Normally I wouldn’t recommend that you dump things anywhere.

As my friend Suzanne says, “don’t put it down; put it away”.

But we all know what it’s like sometimes – you walk in the house and there’s a screaming baby or two wanting your attention, the phone’s ringing, supper’s burning, etc.

So I suggest that you have just one place to dump things in your home.

Let me explain.

Instead of having papers in your entrance hall, lounge, study, bedroom and kitchen, rather dump all the papers in a basket on your entrance hall table.

Instead of having clean clothes (that have to make their way to the wardrobes) in the lounge, on the dining room and kitchen tables and in the bathrooms, have it only in one place – the kitchen table (I’m just using examples here).

This is my dumping ground for books – my bedside table.

When I can’t decide if I want to read something now or later, it goes here. If I start a book and am not sure if I’m going to finish it (I don’t finish everything I start; life’s too short to read bad books!), it goes here.

So this is what the bedside table looked like a few weeks ago. I also don’t mind confessing there are four (!) books on getting babies to sleep in that pile.

and at the sight of a neat bedside table again, Connor says “yes Mummy!”

Do you have places to dump your stuff?

What do you tend to dump and not put away? Clothes, shoes, paper? Share

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).

Promotional “gifts” received

I remember my pastor saying once, “if it’s not a need, then it’s seed” and so these are going to other people who will be able to use it because we certainly don’t need it.

What are you decluttering today?

If you haven’t joined in yet, it’s not too late. Start small with 1 item a day – that’s it. Read more here.

This week, I’m on a conference for two days so our menu is light! Of course, I’m taking my laptop with me so I can at least keep up with my email and blogging.

Monday
On conference

Tuesday
Dion to sort out – I will be home very late (around 7:30 – 8pm)

Wednesday
Out for supper

Thursday
Curry and rice from the freezer

Friday
Pasta with spicy lentil sauce

Check out more menus here.

Because the August Declutter Challenge starts on Friday, I thought I’d post about clutter.

Clutter is anything you don’t love or use.

Don’t love
In this category, some things that immediately come to mind are gifts you receive, old furniture you’re keeping around just because

Let’s take it a step further and talk about clothes.

When I declutter my own clothes or talk to clients about theirs, I ask, “does it make you feel WOW?”

If you wear clothes that make you feel like a deflated balloon inside, then they’re clutter and they need to go.

We only wear 20% of our clothes most of the time anyway, so let that 20% make you feel WOW.

Don’t use
What falls into this section?

All those margerine containers, empty bottles, plastic containers you keep thinking you’ll find something to store in or use someday.

Beware of that word someday because it indicates to me that you’re a hoarder.

I’m all for keeping a few containers but that’s just it – a few!

My scale is one of the most well-used things in my kitchen so I use the actual measuring container plus MANY others like the plastic punnets that mushrooms are sold in. We buy mushrooms every week so they start to pile up. Like last week. So last weekend when I was cooking, I measured for all the things I was cooking and when those punnets were dirty, I simply tossed! So now, the punnet situation is looking reasonable again.

Don’t overcomplicate things – run your stuff through the clutter test and if your things fit the bill, DECLUTTER!

Are you joining me on Friday?

The reason many of us have clutter is because we are indecisive.

1. We bring in a pile of mail, don’t want to decide what to throw away so we just put it somewhere to decide later.
What is that called? Clutter!

2. We come back from the shops with bags and bags of stuff. We haven’t thought about where all that stuff is going to go, so we just shove it in the back of our wardrobes where it becomes…clutter!

Let’s do one more – and it’s one of my favourite examples too!

3. You download emails. Some of them you can answer easily, so you do. You need to think about others, some are a bit difficult because you might have to say “no” and don’t want to be mean. You don’t know how to deal with those so you close the email and there it stays – electronic clutter!

Ouch!

Bet you didn’t realise how quickly all those moments of indecision piled up and left you a house and computer full of clutter!

My challenge to you is this:
1. Spend 15 minutes going around your house and make some of those tough decisions so you can eliminate the clutter!

2. Spend another 15 minutes working through your email inbox and exercise some discipline in making decisions.

Personally, if I have some tough decisions to make, I’ll leave emails for 24 hours.

But then I decide. I can always change my mind but a decision is better than none at all!

Let me know in the comments if you decide to take up the challenge!

I’m cheering you on.

I publish a weekly tips newsletter and this Wed, I wrote an article on decluttering your clothes.

This is one of the emails I received after I sent it out.

Good morning Marcia,

Thank you for this week’s tips.

I have started with my clothes and I must say, it has been one of the best exercises. I realised how much old clothes I have that I don’t even need, let alone wear.

I feel like the weight on my shoulders has decreased tremendously. I am
very happy because I can see what’s going on in my cupboards.

I also did the kids and Hendrick’s clothes too and he is happy because we can identify stuff that’s missing, if there is any.

Another thing, this exercise has opened a new door. The clothes we did not like, and do not fit us anymore (of course, in good condition), we took to a local orphanage, and the experience was extremely overwhelming….

thanks
Claudia

I’ve always said that I don’t believe in organising just for the sake of things looking pretty (although that helps), but it’s the feeling of peace that being organised brings you.

Claudia gets it, do you?

Get your own weekly tips here.

Here’s another cool quiz I found on the Clutter Control Freaks blog.

My score is 24, what’s yours?