Jump Start January 2017: Week 4: Day 1

Jump Start January 2017 Week 4 Declutter Make Money Day 1

Hello there, how’s your January going so far? It’s time for a new week, and a whole new theme to keep it all moving along, so welcome to Declutter and Make Money Week!

We’re going to be chucking out a load of rubbish, getting the place cleaned up and looking just right, and hopefully making a few extra quid into the bargain.

 

Declutter and Make Money Week schedule

Here’s what’s coming up this week, with something new to try every day:

 

Today’s activity

We’re starting with a simple declutter that’s easy to do from start to finish today. The trick with a good declutter is to pick a small and defined area that you can sort out properly all in one go – that way you get a great sense of completion and accomplishment, and there’s a visible result.

So pick a single cupboard (or even a shelf inside a cupboard, or a junk drawer) to sort out from start to finish. Work quickly, in this order:

  • Decide exactly what should live in this cupboard. Keep it practical, cupboards don’t particularly need to be beautiful on the inside because the doors conveniently hide things away.
  • Take everything out of the cupboard and give it a good clean, inside and out.
  • Now go through everything you’ve taken out of the cupboard. Work quickly and sort it into piles for: bin / recycling, keep and put back in the cupboard, keep and put away somewhere else, and give away / donate / sell.
  • If you’re not sure about something, think honestly about whether you’ll ever use it again, or how long it’s sat there unused. If it’s been unused for a couple of years or more, you’re very unlikely to use it again.
  • Now look at what you’ve selected to go back into the cupboard. Add structure if needed, such as boxes or baskets, and put those things away. Take a good look at your tidy new organised cupboard contents, take some pride in your work for a moment, then shut the door.
  • Put the items in the bin / recycling pile straight into your bins. Now take the contents of your bins outside so that lot of clutter is out of your house.
  • Next, take the pile of ‘keep and put away elsewhere’ items and put them away in their new / correct homes.
  • Finally, put the give away / donate / sell items into a box, and resolve to take them to the charity shop or get the ball rolling on selling them within the week. Don’t let them sit around longer than that, or the clutter will start to settle in another part of your home.

 

What’s happening here

The cupboard under the stairs had somehow become the messiest cupboard in the house, and I’d planned to do it today when I was creating the Jump Start January schedule. I have to confess that I cracked one evening last week and dragged all the junk out of it, and have already done the declutter.

It’s a small cupboard and it needs to be very practical and ergonomic, and it had somehow become filled with things we hardly use – making the stuff we regularly need to get hold of (like coats, cat food, dustpan and brush etc) very difficult to get to. As the weather became colder and grottier I became too annoyed to put up with it any more, and it got a blitzing.

The most commonly-used stuff is now nearest the door for easy access, along with things we might need in an emergency such as the mop and bucket and the main DIY toolkit. The stuff we don’t use much, such as the cat’s timer bowl, is at the back. And the things we hardly ever use have either gone in the bin or in the loft because until recently all they were doing was being tripping hazards.

Yes, a girl can only stub her toe on a can of masonry paint so many times… Unfortunately I didn’t find anything I could sell after this declutter, but do let me know if you have better luck. You might end up quids in.

Are you ready to get decluttering? Where’s the worst junk cupboard or other spot in your home?

 

Similar Posts