Welcome to the first of our 52 Organizing Missions.
In some ways this is a challenging one – but you’ll feel so wonderful, liberated and light when it’s done I think it’s worth diving in the deep end right away.
And remember – it is only 30 minutes.
Ready?
Get Organized Mission #1: Fill a Hu-u-uge Trash Bag
Step 1
Get a giant trash bag. (If you don’t have one find 20 small ones, or ask a neighbor, or go to the shops, or use boxes, or pile things up on a rug until you get to the shops tomorrow. There are no excuses!)
Step 2
Set a kitchen timer (or your clock radio or iPhone alarm, etc) for 30 minutes.
Step 3
Start filling the bag and continue doing so as you move through your house, until either the timer goes off or your bag is full.
Throw into the bag anything you don’t use, don’t like, that has negative associations, is broken or tatty, or is no longer your style. See below for room-by-room examples.
Step 4
Take it straight out to the trash or even the tip if you’re so motivated. Just be sure to remove the temptation to look in the bag or to rescue released items.
Dos & Don’ts
- Don’t try to organize rooms, cupboards or drawers at this stage.
This mission is about getting rid of stuff so do keep an out-it-goes mindset. - We’ll have another organizing mission for charity items, so don’t get bogged down with that now. I don’t suggest giving lame stuff to charity – decent, usable stuff: yes; crapola: no.
So do feel fine about ditching all the dross. - I want you to move fast – so don’t overthink it.
If your gut feel is to release something from your life, then do toss it into the bag.
Examples of Items For Your Bag:
Living Room
- Old magazines
- Tatty rugs and cushions
- Old/no-longer-used videotapes, DVDs, CDs
- Unloved ornaments, gifts, vases, etc
- Dead plants
Study
- School/college notes and texts (unless you just graduated they’re probably out of date)
- Old paperwork, bills, mail (keep if needed for taxes or reference; shred if sensitive or confidential)
- Excess stationery you won’t use this decade
- Knickknacks that provide no meaning, beauty or inspiration
- Reading piles you know you’ll never get to
Bedroom
- Tatty dressing gowns, slippers, and anything you’d be embarrassed to answer the door in
- Tatty bed linen
- Ancient pillows harboring various non-human life forms
- Anything on bedside tables that detract from a comforting bedtime sanctuary
- Anything in your closet you hate (we’ll tackle closets in detail in another organizing mission)
Kitchen/Dining
- Chipped or stained crockery
- Rusty or mismatched cutlery
- Expired food and condiments in the pantry or fridge
- Cookware, plungers, teapots, gadgets, utensils or sundry infomercial purchases not used in the past 12 months
- Cookbooks and recipes not used in the past 12 months
Bathroom
- Tatty towels, bathmats, etc
- Expired or old toiletries, hairbrushes, combs, etc
- Empty or mildewed bottles
- Yucky bathroom accessories – eg rusty shower caddies
- Unloved bathroom ornaments
Kids’ Stuff
- Tatty, no-longer-used toys
- Outgrown clothes
- Torn posters
- Outgrown CDs, DVDs etc
- Outgrown back-packs, drink bottles, etc
Extended Organizing Mission Options
- If you run out of time or your bag fills up and you want to keep going, then do. Put on some music and have fun with it. But your basic mission is only to fill one large bag or keep going for 30 minutes.
- If other household members want to participate give them their own bag and encourage them to let go of stuff.
- If you want to tackle extra, unneeded items that are in good condition, do a second run with a charity bag. (I guarantee you’ll still have plenty to do when we get to our charity-bag organizing mission.)
Ready, Set, Go!
Remember – move quickly, act fast, don’t overthink.
Before You Go – Check In
Have you completed this week’s Get Organized Mission?
You’re now accountable to your organizing mission-mates – so please add a comment to let us know you’ve completed your assignment and you’re keeping your commitment.
(Click ‘Comment’ at the very top of this post or scroll down to the bottom. Depending on how you’re viewing this post, one of those options will be available for you.)
And see you back here next week. 🙂
Update
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Click here to sign up for 52 Organizing Missions.
