Cleaning Out First Challenge

Purging, de-cluttering or whatever you want to call it is something that I enjoy doing. My husband especially can attest to my pretty constant desire to get rid of the unnecessary, unused and unwanted.

In recent conversations people have shared with me about having closets they want to clean out or rooms needing organization. I'm starting some posts which may encourage or help inspire you to do some de-cluttering, purging, or organizing. If you don't know where to start, maybe my challenges can help be a starting place.

In June, I re-assessed what was in my kitchen cabinets. One cabinet I worked on was our Water Bottle Cabinet. Why would two people need 10 water bottles? That's how many we had and some of you may have more than that. We are not runners or bicyclers or active gym members who could potentially need a new water bottle everyday of the week (if even that).

I threw two water bottles into my donation pile for a yard sale adoption fundraiser in June. I decided to keep the other ones because they were still good for different reasons (at least this was my thinking at the time).

WELL, I re-visited the water bottle cabinet again last week. Yes, call me crazy, (I wasn't kidding earlier when I said I have a pretty constant desire to de-clutter) but that's my issue is I view de-cluttering as a continuous project.

Upon my re-visitation of the water bottle cabinet, I noticed there were still FOUR water bottles left we had not used since June. There were reasons we didn't use them but I had not thought about those reasons when I looked through this cabinet 5 months ago <One was a cheap plastic one and we had a nicer one we always used over that one> <Two bottles identical to each other weren't leak-proof so weren't useful to what we need> <The last water bottle thrown into the donation pile was a metal one which sweats badly and is too cold to hold when it is filled with ice-cold water> AND we had not used any of them in 5 months and some of them probably even closer to a year.


This leads me back to my challenge for you! Challenge One:  de-clutter 1 or 2 kitchen cabinets/cupboards

My two boxes currently collecting items to be donated

My first challenge is for you to check out one or two kitchen cabinets and decide if there are items in there you need to throw away or give away. Pull out the items in your first cabinet and ask yourself some questions about the items.

When was the last time you used it?
Have you ever used it?
If I was looking at this in a store right now, would I really think I need to buy it?
Do I have a plan to use this as some point in the next year?

I know it takes time and some weeks extra time is hard to find. You can do it though!

Leave me a comment about if and how you decided to take on the challenge. Even working on one cabinet is success to be shared.

***Don't be disappointed if you decide you want to keep every item in one of your cabinets. Move on to another cabinet and see if it's the same case.***