Declutter the Bathrooms and Laundry

What's the Homemaking September ShapeUp! all about?



For everyone just joining in I'll be explicit, for everyone doing this daily with me... well you know the drill.

Monday we decluttered the Kitchen, Tuesday we decluttered the Dining Areas and the Entrances to our home, Wednesday we decluttered the Living Areas, Thursday we decluttered the Bedrooms, yesterday we decluttered the Extra Rooms. We're still decluttering, but this time the bathrooms and the laundry room. Again, don't dwell on just 1 item, don't get sidetracked.

First, grab a trash bag and the same 2 totes you've been using, again 1 is for donate/sell and 1 for put away items for other rooms. As you are going through the areas and run across items that don't belong, put them in one of the totes. Again, don't leave the areas to put them away yet.

Go through the bathroom quickly and throw all the trash in the trash bag and also everything that is broken or no longer functional, like old razors, old medicine, old makeup. If you run across an item you no longer need/use/want and it's in good working order, put it in the donate/sell bin. Clear off the counter and bath/shower surfaces. Quickly go through the drawers and medicine cabinet doing a quick scan for anything that should be thrown or you no longer use. Look through your linen closet for old washclothes or towels that really should go to the rag bag.

In the laundry room, do a quick look for dryer sheets that my have fallen to the floor. Gather up any items that made their way through the washer and dryer in pockets and return them to their rightful places. If you have cupboards, don't forget to take a quick peek inside them to make sure everything is needed and belongs in the laundry room.

Take one last glance around the area and look at the decorations in the areas and look at it with new eyes. Do you love it? Does it work? Is it just there because it's always been there? If you decide you don't want to keep it, put it in the donate/sell bin. This isn't the time to do all sorts of rearranging and decorating, just a quick evaluation of what might be visual clutter. Is something sitting on your desk just because it's always been there? If so, consider replacing it for a season, or permanently. I know a lot of people don't decorate their laundry rooms, so we'll address that in week 4.

Now, take the bin of items for put away, and put the items in the appropriate rooms.

Now that we've done a basic decluttering go on over to Tamy's for Cooking with Kids.

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