Image by Material Boy
Done!
Finished!
It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I think I can fill another bag if I try hard enough!
Done and still being done, the hardest part is getting rid of the off casts. My garbage bin will be full for a few weeks.
done, done and done !
@Maria: It seems to me that kind of stuff takes up physical and emotional space. Good on you for clearing out your home and your heart. ♡♡♡
So liberating, especially regarding throwing away things
with a negative feeling attached. I tossed a map of Rome I
used when I went there with an ex boyfriend 3 years ago. I
have a fiancé now and it’s better to let go the past in all
of its forms.
Wahoo! 30+ minutes
I feel better already !
Big black sack already out to the curb!!! Feels great!!!
@Peggy: Congratulations on your two bags! I love comments like this. 🙂
By the way, you might also like this article:
But I Might Need It One Day! [How To Stop Making Excuses & Get Organized, Declutter & Simplify]
M 🙂
What a relief, I managed to get 2 garbage bags full in 30 minutes.
I was really surprised…I suppose the fact that I had to do one bag in 30 minutes without thinking too much, made me even go faster.
I thought I would never be able to get even 1 bag full, as I find it very hard to let go of stuff. I always make up excuses to keep it: ‘I might use it in the future’, ‘I will regret it if I throw it out.’
Now I was not allowed to think. That made me step into my power of releasing.
Thanks, it is a shame that it ‘s only 30 minutes. I would love to do it again tomorrow.
@Harry; Wow – this is awesome! You’ve taken an amazing step and I’m thrilled that you shared it with me. The only way is up from here! 🙂
I completed my first mission-emptying w/the trash bag. Every mental wall that has always stopped me from starting the venture of organization/full life mastery kicked in. My trash bag was white and I thought no, Ill wait to buy a black one. I don’t have a timer so I thought, Ill wait till I get one. Then a true miracle (and it was-if you could hear my mental WEAKENING voice for 10 seconds , to my excuses/fears/thoughts that “I can’t do this so I won’t even start”, etc, you would have heard a true shift. I still can’t believe it. My true voice that is the real , powerful me said (and I didn’t” think” this, it was a thought that came in of it’s own accord)-“Bull. We have a white trash bag and will begin with that. No timer? We are going to download one RIGHT NOW onto the iPhone. I obeyed the command of my self, got a kick ass timer, and I. DID mission 1! I threw out everything that does not serve and enhance my life right now including these morose, sad journals where I wrote about how my ex girlfriend was so mean, I loved her so much, why oh why am I not getting love”-I had thought before initiating the Mission that those victim-mentality writings I some how needed to keep so as to review them and thereby “grow” but my mission commander-that is, ME, without the too frequent self imposed shackles instintually immediately put all these writings in the trash bag and, along with other stuff that is NOW in the OUTSIDE trash-and I can’t express how strong I feel, my condo FEELS lighter, and while the 30 minutes flew by and I covered a part of a part of a room I know that was the exact way it was meant to go (none of my “look slowpoke why didn’t you get through more stuff, etc). So I am really on the move, I feel clean, strong, motivated, proud and you who are reading these words right now -know that I AM BLESSED to have you and I couldn’t have started this withoutcha. So love to all from Bexley, Ohio, USA.
Harry
I just filled a bag with papers I have had lying around since December! Will need to do some more work, but at least I have started to get rid of some clutter.
I just stumbled upon your website, and it couldn’t have happened at a more perfect time! I have the urge to purge, and you have inspired me further!! I have the house to myself today, so here goes…
Well I was completely amazed by this first challenge! I didn’t think I would be able to fill a garbage bag with ‘stuff’ but it was easy…in fact it was so easy that I have actually done this mission every day this week. Sometimes I haven’t had a full bag but I have been blown away by how much stuff was just sitting there that I didn’t seem to see anymore until I really focused on it. Thanks for getting me started!
# 1 complete!!! Going to do it a couple more times this week and get the basement and garage.
I completed Mission 1, and I’m excited to see the next baby step to a more organized life. : )
Started!