Decluttering 100 things in a week

As the end of the Easter holidays approached, I began to think about getting the house back in order. We were at home a lot, so there were plenty of half-finished projects scattered about, and we also shopped for new items which needed homes.

It was the wrong time of the month to play the #minsgame, so I decided to set my own challenge, and remove 100 items from the house over the last week.

I'm the only one in our house that does any kind of decluttering, so normally when I do challenges like this I often count items that belong to other people are part of my total. But I decided to be a bit stricter with myself this time.

These things didn't count:

* Things belonging to other people, I could only count my own possessions or household items that are exclusively for my use and that no-one else knows exist. I still decluttered and tidied other things at the same time, I just didn't count them.

* Things that I'd be throwing away anyway, like junk mail.

* Consumables that were used up during the week, like toiletries or food.

I must admit that I found the challenge very difficult! I declutter regularly and am often sorting through my things so there weren't many obvious things to remove. But here's what went:

Study - 3 packs of glue, 1 pack pencils, 2 sets of sticky dots, broken magnetic notepad, blunt scissors,
book, old squishy, pen, 2 USB sticks, 5 Ikea pencils, Lego cards, silly putty, craft kit, old map, patterned paper, tissue paper, foam sheets (25)

Bedroom - 4 jumpers, 2 pairs pyjamas, 1 pair of jeans, 6 tops, 1 lonely sock, 1 bra, 3 bits of fabric, 2 expired cards, low factor sun cream, razor stand, sewing kit, ear plugs, 4 pairs headphones, 1 box (29)

Bathroom - 3 expired bottles of medicine, 2 medicine spoons, 2 inter dental brushes (7)

Living room - 2 Ikea catalogues (2)

Kitchen - 8 colouring/activity books, shoe polish, wristband, shopping bag, sponge, ice cube tray, 4 shoelaces, filled up notebook, tube of dried up paint, plastic trays, tea towel, 2 cleaning cloths, pencil pot, 9 pens, plastic mat, science kit leftovers, big pile of dried up felt pens, broken pencil sharpener (37)

= 100 items!

Lots of these things were small, so you'd think that it wouldn't have made much of a difference, but I can definitely tell that things are looking tidier. Especially in the drawers where I keep my clothes - I've made some space and rearranged things so that I can see them more easily.

Doing a challenge like this is definitely a good way for me to keep on top of the little extra things that end up in the house!

Photo credit - Khai Sze Ong via Unsplash