This is the first of four posts of the Unclutter Your Nest Bootcamp. This week we are in the bathrooms and bedrooms. I’ve gathered some Home Decluttering Ideas and Tips that I hope you will find useful as you dive into these areas. Links to all of the posts are at the bottom. These four posts share how we removed over 1000 pounds of stuff from our home in a 4 week period. 

Does it make me a tad weird that I have been as excited about the Unclutter Bootcamp as I was for Christmas?  We will declutter our nest and lighten our load over the next month, starting with the Bathrooms and Bedrooms.

If you are just starting the process of how to declutter your home through our Unclutter Your Nest and Lighten Your Load Boot Camp, then pop back here to get the general guidelines and suggestions.

Subscribers to Nourish and Nestle can also pop over to the Subscriber Benefits Library for the Discard sheets. These sheets are handy to keep track of donations for tax deductions and if you want and if you want to keep track of what you’ve discarded. If you choose to weigh your discards, you can print jot that down on this form too.

You could also click the button below to have this Discard Sheet sent directly to your inbox.

Oh, and I KNOW you are going to have many pounds of discards as we declutter your home…..check out this page for WHERE TO RECYCLE AND DONATE YOUR DISCARDS.

Before you begin your bedroom and bathroom decluttering:

• Bring a bag/box for TRASH, for DONATE, for RECYCLE, for RELOCATE and, if you really need it,  for STORAGE.
• Bring a dustbuster or vacuum, rags, and cleaning solution.
• Put on your favorite Pandora station, CD, Alexa Playlist or radio station
• If it motivates you, take note of what you toss and the weight of all the stuff leaving your home.  My home is already breathing easier with some of the weight lifted.
• You can deduct the clothes you donate on your taxes.  Subscribers can download a form to keep track of tax deductions in the Subscriber Benefits Library.

Home Decluttering Ideas: the Bathrooms

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The bathroom is a conglomeration of cosmetics and medicine/first-aid items.  In my home, it’s an area that is difficult to corral and keep clutter-free.

This unclutter ‘process’ is one I go through almost annually, but there have been too many items that I overlook because A) I spent a lot of money on them or B) I might use them someday.

Case in point, hair products.  I really don’t like the feel of products in my hair, but I have accumulated 5-6 bottles of salon-quality products that I never use, but haven’t parted with. I consider myself fairly savvy, but I have also been a sucker for marketing campaigns that promise porcelain skin and stronger fingernails.

All these purchases are now lying, unused, in various drawers in my bathroom, taking up space and requiring my attention when I need to move them to get to what I really need.  After many years and many purchases, I now know that such purchases are a waste of my money and unnecessarily take up space in my home.

• Get your bags/boxes.  The containers for STORAGE would be used for items you would only use a couple of times a year, like glittery nail polish, or travel items.

  

• Take EVERYTHING out of your drawers and cabinets and wipe them down, inside and out.  I find it harder to put all the junk back in when the area is nice and clean
• Empty out all of your storage containers and wipe them out.
• Examine every item.  When was the last time you used it? Unused cosmetics and hair care products are out of here!
• If it motivates you, take note of what you toss and how much it weighs!  My house is already breathing easier with the clutter that’s going out the door.

TRASH:

• Make-up you don’t use or that is past shelf life:

Mascara and Liquid Eyeliner                                                             2-4 months

Liquid Foundations                                                                             12-18 months

 Powder/Bronzer/Blush                                                                     2 years

Hair Products you don’t use or are past shelf life of                    3 years

The perfume that is no longer ‘your style’ or that is older than   4 years

RECYCLE:

• Medicine, ointment and prescriptions past their due date.  Check out this resource for places to discard your medications.
• Be kind to the earth and empty what’s in your discarded lotion/shampoo/etc…  bottles and then recycle them

DONATE:

• Those little bottles of shampoo/conditioner/lotion and bars of soap you took from hotels for the past 7 years and are keeping in a basket or drawer for houseguests who might need them…out they go.  When was the last time anyone used one of those little bottles?  The folks at your local Interfaith Hospitality, homeless shelter or domestic violence shelter will gladly accept the unopened bottles and bars and you know they will be used instead of just cluttering your space.
• Goodwill will accept your curling irons or other styling tools.

STORAGE:

• Put all your travel-related items in a labeled box.  I put the following in my ‘Travel’ box:
  • Toiletry/Makeup bag
  • Small tubes of toothpaste and small bottles of face cleaner
  • Small, travel size bottles that I can put my shampoo, conditioner or lotion in
• Put all your special occasion makeup/nail polish in an appropriately named box.
• I am not sure about you, but having stylish organization and storage motivates me to keep it well organized. Here I discuss 7 snazzy organization ideas that might help you keep organized as well.

After you’ve determined what you want to keep, contain like items together. I love my label maker and used it to make container labels for “Pain Relievers”,  “Digestive”, “First Aid”  and “Cold/Allergies” and consolidated like items together in their respective boxes.

I actually got rid of so much stuff that I also got rid of 6 storage bins in this unclutter! These are the mesh organizers I  kept and used to organize my cosmetic drawer.

Look at each item carefully and decide if you really want to put them back in your very clean drawers.

After I went through all of our bathrooms, these home decluttering ideas helped me take 15 lbs of bathroom clutter out of my house!

