Do you have clutter in your home but don't know where to start purging? Do you feel like you don't have enough time to declutter? Have you seen all the 365 Items in 365 Days posts and thought "I really should do that", but you keep putting it off?
You're not alone! But you also don't need to stay in your paralyzed state. You CAN declutter! And to prove it I want to share some stories of people Just. Like. You.
Welcome back to the "We Did It! So Can You!" series. This series is about real people decluttering their homes, one day at a time! Busy people, with too much stuff, who decided to take the plunge and purge.
Today I want to share Alli's journey.
Ready to be inspired?!
About Alli
Alli and I became blogging friends a few years ago. I don't even know when or where, but somehow we found each others' blogs, and since we both blog about organizing we quickly became friends!
In addition to being a blogger at Scattered Squirrel, Alli's a wife, a mom of 2 boys, and she lives in British Columbia, Canada.
Alli's been a big supporter of the 365 Items in 365 Days challenge from the start. She even blogged about it right when it launched to inspire her readers to join the challenge with her! And she shared a free printable called Where Clutter Belongs as well as a free Clutter Box printable.
In addition, Alli has been a HUGE contributor to the 365 Items in 365 Days Facebook group. So much so that I made her a co-admin of the group! She encourages other participants when they are discouraged or overwhelmed, she cheers them on when they share their decluttering stories, she answers questions, and she gives lots of suggestions. Oh and she helps me screen new member requests to get rid of the spammers... so our group can remain the awesome group that it is :)
Alli's Master Bedroom
Of course, Alli also shares her decluttering efforts with the group!
One of my favourite decluttering projects Alli shared was last January, when she decluttered her master bedroom in "live time" in the group. She showed a before picture of an area, decluttered it, and then showed us an after pic. Then she repeated the process for a new area of the room. And another area. And so on. It was so fun.
She didn't even plan to do the whole room... she just got on a roll and was encouraged by the positive feedback from the group as she shared her pictures.
It really helped show people that decluttering doesn't have to take a long time. And it inspired them to take on some areas that they'd previously thought were too overwhelming or would take too long.
Here are a few of Alli's before and after pictures:
What a difference! Isn't it inspiring? Later, Alli took the hardcover books off the floor and turned them into decor in her family room.
So stylish and much nicer than on the bedroom floor. And, in order to remember whether she's read the books or not, she put bookmarks in with that date on them. As she reads them she pulls the bookmark out. Any that are left with bookmarks the next time she declutters, she'll know she hasn't read. Genius idea!
Spontaneous Decluttering
A whole room is a pretty big decluttering project to take on, even if Alli didn't plan to do it all at once. But Alli also took on plenty of smaller projects too. Like this one that she shared with the 365 Facebook group.
Dropped a bobby pin in my nail polish bin this morning, and when I went to try to find it I noticed some of the polishes were looking rather funky, so I tossed them. This lead to a quick check of all my make-up (which isn't really much) and a bottle of tinted moisturizer, two strangle smelling lip glosses (not sure why I had them, I never wear them) and a couple of eye shadow palettes that I never wear got tossed too. Total items decluttered: 12, total amount of time it took: 5 minutes, all because I dropped one bobby pin.
I love hearing about spontaneous decluttering! So many people say they don't have time to declutter, but if you just make use of little moments here and there, you'd be surprised how much clutter you can eliminate from your home!
Inspiring Her Family
Alli also inspired others in her family to declutter. She worked with one of her sons to declutter his room and shared his progress in the 365 group. It was fun to share her excitement as he decluttered. Here's one of his "purge piles".
This was her comment to the group when she shared this picture:
And the rest of the pile. Over 100 items to be given away or tossed out and we're still going! He's doing so well, all decisions are his. I'm loving this!
Can't you just feel her excitement and pride?! As a mom of a sentimental son herself, I was curious what her secret was. This was her response:
Ummm... Well I let him skip last week's room tidy and before we started I told him that all the ones on the floor must be keepers because he obviously plays with them. I thought that would make it easier. We started by just focusing on putting those in their containers and then all of a sudden he was asking where to put the ones he didn't want anymore. LOL. Not sure if I really did anything other than be there and listen as he gave a reason for each thing he was getting rid of. Oh, and I offered to finish up the organizing for him tomorrow while he's at school. Usually it's like pulling teeth to get him to get rid of anything so I wanted to reward his hard work.
Great strategies! If you want to read more about how Alli helped her son declutter his room, and more great tips for how to help a sentimental child declutter, you can read Alli's guest post 7 Ways to Help A Sentimental Child Declutter. Really... go read it... it's a fantastic post! It was the most popular post here in 2014!
Thank you so much Alli for being willing to let me share snapshots of your decluttering journey today! And thank you for being such a great cheerleader for this challenge. I really appreciate all that you do to help make the 365 Facebook group such an amazing community. And I'm so glad we've become friends :)
Your turn!
So how about you? Have you been putting off joining the 365 Items in 365 Days challenge because you think it will be too hard? If you have, then please don't delay any longer!
No matter how busy you are, you can find time to declutter one single item per day. It's not overwhelming then. You don't have to find time in your schedule to declutter a whole room. Just find one item every day that you no longer need, use, or love. Like Alli with her nail polish!
You can join at any time... it doesn't have to be a calendar year. Join the 365 Items in 365 Days Facebook group and be encouraged and inspired all along the way. Get your friends, neighbours, or family members doing it too! That way you'll have some real life accountability and encouragement along with the virtual help from our group :)
If you're overwhelmed by clutter, then join the 365 Items in 365 Days Challenge today and get started. A little bit at a time makes a big difference. Start purging and start living the life you want.
What's your motivation for decluttering? What holds you back from purging? What area of your home will you tackle first?
Happy
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