Edited to add – new button courtesy of Amanda – yayyy, thanks Amanda

I decided to not get cutesy with the name although I did like Diane’s suggestion of Friday Flings best. The thing is, you can fling, delete (emails), donate, etc. and fling seemed too prohibitive.

Anyway, here we are, just 5 days since the August Declutter Challenge ended and I want to know:

How are those spaces looking?

The Declutter Tip for this week is…
Sweep through those previously organised spaces every week for 5 minutes to check that everything is still in order because you don’t want to get back to what it was like before.

Right?

Put a reminder in your phone, in Outlook, on a sticky note, in your planner, somewhere so you don’t forget.

So back to this week’s challenge:

These slippers are what I’m decluttering this week. I’ve had them since I got married over 13 years ago. In fact, I bought them the first week after we returned from our honeymoon.

When you give them a wash, they look really cute But I’ve only been hanging onto them because it reminds me of the honeymoon…so now that I’m writing about it and honouring the memory, I feel that I can let them go!

What have you decluttered this week? Link up so we can all see.

Previously posted…
Decluttering by taking pictures

The August Declutter Challenge has been just FABULOUS!

If you take just 15 minutes and surf a couple of the declutter challengers’ blogs, you’ll see what a difference this has made in their lives. And I’m honoured to have been part of that – really I am!

One challenger could NOT declutter magazines when we first started but soon learnt that baby steps made it oh-so-easy and by week 3 was a magazine decluttering PRO!

If I had to highlight all the posts that have really impacted me this month, this post would be a mile long.

So, without any further ado, the winner of the Organise your Home ecourse is Patricia from Gifts that say WOW, and the winner of the $25 Stacks and Stacks gift voucher is Marcia from HD Mac’s Crafty Blog.

Amazingly enough, when I clicked over to their blogs to get the permalinks and so forth, I noticed that they both wrote BEE-YOO-TI-FUL posts on what they learnt. That’s not why they won (random.org picked 10 and 2) but now that I’ve read their posts, I am glad they won, because they both get “it”!

Read Patricia’s post here and Marcia’s post here. Those posts (and the comments) are WELL worth your while. I also want to publicly thank Marcia for being such a great ENCOURAGER for all the other ladies. I’d often click over to the blogs and see her lovely comments for the others.

Well done to both of you, and to all the wonderful women who decluttered step-by-step, along with Beth and me.

Remember you all get a $10 gift certificate if you use the word declutter in my store (yes, even the lurkers!) only valid until Sat 6th September.

We’ll be back again on Friday for the weekly challenge! If anyone’s clever with buttons, I need a button designed for the weekly one. Please contact me! Thanks

Wow, this is the last day of the declutter challenge. I can’t believe we’ve come this far!

You guys have all worked so hard.

Today I decluttered an old hand towel and some ponytail holders (still new) to a friend’s daughters who love all things purple

Future decluttering
Because this has been so great, I’ve decided to continue doing a weekly round-up. I will promise that I will declutter SOMETHING every week, even if it’s something non-photographical like 50 emails, an ebook, etc, because if I can do it, ANYBODY can do it.

So come back on Friday and link up your post showing us what you’ve decluttered. I still have to find someone to do a button for me so in the meantime, use the current one.

Now about the prizes for this month’s challenge…

• You can only enter if you’ve been decluttering every day from the beginning of the challenge.
• I’d like you to write a short post with what you learnt and where you can see the biggest impact in your home. That’s it.
• I will choose two winners – one person will win my bestselling 12-part Organise your Home e-course (currently worth $27) and the other person will win a $25 Stacks and Stacks gift voucher. Please note that for the S&S prize, the person has to be a US resident as the gift voucher doesn’t work through their international shopping cart.
• So, when you link up, if you’re NOT from the US, please put (non US) so I know to exclude you from the S&S drawing. Thanks for understanding.
• You have until Monday 12PM EST to link up and I’ll post the winners shortly after that.
• And now that you’re used to decluttering, you may want to get your home organised so if you want to get the Organise your Home e-course and you participated at any point during the challenge, please use discount coupon code declutter to get $10 off the price in my store (you only pay $17).

Literally, scratching around to find things to declutter.

• disposable cups (to a friend – I know they’re having a party soon)
• communion glasses (to same friend since we don’t run cell groups any more)
• egg-holder
• water bottle
• other rubbish

What are you decluttering today? If you’ve been going along with us all month, you deserve a huge pat on the back!

Get ready tomorrow to link up for the GRAND PRIZES!

Only two days left…

I run Virtual Organising Seminars for people all over the world. Isn’t the internet amazing?! During our time together, we organise your desk, get your paper and emails organised and set up a planning and priority system for you.

During the last one, I decluttered paper from about 6 file binders that are now totally empty. I’ll repurpose the other files…

but this one is going. For me, filing is the same like carrying handbags – the bigger the file, the more paper you collect. So out it goes. Together with a few odds and ends found around my office space. Which just goes to show, there’s always room for improvement, even in an organised office

Over this month, what have you decluttered from your office? How much paper has gone?

P.S. The next VOS happens on Tuesday 16 Sept at 12PM EST. Are you joining me?

I’ve been threatening to declutter my make-up for awhile and when I saw someone’s nicely organised make-up drawer (was it you, Amanda?), I was inspired.

After (from L to R) – eye stuff, lip stuff, miscellaneous stuff and eye shadow in the front, all nicely containerised

I used to have two tubs on the middle shelf – one is now completely gone. I LOVE SPACE!!!

Have you decluttered your make-up yet? How about your bathroom junk?

Before I get to today’s challenge, I want to discuss something with you.

Do you think it would be a good idea to continue doing the decluttering thing on a weekly basis? Say a weekly roundup where you post what you decluttered on a Friday (like Menu Plan Monday)? I think this will help to keep the momentum going but I’m keen to hear what YOU think. Yes, you!

Tell me yes or no, and what can I call it? I’m not the most creative with names and such so I need help!

Okay, now that business is out of the way, here’s today’s declutter!

I think I’m done with books now, but I may be wrong

The winners of week 3 are over at Beth’s place.

Congratulations to ALL the participants.

Here are some posts I enjoyed so I started collecting the links to share with you:

letting go of (or decluttering) expectations

beautifully organised cupboards

It’s not too late. If you declutter 7 items or more, you can still participate when we all link up again on Friday.

You can do it!!!

We’re in the home stretch now, everybody – don’t feel despondent – keep going

This is from my baking section. That white thing is an ice bucket but we really don’t need it – I actually don’t think I’ve ever used it.

And I definitely don’t use the biscuit cutters (cookie cutters) since I discovered my oatmeal drop cookies. Less mess and oh so yummy!

The blue mats are silicone – I bought a big one and cut it into smaller pieces to fit my baking pans. I don’t need them anymore since I discovered baking paper. Oh my – my life really has changed since Glad’s baking paper. No greasing baking sheets any more – it saves so much time!

Here’s how I organise my baking pans. I love it and am pleased to say since I posted that picture in October last year, it still looks exactly the same, so it’s working for me.

So that’s today’s contribution. What are YOU decluttering today?