40 bags in 40 days is a declutter challenge. Each day you focus on one particular area of the house and get a bag and pile it for garage sale, donation, or just throw shit away. You do not do much at a time. First thing you do is compile your list. Walk around your house and I promise you will find 40 places that you want to focus on. Each kids closet can be a day, or you can say floor of closet for one day, shelf of closet another day. Never make any particular day something that will take you longer than 30 minutes. For example day one for me was for the top of the fridge in my laundry room. I was just piling stuff up there for no reason. That stuff was a hodgepodge of stuff from hummingbird food to an old shelf from a refrigerator I no longer had. It took me 10 minutes to clean that area because for the most part I threw everything up there away. That was day one.... I then found myself obsessed with this whole decluttering world. I was looking on my list for "what's tomorrow". This is a sad life I know. However, it kept my house clean. When I'd clean an area, then another, and another slowly I saw that the less stuff I had the better I felt. It's amazing how much stuff one acquires and keeps. Now I'm no hoarder by any means, but really do I need to still have the manual to that crock pot I've had for 8 years? Am I going to suddenly forget how to use it?
So began my obsession with this 40 bags thing. I found there was a group on Facebook called 40 bags in 40 days 2013. The page must have been started that year, but the membership is over 20,000 and it's a very active site. I love reading people's post on there. It's a well maintained site. No one is rude. It's full of "look what I did today" and "I need advice". If anything it's a place to look at people's pictures and say "damn my house isn't that bad". Regardless I love that group! From there they taught me about a place called www.flylady.net.
So I mosey on over to this website about 6 months ago (they also have a Facebook page). At first I was very confused. Where do I start? What do I click on? What is this? First thing I suggest is sign up for their email. The email is waaay too frequent for my taste so I changed my settings and I only get the "Sneak Peak" on Saturday. You can also see what the sneak peak is on the main page under the tab titled "today". I chose to get the email, because honestly I need the reminder to look at my "assignment" each week. From there you will see a plan of attack. Each week the site goes into zones. Zones are similar to the areas I talked about in 40 bags. Zones are a certain room in the house. Each day you are told what room to go to and what to do in that room. I am busy through out the week so I do all 5 days (Monday through Friday) all on Sunday. Here are the November zones:
Zone 1: Entrance, Front Porch & Dining Room (November 01)
Zone 2: The Kitchen (November 02 – 08)
Zone 3: The Bathroom and One Extra Room (November 09 – 15)
Zone 4: The Master Bedroom (November 16 – 22)
Zone 5: The Living Room (November 23 – 30)
As you can see you can attack a particular room every week. The zones will come back around, but the next time that zone comes you may not get the same "assignment" in that room. I find a lot of weeks that they have me doing stuff I forget about. Today I was "assigned" the laundry room and had to clean behind the washer and dryer. Secret revealed! That's where the socks are!
Just a few more things I like about this site and then I'll stop boring you or holding you up from all that cleaning I know you can't wait to do (that was my sarcasm there).
Fly Kids Challenge: You can find this on the launch pad on the site. It's a challenge you can give your kids. Today's challenge is: Walk through the house and find 10 things that belong in your room and put them away. My kids love these challenges. It's like a counting game and they feel accomplished. Since we still have Halloween candy I let mine have a piece of candy as a reward. You can use stickers or dollar store items too if you'd like.
Menu Planning: Great tips on how to get ahead of the dinner dilemma each day and tips on how to save as well as sites and books to help you. 15 minutes
Hot Spot Cleaning: Set your timer for 15 minutes and go to an area that is always cluttered. Mine is my kitchen counter. Hot mess all the time, the mail, school reminders, etc. always pile up. If you attack this area daily for 15 minutes you'll find it no longer is decluttered ever! I also use the hot spot timer on my kids in their room. They find it a game and love to see how much they can clean in that time.
So there you have it. Is my house immaculate? Nope not at all, but I have a hold on it now. It's no longer an entire day's job to get it in order and it's no longer something I dread. I'm always on top of it for the most part and so glad I do it. Please if any of you have something similar you do please share. We mom's (and dad's) need all the help we can get! Have a great week everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment