I’ve been following Decluttering Made Easy for a few weeks now in an effort to tame the clutter and organization problem I seem to have. I’m not exactly sure when the clutter began to get out of control. I have memories of a time when I did not have piles of things on every flat surface and I could open a cupboard without having things topple out. I’m sure the clutter didn’t happen overnight. It has probably been a slow process and that’s why I never noticed it… until now.
Decluttering Made Easy
I’ve tried to declutter many times in my life. I’ve never been successful before because there was no method to my madness. I didn’t have a plan, a goal or any guidelines to follow. In the end I’d accomplish very little and then get frustrated wondering why I was still dealing with clutter. Decluttering Made Easy is a 52 week course that teaches you the skills you need to declutter effectively. Not only does it teach you how to declutter, it teaches you how to decide what you need to declutter and then to prevent clutter from coming back into your home.
Bookshelf – Before
Bookshelf – After
I’m finding it very easy to follow the Decluttering Made Easy course because there is both a video lesson and PDF lesson for me to refer to. I generally watch the video to understand what I’m doing that week. I print out the PDF to refer to during the week when I’m working on the lesson. There are worksheets that are helping me identify my goals and keep me on track. I tend to get sidetracked if I don’t have some sort of focus.
I appreciate how realistic the lessons are in Decluttering Made Easy. I don’t have time to spend two hours a day decluttering. There is no way I can declutter one room in a day. It’s taken me a while to get to this point and it is going to take a while for me to declutter it. One of the things I seem to accumulate too much of is magazines and books. I have great intentions of reading them all and doing all the recipes and projects in them. What really ends up happening is that I put them on a shelf and they sit there for a year untouched. Gardening books, craft books, cookbooks, preparedness books. I need to weed through them and decide what to keep for reference and what I just won’t use.
Before – Desk
After – Desk
As I go through this process, I realize just how much stuff I have. I’m quite sure that I don’t need it all and as I *find* things I haven’t see in years, I wonder why I got half of it to begin with. Is anyone else working on decluttering? What do you tend to have too much of? If you haven’t already, sign up for Decluttering Made Easy and work along with me.
Come back next week where I’ll have a giveaway for you!
About Ellen Christian
I’m doing something similar in my home. I hate clutter! John loves to hang on to everything so I’m trying to get him out of that habit.
Marty is worse than me! He keeps his clutter to his desk/bureau/closet so I just leave his stuff alone.
I am working on decluttering a little as Spring approaches. We moved into our house over a year ago and I still have at least 50 boxes that have not been unpacked. It’s a true sign that I don’t really need that stuff and my life is simpler without it.
I agree! I am surprised by all the things I’m finding that I forgot I had! I obviously didn’t really need them as much as I thought I did.
I try hard to have a one in and one out rule but things still have a way of piling up. I have been working on clearing out some stuff myself!
It seems never ending some days!
Wow! That is exactly what I need! Looking good
I am fond of clutter
I could really use a course like this!
Fortunately, my husband is one of the most organized people I know!
You are so lucky! My husband is worse than I am.
I’ve been working on this too. I got de-reailed in February with so many things going on, but now I am starting to get a touch of Spring Fever. Historically I do better with check lists to help keep me focused, so I made up some spreadsheets where I can check things off that I’ve accomplished. It helps me to see proof that I do more in the day than I realize
That’s a great idea, Karen. Some days I do better than others!
I get into a decluttering mood sometimes but it usually means I move things from one pile to the next. I think I need to do this!
LOL I do that too, Beth!
Good for you! I love to declutter and I’ve been doing it so much lately because we are moving soon and selling our house.
It really is a never ending process!