It’s Day Two of our Tenner Week budgeting challenge, with its theme of decluttering. How are you doing so far? Have you spent any of your £10 cash budget yet, and are you managing to keep busy?

Yesterday we tackled the mess under the kitchen sink, and now we’re heading off to blitz some clutter in the bathroom…

Today’s declutter: Bathroom cabinet or shelf

The tidy-up we’re doing today should be fairly easy, as long as you don’t try to sort out your entire bathroom all at once. Keep it limited to just a small area, such as one shelf, a small cabinet, or the overfilled caddy in your shower – something you can sort out all in one go in 5 to 15 minutes.

Bathroom cabinets are a great way to keep your medicines, skincare and shower products tidy, but over time they can fill up with items that are out of date or unwanted. This can make it unhealthy when you need your medicines, or it can simply get in your way when you’re in a rush.

Here’s the declutter:

• Decide what purpose this space needs to serve – first aid kit, everyday medicines, beauty treats, shaving kit, etc.
• Get everything out of the cabinet or off the shelf.
• Clean the cabinet or shelf really well, and wipe it dry.
• Go through everything at a fast-ish pace and divide it into piles for ‘Keep here’, ‘Keep but belongs somewhere else’, ‘Throw away’, ‘Recycle’, and ‘Give away or sell’.
• Group the ‘Keep’ items up and put them back in the cabinet or on the shelf.
• Put the ‘Keep but belongs somewhere else’ stuff away where it should really live.
• Throw away and recycle the next round of stuff. Check with your GP or a pharmacy if you have surplus or out of date medicines to dispose of them safely. Get the recycling out of your home and into a bin today if you can.
• Bag up the ‘Give away or sell’ items and donate them or list them for sale within the next seven days.
• Make a shopping list of missing items you might need, such as boxes, baskets and toiletries that you can buy after the budgeting challenge is over.

Work fast otherwise you could end up procrastinating or getting sidetracked. I’ve been setting a timer so the tasks don’t eat up too much of my day.

By the way, if you have any nice products that you’ve owned for a while but are ‘keeping for best’, why not start using them up before they expire or go off? It’s a waste not to use them, so be sure to enjoy them. During a declutter like this I nearly always find some treat that makes January just that little bit more pleasant.

What’s happening here

Yesterday’s ‘under the sink’ declutter went very well, and now the space under our sink is clean, tidy and practical. The cleaning products we use most frequently are within easy reach at the front of the dividing boxes, and they’re grouped together by function rather than crammed in all higgledy piggledy.

We have all the basics we need to keep our home clean and hygenic, and the clutter and almost-empty bottles of things we won’t be repurchasing have been sorted out and recycled. It made me realise that I need to get some more washable cleaning cloths as part of my plan to reduce plastic use around our home, so they’ve gone onto the shopping list, but apart from that we’re good to go.

My task here today is to clear out and tidy the bathroom cupboard that sits under our bathroom cabinet. We sorted out the cabinet already a couple of weeks ago (goodbye out of date medicines!), but the cupboard – despite being nice and clean – is more messy so it gets the attention now instead. The main problem is a box full of product samples, freebies and travel bottles that’s overfilled and basically getting in the way, so I’m going to set a 10 minute timer for that and be completely ruthless. Some of it’s going in the recycling and some of it’s going to charity, and that’s that.

Foodwise, we have a good menu thrashed out here after a very thorough Sunday Stocktake, so it’s fancy linguine and a homegrown rocket salad for dinner tonight. A menu is always reassuring if you’re sticking to a tight budget, and I’m looking forward to a tasty meal too, so as usual it’s making us try some new recipes and enjoy our food even more. Preventing food waste sounds like a chore on the surface, but in practice it can be rather different, often more of a pleasure instead.

I managed a no-spend day yesterday and I’m aiming to do the same today, so I still have the full £10 budget left intact. Of course, I have no idea how long this will last, but currently it’s so far so good and I’m feeling optimistic.

Do you have some clutter to clear off your bathroom shelf or out of a cabinet? How’s your budget looking so far this week?