Hello and welcome to a decluttering post, I have done some cleaning and decluttering things in the past. I have not made a post on the topic in a while, but I wanted to get back to it for a few reasons. The first and main reason is that I felt that a lot more clutter has found its way back into my life. Now, my living situation has changed in the last year so it could be because I have less room so everything seems more cluttered, but either way I notice it and I am not particularly happy with that. The second reason is that I really would like to just keep things around me that I use or need to operate the things in my life.

So, I was scrolling around YouTube with this in mind and I came across a video by The After Work Channel where she did a 7 day declutter challenge where she got rid of 7 items per day for an entire week. I enjoyed her video and it inspired me a bit because I thought I was going to have to tackle something like I had in the past, but this idea was a bit more accessible for me time wise and with the space I have. I can easily find 7 things that I am no longer using for a week. So, I did it and here are the things I ended up getting rid of and to hopefully move back towards a more minimalist space that I had.

Day 1

• 5 skeins of dk yarn I am not going to use
• 1 ruler where it has a wonky edge
• 1 pencil holder I don’t really need since I have a pen container in my desk.

Day 2

• 13 socks, did a little extra and got rid of all my socks without a match

Day 3

• 2 boxes of razor heads, there was only one in each box anyway
• 1 comb, don’t use it really ever.
• 1 spray deodorant, does not work well.
• 1 pill organizer, don’t need it.
• 1 hand sanitizer, was leaking everywhere!
• 1 glasses plate, I don’t keep my glasses on there anyway.

Day 4

• 1 heel cream, don’t like the smell.
• 1 pack of makeup sponges, I apply my makeup with a brush.
• 1 bottle of toner, toner breaks me out every time.
• 1 peach makeup pouch, I don’t need it. I was using a different pouch to hold everything anyway.
• 1 shaver, never opened or used.
• 1 bar of soap, I don’t like bar soaps.

Day 5

• 8 bottle of nail polish, they were all colors that dried out.

Day 6

• 1 broken thumb brace
• 5 pack of money pouches, from my cash wallet days when I was learning to budget
• 1 eyeshadow pallet, I never reach for it and I always use my single shade anyway,
• 1 coin purse, I thought I had lost it, turned out it fell behind my night stand.
• 1 pack of emery boards, I use a glass file now.
• 2 pairs of eyebrow scissors, they were starting to rust and I am not using anything rusty.
• 2 nail files, I use a glass file and do not really like the metal ones personally.
• 1 perfume sample, I didn’t love the scent and I have one I love that I use daily.
• 1 pack of post-it tabs, not really large enough to be of use to me.

Day 7

• 1 apple watch box, I need to stop keeping boxes forever.
• 1 apple watch strap box, I really need to stop keeping boxes for years and years.
• 1 pair of broken head phones, these were over 10 years old.
• 4 packs of alternate ear buds, why did I keep all of the options of they didn’t work for my ears?
• 1 old iPad cover, kept to make sure a newer one worked before tossing it. It’s time has now come.
• 1 budget notebook, the layout didn’t work for my current needs.

Outcome

Did I meet my goal of getting rid of 49 things? After looking back at everything, yes I did! I ended up getting rid of a total of 65 things, that means I got rid of an extra 16 unused items. I realized pretty early on in this week long challenge that doing a certain area of the house or room was more helpful than just walking around the house picking 7 things. It led me to really take a look at what I had in that category and get rid of everything I was not going to be using. This led me to get rid of more than 7 things on a lot of the days, because I didn’t just stop after the 7 items were found, but continued to work through that area.

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For the record: everything I’ve written here is entirely my own opinion.These views do not reflect or represent those of my current or past employers.