Welcome to the 30-Day Organize-athon!
In today’s 5 minutes we’re going to express-declutter your living area.
Take a deep breath, and imagine inhaling a sense of clarity, freedom and order. Then get started!
Day 1: Declutter Your Living and/or Entertainment Area
Step 1: Grab a large garbage bag.
Step 2: Quickly make your way around your living and/or entertainment area, tossing these items into the bag as you go:
- Magazines other than the current month’s
- Newspapers other than today’s
- Knick-knacks – unless you really love them
- Tatty coasters
- DVDs no-one watches any more
- CDs no-one listens to any more
- Games no-one plays any more
- Remotes and technology no-one uses any more (including old game consoles)
- Food
- Books you’ve read and won’t re-read, or will never read
- Videos, cassettes, computer floppies, camera film – any storage device for which you no longer have hardware
- Framed photos – unless they’re genuinely special to you
- Tatty cardigans, socks and other apparel strewn around the furniture
- ‘Displayed’ items on shelves that collect dust but hold no meaning for you
- Dead potted plants
- Threadbare or stained cushions, throws, rugs, etc
- Anything else that isn’t loved and/or used regularly.
Step 3: Put your bag by the door or take it straight out to the car. (Take it to the tip as soon as you can.)
Step 4: If there’s something genuinely valuable in there, and you’d lose sleep over tossing it, then you can put it into a separate charity store bag. But if it’s junk, just let it go. If it doubt, don’t over-analyze – toss it.
And you’re done!
Got an Extra 5 Minutes?
- Return items that don’t belong in the living area to the proper place – the kids’ bedrooms, the office, the kitchen, etc.
- Straighten the coffee table and wipe it down.
- Neaten remotes, DVDs, and anything else that lives in the living room.
- Fluff up the cushions.
Now doesn’t that feel more like a ‘living’ room?
The 30-Day Organize-athon Mantra
Move fast. Don’t overthink. Let it go!
Leave Your Comment Below…
Please leave a comment below to say you’ve completed today’s task.
And I’ll see you back here tomorrow!
It’s done and I feel good…..only problem was a fight with hubby about me moving his screwdriver set/electrical tape that had taken up residence on the entertainment unit and end table.
Done! Where does all this dust come from?! AND magazines! We have some friends we give one magazine to when we’re done and we’ll be seeing them for coffee this morning. They will have quite a few issues to look through!
Done!!!
Does it count that the person who cleans my room in the motel will love me because I’ve straightened out the entire room so that all she has to do is check out the bathroom?
5 minutes!? This challenge could take me the next month to complete!! :-)! It does feel good to get rid of stuff though!
Done! Even cleaned the carpet!
took a bit longer than 5 minss, but sure feels good!
All done! & feeling mighty proud of myself too.
What a great way to get the morning started! Now I can sit around in my clean living room all day.
Ta-DONE! 🙂
Done – not perfect, but MUCH MUCH better than it was! When the 3 kids wake up it may not look like I touched it but maybe I can get them involved with this too.
Magazines gone, end tables clean now just to wipe down the blinds. Done
Thanks for putting this together and encouraging and motivating us! The hardest part was the things that have a bit of sentiment attached.
That was easy! This room is actually de-cluttered. I just did my hot spots and the living room looks great! Now the rest of the house, that’s a different story. LOL
Done. That was easy!
Haven’t done this yet….but it really won’t take a whole lot since my living room is usually picked up in a minute or two in any case (unless kiddo has strewn toys!!). Too bad this is the challenge for today…since we are actually selling pretty much our whole entertainment system this weekend…so this would have been a great one for next week!! Can’t do a whole lot with tossing stuff out yet till we sell that all off!!
Task one complete! It is amazing what you can complete in just 5 minutes!
Done and it looks great!! Now off to work to do the same thing…
This was the easy part, we will see with the bedroom!
WOW! Even I have 5 minutes, it is amazing what you can do in 5 minutes.