Declutter the Living Areas

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, and yesterday we decluttered the Dining Areas and the Entrances to our home. We're still decluttering, but this time the living areas, family room and living 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 areas quickly and throw all the trash in the trash bag and also everything that is broken or no longer functional, like old remotes for the stereo that's been gone since 1983. 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. If you have bookshelves and/or an entertainment center, do a quick look through the shelves any books you didn't particularly like and will never read again, sell/donate bin. Take a quick look through your movies and music as well. Don't get sidetracked and organize yet, we'll do that next week. Normally, I'd be alphabetizing at this point, I must resist!

Take one last glance around the area and look at the decorations in the area 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.

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 Overall Kitchen Organization, we'll go into depth next Monday as well.

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