Home Decluttering Ideas: the Bedrooms

• We are going to take a cue from Marie Kondo’s book The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up when it comes to the clothes, socks, and every other clothing item in our bedroom.

There is a huge benefit to taking everything out of your closet and examining each piece before you put it back in.  It’s much easier to skip over an item that’s hanging up then it is to hang it back up once it’s already out of your closet. 

• Get your bags and boxes.  The container for STORAGE would be used for items you would only use a couple of times a year like ski gear.
• Take EVERYTHING out of your closet, put it on the floor or on the bed.  Pick up each item and decide if its an item that brings you joy and if you feel good wearing it.

If it does, then hang it back up in your closet.  If it doesn’t then decide if it needs to go in the TRASH, DONATE or the SELL box.

Don’t consider how much you spent on that dress.  Don’t consider that if you lost 7 pounds you could wear those pants again.  If you haven’t worn the item in 1 year, it’s time to let it go to someone who would wear it.

I have to tell you that Marie Kondo’s suggestion of taking everything out of your closets and drawers is spot on.  We have gone through our closets many times in the past, but this time we were so much more effective.

There is no doubt it’s because we laid everything out on the floor and had to pick up each item before we put it back in the closet.

• Do the same for your shoes, lingerie, pajamas, jewelry, belts, etc..  If you haven’t worn or used an item in the past year, then chances are pretty good you won’t be wearing it in the future.

While our focus is primarily decluttering right now, you might want to consider how you want to hang your items back in your closet. Consider grouping types of clothing by season and by color within each season.

• Go through your dresser and nightstand. Does EVERYTHING in that drawer have use or bring you joy?  If not, it needs to go.

TRASH:

• Those socks with holes in them or that don’t have a mate, the threadbare nightgown, you know what I’m talking about.

While we’re talking about SWM (socks without mates), as you go from room to room, collect them in an ‘SWM bag’ to see if you can find any long lost mates before you toss them.

• So, I’m not a clean painter.  As such, I only wear rather old/stained/torn clothes when I have a painting project.  To that end, I have accumulated a stack of ‘painting clothes’.

Instead of throwing out clothes that can’t be worn in public, I have just added them to my ‘painting clothes’ stack.  When I went through them today, I realized that I had a different set of ‘painting clothes’ for every day of the week!  I threw out all except a set of ‘painting clothes’ for warm weather and one for cool weather.

Do you have several sets of ‘special occasion’ clothing when you only need one or two?

DONATE:

• Here are some places you can donate the stuff you’ll be discarding:
  • Clothing: Freecycle.org, your local women’s shelter, Goodwill, homeless shelters, Interfaith Hospitality Organization, Salvation Army and churches are good places to start. See here for more options.
  • Shoes:  you can donate your gently used shoes to the places you can donate your gently used clothing.
  • Those tchotchkes you have lying about?  I know some of them have been gifted to you and you’ve been holding on to them because you’d feel guilty letting them go.  But here’s the thing that Marie Kondo made me realize; if these items don’t really bring you joy, then pass them on to someone to whom they might bring joy.  Take them to Goodwill or your local Habitat Re-Store and let them find a home that will really appreciate them.

RECYCLE:

• Well Worn Shoes:   These can be recycled at your local Nike Factory Store.  As part of their Nike Better World/Re-Use A Shoe Program, they will grind up the rubber soles to make playground and track surfaces. 

  

15 Pounds of Shoes going to the Nike Factory Store to be Recycled

RELOCATE:

• I’m always giving my guys each other’s socks and skivvies.  Good time to return them to the proper owner.

SELL:

• I love finding great deals at consignments stores and you might be able to make a few dollars by selling your still-somewhat-in-style-stuff to them or on eBay.

Using these Home Decluttering Ideas and Tips we took 191 pounds of clothing, books, and toys out of our bedrooms!  Combined with the bathrooms, we have reduced the weight of our home by 206 pounds!!!  WOW…I’m thrilled and excited to see what next week brings.

Bookmark these Home Decluttering Ideas or pin the following image for your future reference:

Take our journey on how to declutter your home and catch up on all 4 weeks of the Unclutter Your Nest Bootcamp here. During this 4-week Decluttering Challenge, we will tackle all of the areas of our homes.

In Week 1, we will begin to unclutter our nest in the Bathrooms and Bedrooms.  Week 2 share decluttering tips for our kitchens, offices, and craft rooms. We will lighten the load in our den, living rooms, playrooms, coat closets, and laundry rooms during Week 3. Our busy 4 weeks of decluttering will end in the Attic and Garage. 

We just finished the first week of our Unclutter Your Nest and Lighten Your Load Boot Camp.  Now, that wasn’t too bad and don’t you feel better?  Isn’t your home breathing easier with X pounds of stuff taken out of it?  Aren’t you breathing easier just knowing you have that fewer things to tend?

• Other Decluttering and Organizing Posts:

Where to Donate and Recycle Your Discards

Freezer and Refrigerator Organization that Works

Wrapping Paper Organizer Cart

Organizing and Storage Ideas for an Uncluttered Bathroom

Organized Closets and Cabinets

Organized Office and Craft Room

Clutter-Free Kitchen and Organized Linen Storage

I’ll be back next weekend with more home decluttering ideas for your office/craft room and kitchen.  Until then, enjoy your lighter home.

 

Thanks for making my day by SHARING!!