On Monday, I wrote “What Do I REALLY Need In My Life?” and declared that I was going to start getting rid of 10 items a week from my house. While I don’t really have any clutter, I definitely have way more “stuff” in the house than I need to keep or move around with me – so out the door it is going to go! Seems that some other people who read Monday’s post are going to try to do the same thing, so I decided to document this challenge every week. For week 1, I went through my house and picked out 10 easy things I knew I could get rid of and not miss at all, and here is what I came up with and where I am sending each item:
1. Coca-Cola “ornament” #1 that has been traveling with me since college. ->Goodwill.
2. Coca-Cola “ornament” #2 that has been traveling with me since college. ->Goodwill.
3. Coca-Cola “ornament” #3 that has been traveling with me since college. ->Goodwill.
4. Coca-Cola “ornament” #4 that has been traveling with me since college. ->Goodwill.
5. A modern wall clock that has never worked correctly, but I always thought I could fix. Well, I can’t. ->Trash.
6. A toy Shell gasoline truck. How does this stuff get in my house? ->Nephew
7. A cheap business card holder from a convention I went to in my previous corporate life. ->Goodwill.
8. A broken clock that stopped working 3 months ago. ->Trash.
9. A cowboy hat that looks ridiculous on anyone who wears it. (Besides, I have my own that fit well) ->Goodwill.
10. A silver candy dish with a cutesy saying on it, which has been in a cabinet for at least 2-3 years. ->Goodwill.
Well, that was easy enough. I am wondering if I should up this to 20 things a week, as these 10 were waaay to easy to come up with. What do you think? Want to play along?
Nicely done. I’ve been doing something similar for the past year, and giving yourself a goal of 10 items a week makes it really manageable.
I’m sure it’s possible to do this much more quickly; Erin Doland of Unclutterer has a book coming out that suggests you can do it in a week. But I’ve found it easier to tackle my stuff gradually, especially since I want to find new homes for as many things as possible. Every time I go back to the pile, I find new things I no longer need, and I find that I need less than I thought I would.
Looking forward to reading more about your progress.
Ten is probably a good number. It will be easy at first, when you have a bunch of things you can rid of, but eventually finding ten may be harder! Reminds me, I have a pile of stuff to go to Goodwill. I recently did a major cleaning out of closets and took one carload of stuff to Gooddwill but I have more. I’m sure if I averaged it out, it would be ten items a week. 🙂
Way to go! but I can’t wait to see when you get to the harder items! Then I wanna compare how you handle it to how I handle it 🙂 I just got rid of ANOTHER stack of clothing that wasn’t worn (most was given away except for what wasn’t wearable) as well as an oddball margarita glass, my mother is taking a clear oil lamp, a few (4 or 5) books I NEVER read and realistically never would, oh and we also cleaned out the garage, a whole bag of trash went. Anyway, not too bad for the first step!
it is time for us to tackle the same challenge as we will be moving in Jul 2010. I like moving every few years just so I have to declutter a little more.
What I do is keep a linen closet empty of linens, and filled with things I think I’ll probably not want or rarely use. I wait one year; if I never open that closet, it all gets taken to the Good-Will.
During the year, I add until I can’t fill the closet anymore. Once in a while, I end up going to that closet, and retrieving an item that some family member says they can use.
I empty the closet; fill the closet, but I don’t get rid of anything until I test it for a year because that’s a good way to know if you probably won’t need the item.
And as to ‘need’, normally it’s a ‘wanted item’, that I bought; don’t want any more, and put away.
I try to remember to use the word NEED now, and that’s how I keep the clutter down.
Isn’t it amazing how much stuff we acccumulate that we don’t need or use? My family recently did a massive cleaning at my parents’ house. Some stuff was tossed, some was sold at a garage sale and some was donated. I cleaned out my house too and made use of mom and dad’s Dumpster and garage sale. I couldn’t believe how much crap I was storing!!
Did the kitchen countertops last night with your post in mind – got 5 things out of the way already- mostly trashed – and as I do the next clutter spot, should get the other 5 for this week 🙂
Got company coming – so it’s just the surface clutter spots I am tackling right now! Eventually – on to the closets!
Nice going Kristen!
Marci – way to go. 5 things is 5 things, and its only the beginning!
As an artist I must tell you that it pains me to think of the clocks in the trash. I have spent the last two weekends combing garage sales and Goodwills, etc for clocks for an art project. One mans trash is another’s treasure. But hooray for decluttering.
20. 🙂
Freecycle is great for things like broken clocks.
Wow! I LOVE LOVE LOVE this idea! Thanks so much for the inspiration! It may be just what we need!
Very cool start. Stick with 10. It will get harder with time (no clock pun intended), which will add to your challenges and lessons learned.
1.Protein powder->food bank 2.&3. Books->1/2Price
4.Sheet set->Goodwill 5.&6.Bikes->Craigslist 7.&8.shirt and sweater->Goodwill 9.Misc glass jars->Goodwill 10.Old lipstick->trash
This is going to be good. Thanks for the inspiration.
Good start Vicki! 🙂
We are a family of 6. Mom, Dad and 4 kids. We have also been fostering for the last 2 years. Lots of stuff because we never know how many kids will be in our home at any given time. Our house is busting at the seams with all our stuff. I really want to downsize. I want the kids to appreciate what we/they have. I want to live with what we love and get rid of the rest. I am going to try for 50-100 items a week for the first few weeks. I have already cleared out 2 pick-up truck bed loads of stuff this year.
Glad to be aboard!
Nice to have you! 🙂
I love the idea of decluttering 10 things a week. I have been decluttering off and during 2009.
Good luck with the challenge. I will be watching with interest!
What a fabulous idea David! Just wanted to let you know that your challenge has traveled all the way to Sweden and I have now committed to shed 10 things for the next 15 weeks. I am certain this uncluttering will do wonders for me and my small family and it goes very well with my 4 months shopping-ban. Kindest regards Mimmi in Sweden
Thanks Non Consumer Girl!
That’s great Mimmi – please keep us posted!
Ten Items a week, huh?
I’m game!
I took you up on your challenge and linked to this post…
That was fun!
I only just stumbled across this little gem right here. I’ve been working on my 100 things challenge for a while now but I’m struggling with the getting rid of things bit. So I blogged about what my problems were and that you have the choice of selling, giving away, trash it or keep it…
And here you are, having done all this so many months ago. I almost feel silly for blogging about this now.
Well, I added a backlink in my article and I’m definitely going to jump on this challenge. 10 Items a week isn’t all that hard to do.
Thanks for the inspiration David!