30 Day Declutter Challenge

Happy New Year, Everyone! Thank you for joining me for Trash Talk Tuesday - the first one of 2022! Our year ended with a bang as we unexpectedly accepted three foster brothers, for a total of five kids. We enjoyed time to start meshing as a family of seven. We were just getting into a school routine and COVID hit our house. Only two of us were knocked out; one was me. Now we are all recouped and going to start school again.

The purpose of my business, Sankoty Sustainables, the Facebook group, and Trash Talk Tuesdays is to help give you simple steps to reduce waste and have a more earth-friendly, sustainable house. My mantra last year was “Take one step, and then take one more.” Everyone can do ONE thing to reduce waste. And once that one thing becomes a habit, you can do one MORE thing. I do not need to change my house to a zero waste house in a day or 30 days. I can do it in small steps, putting one foot in front of the other. The Chinese proverb says, “A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step,” right?

What’s my first step this year in my reduced waste journey? As I was looking for ideas I came across the 30 Day Minimalism Challenge. It’s a calendar that has 30 tasks listed on it and a person does just one task each day. Some of the tasks take more time than others in a given day and vary from cleaning out a junk drawer to cleaning one’s closet. There are even technology based tasks for your phone, such as deleting unused apps, putting your phone number on a “do not call” list, etc. I have included a picture of one such 30 Day Minimalism Challenge. You can do an internet search or Pinterest search for other ones if you don’t like the one I have posted.

One can do the 30 things in any order. And let’s be honest, this is probably going to be a 60 or 90 day challenge for me. BUT…I have taken the first step and I will not abandon this journey, because this group will help hold me accountable.

For my first challenge? I cleared out my son’s dresser of all the clothes that don’t fit him! Every time I have looked at his drawers the last two weeks, I thought about how he doesn’t need so many jeans and pajamas! I filled about half of a standard trash bag with too small jeans (and shorts!) and too small pajamas (two sizes too small even). The clothes will go into storage, be mailed to my nephew, or donated. Maybe even a garage sale!

My next goal is to organize all the paper in my room. I am a paper hoarder. I keep all bill stubs, pay stubs, check stubs, Christmas cards, thank you cards, retirement papers, kids drawings, etc. With tax season now upon us, I would like to get all of that organized and ready to go to the accountant or trash can. (Yes, another way to reduce waste is to automate a lot of my bill stubs, but I am old school for the most part, about ⅓ electronic, ⅔ paper. I digress…)

Would you join me in a 30 Day Minimalism Challenge? What will your first step be to reduce waste in your house in 2022?

(Picture credit: https://blog.thefabulous.co/30-day-declutter-challenge/)