How I Declutter
Decluttering for the win! I have implemented a 2-Minute anti-procrastination challenge for myself every Tuesday (2-Minute Tuesday). For this challenge, I choose one small thing that I need to do and have been putting off. Then, I work on it for about 2 minutes. It is amazing what I can accomplish in 2 minutes, but I think the bigger thing is that I shift my mindset.
One recent 2-Minute Tuesday involved decluttering one single desk drawer. Imagine my surprise when I found a $50 check in the drawer! A few weeks prior, I had rearranged my office and stored the check and a few papers in a drawer for safekeeping. Imagine what you could find or do with your own 2-Minute Tuesday. My 2-Minute Tuesdays have been devoted to decluttering (office, digital files, clothes, etc.)
Now, I'm about to get really real and share with you what I like to call "Kitchen Drawer #4". When I looked at the drawer, I felt this sense of overwhelm because there was just so much junk in there. That's the beauty of a 2-Minute anti-procrastination exercise. There isn't a lot of time to think about it - it is just 2 minutes of action. Last week, I shared how I am making use of some of the extra time I have during these days of social distancing and Gretchen Ruben’s mantra for decluttering. One of my lovely commenters asked how I used my Decluttering Guide. This is such a good idea! I am sharing my process (and the messy pictures). Plus, I figured if I like to see how others declutter, you might like to see how I am doing it, too!
I have found that I de-clutter best when I have a running list of things that need to be decluttered. I sit and brainstorm ideas. I keep this list because I find that when my time is unstructured, I can become really unstructured with what I do and get done (and that is okay for me sometimes, just not all of the time). I refer to my list when I need a little break or want to accomplish something quickly. This is where my guide comes in: it provides a place for you to record your own running list with some categories to serve as prompts for you. (You can get my decluttering guide here). For instance, under the "Other Items" category, I have the following groups of things I want to declutter:
Gardening items
Books
Makeup