As the seasons start to change, it’s time to put away swimsuits and goggles in order to find sweaters and slacks. Oftentimes, when you are looking for fall and winter items, you may notice that an abundant amount of stuff has somehow piled up in every cabinet and drawer throughout the course of the summer (the number of dead glow sticks alone is ridiculous). One way to tackle all of these things is to try a 30-day decluttering challenge, and there are a few ways to do this based on your preferences and the amount of stuff that you have.
30 bags in 30 days
One way some people choose to declutter their homes is the 30 bags in 30 days challenge. This is what it sounds like, namely, that you fill a bag with clutter every single day for 30 days straight. I am sure this would be cathartic, but it seems like a lot of work, and a lot of items to rehome. Perhaps this is best in preparation for a major move, or for gaining some momentum towards a big change like welcoming a new family member or moving a loved one into your space.
The minimalism game
This is a gamified approach to decluttering created by Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus of The Minimalists. In this challenge, you are required to declutter one item on the first day, two on the second, three on the third and so on, accumulating 465 items by the end of the month. For me personally, this seems a little fussy. I cannot imagine opening a drawer and only being able to declutter a set number of items, plus I would have a hard time keeping track of my items without a chart. On the other hand, I can imagine this challenge being very effective for someone who wants to move slowly and methodically and to figure out what sort of decluttering “personality” they have.
Five-minute daily declutter
This is another one that is what it sounds like. You simply dedicate five minutes of your day to decluttering and rehoming your items. Some people extend this to say that you should declutter five items in five minutes, but of course this is personality and clutter-dependent. A good time to do this is at the end of the day before you close up the house for the evening, or as a start to the day while your coffee or tea is brewing. I like to do a five-minute daily declutter as a jump start to something else on my to-do list, but I can imagine that this approach might just result in moving the same five to 10 items around day to day if you aren’t careful.
Zone-based decluttering
In zone-based decluttering, you dedicate your daily decluttering efforts to problem zones which you identify at the top of the month. Zones that are often included are clutter magnets such as the junk drawer, spice cabinet, entryway or linen closet. By breaking the task down into zones, you can make progress room by room rather than accidentally upending your whole home (and your sanity). There are many printable trackers online for zone-based decluttering, or you can easily make your own.
With all of these options in mind, I set out to complete my own 30-day decluttering challenge beginning in mid-August. I used a mix of the zone-based decluttering challenge and the 5-minute daily declutter. I wrote out our trouble zones on a sheet of paper, hung it in the kitchen, and crossed them out as I decluttered them. Admittedly, I had a hard time adhering to the 30-day structure of the zone method, because even though it was self-imposed, I have a bit of a rebellious personality and don’t like being told what to do with my down time (apparently even by myself). On those days, I found thefive-minute daily declutter approach to be most helpful.
Overall, I got a lot of stuff moved out of the house and I am feeling much lighter. A few of my zone-based decluttering wins were going through our school supplies ahead of back-to-school night (very helpful for finding folders and binders and pencil pouches to reuse this coming year), rehoming and repotting some houseplants that needed a change and shoving a ton of Legos into two huge cardboard boxes to hide in the closet. I plan to rehome those Legos eventually, but I wanted to make sure the kids wouldn’t miss them (spoiler alert: they haven’t asked for them yet). I have a few more categories that I’d like to tackle such as old, dead electronics and some half-used cans of paint, but I have plenty of time to get to those when the temperature drops.
