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The Journey from Clutter to Decluttered: 4 Important Questions to Ask Along the Way

If you are in the middle of tackling the clutter in your home, it can seem like the end is way beyond your reach.

If you’re up to your elbows in “stuff” – take heart.

If you’re taking action, you’re making progress.

I was really thrilled to share my story over at Thrifty Frugal Mom. In telling my story, I realized that I’ve made a lot of progress. I don’t take enough time recognizing my progress and celebrating it. It’s too easy to just go on to the next “project.” We will never be done decluttering, but we’ve moved to maintenance mode with the clutter in our living areas.

So this is me, encouraging you to celebrate in the small or large progress you are making on YOUR decluttering journey.

Hop over to the guest post and read the four important questions to ask yourself as you’re decluttering. The 10 Step Decluttering Checklist is available to members of the Setting My Intention VIP Resource Library – sign up HERE.

From Clutter to Decluttered: 4 Important Questions to Ask Along the Way

Hey Thrifty Frugal Mamas! I’m Angela from Setting My Intention and I’m excited to share four key questions to ask yourself while decluttering your home. These are questions that I’ve asked myself repeatedly (too many times to count) since I’ve been decluttering my home with focus for the past two years.

You might be thinking, “you’ve been decluttering your home for TWO years! Are you a hoarder or something?” Nope. I’m not a hoarder. We’re a pretty normal family of five with three growing sons with rapidly changing interests and hobbies.

My Clutter Story

We’re not huge consumers who buy lots of new things. We tend more to the side of accepting items given to us by well meaning friends and family because “that could come in handy someday.” If you’re frugal, you know what I’m talking about. People are going to throw away some “perfectly good (fill in the blank)” and you take it because you don’t want to see it end up in the landfill.

For us, this became a problem when my youngest son was born. There is a six year gap between our middle son and our youngest – we thought we were done with babies – so we had given everything baby related away. Then we were blessed with our youngest son.

We accepted all the baby things that my sister was done with: swings, exersaucers, bouncy chairs, clothes, toys, books – you name it we accepted it. My thought was – if we don’t use it, we’ll pass it along to someone who could.

The only problem was…I didn’t have a system in place of regularly decluttering our home. So things that were outgrown were stuffed in closets or put in the basement and the pile just kept growing…and growing…and growing. Add on to this, school papers, mail, presents, and the normal stuff that kids and adults bring in the house on a daily basis.

This stuff usually grows slowly and it’s easy to ignore. It can sometimes be referred to as “clutter creep.”

My Decluttering Story

For many years I just ignored the overflowing closets, the growing piles, and the out of hand basement. After all, there were meals to be made, clothes to be washed, children to play with, and jobs to go to. I conveniently turned a blind eye to all “the stuff.”

I finally started dealing with the clutter when my youngest went to a full day pre-K program when he was four years old. I suddenly had several hours on the two weekdays that I had off. I had grand ideas of volunteering my time or writing more – but I found myself spending a lot of time picking up, cleaning, and working through the mountain of laundry.

Things had to change.

Read the rest HERE.

From Clutter to Decluttered: 4 Important questions to ask yourself along the way

This post will be shared at these link ups.

What’s your Clutter and Declutter Story? I’d love to hear in the comments.

Comments

    • I don’t think anyone does it intentionally, but we all have clutter blindness to things in our own homes. You’re not alone Abby!

  3. Congrats.
    I’m visiting your site from the link ups (Inspire me Monday) blog.
    Hope to get to know you better.

    Have a wonderful week,

    Emine
    Netherlands

  4. What a brilliant idea! This month I’ve felt driven to do the same, declutter and use things up before buying more! Especially with cosmetics and toiletries. Thanks for sharing this…. #DreamTeam

  5. Already pinned to “household tips” on Pinterest. Visiting from Motivational Monday and think this post is right on. Hope you enjoy reading my post, 3 Green Summer Veggie Superstars. Perhaps it will motivate you to include more greens in your meal planning.

  6. It’s encouraging to know your decluttering has been a journey. For me it’s been in “as I get motivated” waves. It’s time for the next one! LOL

    • Hi Donna! I definitely have waves of more motivation, but yes, I’ve been pretty intent on making sense of what I value and don’t. Happy decluttering!

  9. Can relate so much. We have been working on projects like decluttering and organizing. Feels so much better, although we have a few rooms to tackle still. Thanks for sharing at the Inspiration Spotlight party. Sharing.

  13. I de-clutter when I start feeling overwhelmed with stuff. But first, I need to learn how to control my spending habits.

    #ProductReviewParty

  14. It’s easy to make clutter when you have a little one and it’s really hard to tackle clutter when that little one is home. We’re not sure if we’re done with babies so we’re not ready to get rid of all that baby stuff just yet. My little Peachy isn’t 2 yet and she keeps me too busy to stay organized. Every time we make a dent in the mountain of clutter, it just grows again. One day I’ll get it under control, but not today. Thanks so much for linking up at #KCACOLS. Hope you come back again next time

    • I agree that when you have little kids there is only so much energy that you have – and it’s wisely spent feeding and loving on your baby! I only seriously started decluttering after my youngest started preschool.

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