT my paper work and make piles of what to KEEP, what to FILE and what to SHRED and get rid of. Then I will try to designate a place in my living room to set up a makeshift home office until I can save a bit of money to get a desk and really organize the whole space (as mentioned above).

You can also see my post on how I did my home office declutter last year here for more detailed tips! (This home office now holds all my paperwork that I need to keep for 7 years and some of my stationary and novels, so it is not a functional home desk but storage)

WEEK TWO

The next hardest place to keep organized are my closets. Therefore, this week will be all about the bedrooms. I will start with the wardrobes, move to night stands and chest of drawers.

Again I will take the same approach. Sort, discard and organize what is left. Before I put everything back into the closets I will of course deep clean everything!

Then I will do a deep clean of the rest of the bedrooms and viola we are done with the bedrooms of the house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WEEK THREE

Things are getting easier now as the two hardest places in the house have been dealt with so now I would move along to the kitchen and living room. My apartment is small so I can do both in one week, but also my living room does not have much clutter spots so I am doing this together. You could do the Kitchen with the bathroom if you like as the bathrooms are usually more manageable.

However, I will tackle the Kitchen first and I would suggest to start with the pantry.

Take everything out, check expiration dates, clean the pantry and put everything back in an organized way. This is also the time to write down on a shopping list items that you need to purchase as you have run out of them or that you are running low on. I like to use these acrylic bins for organisation storage.

Then I would tackle any other cupboards for me it will be like this:

POTS & PANS

CUTLERY and rest of the draws

TUPPERWARE

Then it would be a matter of just cleaning up around the Kitchen and moving on to the Living room. Which in this case I only have 2 furniture items that need a good declutter and then all done.

Clean up and onto the last week!

WEEK FOUR

This week is all about the Bathroom, hallway and laptop. Yes, you read that right! The Laptop!

Starting off with the hallway which is 10 minutes for me, then into the bathroom!

Here is where I need take everything out of the linen closet and the under sink cabinets with all out toiletries and laundry baskets too. I also always refer to this post from Reduce, Reuse, Renew. as she has an amazing post on decluttering your bathroom for good!

A good clean of the closet and then – checking expiration dates on toiletries, noted things to buy that we are running low on and then organizing them all back into my boxes to keep clean and tidy!

Once that is done, all that is left to do it clean and scrub the bathroom from top to bottom.

Now to tackle the laptop! This may take me longer than expected but that is why I left it last. I will first declutter my desktop. Save what needs to be saved on my external storage and delete anything that needs to go!

Then it’s time to do the same with your email accounts. This is maybe even harder than the desktop. You will need to organize your folders and sub folders and then move your incoming emails from your inbox into those folders.

Now for the hard part. Just how many newsletters are you subscribed to? Out of those newsletters, how many do you really use, open need? Based on your answers you will need to then start to unsubscribe to unwanted clutter in email form. This may be harder than you realize or it could even be a lot easier. Either way you need to deal with this clutter!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hooray!

Once that is done, you have come to the end of the 4 week declutter challenge!

Hooray! Pat yourself on the back. Well done for making it through these four weeks!

I would love to hear your progress during these next four weeks so comment below on how you are doing or if you need and other tips! Follow along on Instagram too if you like! Find me as @dimitratheofilos