Living Clean

Louise's deep cleaning and decluttering journal

At the moment I am focussing my decluttering on papers and books. I have been throwing away one black bin per week and this has been fairly good. The black bin fits inside the top of the recycle bin, as I think I said. They collect this every 2 weeks, and I take it to the recycle bank myself on the week when it is not collected.

Card goes into the brown recycle bin along with compost and garden stuff.

I am going to read the declutter instructions in a while - so sorry if I am not following them properly - it usually ends up as a mixture of my system and Jan's system. I like to add a few of my own ingredients into the mix.

I am starting with the 3 boxes, ie give away, put away and chuck away.

There is also the garden, the garage and the communal allotment. - I have a system for the garden which I can discuss later. In the mean time, there is quite a bit of decluttering in the garden as well. There is a petrol tank someone dumped there and an old Weber kettle barbecue. The shed also needs some serious dejunking and waterproofing before the winter comes.

The garage also needs a clearout and so does the loft, so there is some serious scope there for de-junking and decluttering.

I have already started decluttering and spring cleaning the bathroom and kitchen, and my upstairs bedroom. This has been working fairly well. I have been working my way round the kitchen, doing one area at a time. So on Wednesday I did the area around the microwave, on Thursday I did the sink, on Friday I did the area to the right of the cooker, today I am doing the bit on the left of the cooker and the next day I am starting on the crazy worksurface that has everythng dumped on it. I did take some before photos but have not downloaded them. I also need to spend a day on the washing and a day on the table and vegetable rack. These two can go together as the veggie rack is usually very easy to keep tidy.

I also need a fridge day - forgot about that - and the bins can be done on the same day as the fridge.

The badly piled up surface will take more than a week, but I am also adding it into the boost circuit, so it gets a regular slot there as well.

Then there is my office area - that also needs doing - and my studio which is very piled up at the moment.

I go round the kitchen anti-clockwise for the outside of the cupboards, and I want to go clockwise for the inside cupboards. The reason for these 2 directions is that I do not do the insides as often so they go at a different and slower speed.

▶ Reply to This