Welcome to September!

September often feels more like the start of a new year than January does. Not only do kids head back for a fresh year of schooling, but moms feel a sudden urge for new beginnings as well.

For many mothers a new start comes with decluttering the house. Garage sale signs pop up on every corner and the lines to donate are long. It’s time for “out-with-the-old and in-with-the-new”. Everyone could do with a fresh start in September.

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21

We’ve all heard that scripture verse. It provides the perfect prompt to get rid of things. But what if you’re not the decluttering type?

I recently saw a picture online of a woman sitting sadly in the middle of a huge mess. The text said: “When the urge to declutter wears off and now you just made everything worse.” I kept the picture because I have lived that moment so many times. I tend to pull everything out of a closet or cabinet, look around at the mess, and want to cry instead of dealing with it all. There are people who love to organize, and bless their hearts, I wish I could afford to hire one.

I recently read about yet another way to declutter and it peaked my interest. It’s called:

“DECLUTTERING BURSTS”

Usually experts recommend that you take a slow approach to decluttering. And that’s smart advice. Rome wasn’t built in a day and you didn’t gather your junk in that amount of time either. But what if you have trouble maintaining the focus and the motivation to keep at it?

This new method turns the expert’s advice on its head and is a perfect method for those of us who are sprinters and not marathon runners. I get bored easily and any chore that takes too long drives me crazy. I do fine in short bursts though.

Job 32:19: “Inside I am like bottled-up wine, like new wineskins ready to burst.”

Here are the instructions.

All you need are a donation box, a garbage bag, and a timer. Once you’ve gathered your three items, you set your timer for one hour and hit the floor running. Your goal is to get 100 things out of the house in one hour!

When my kids were little we often played the “beat the clock” game. It was so much more fun to put away laundry and empty the dishwasher if we set a timer to see how fast it could be done. So I figured this method had some merit.

Before you start, here are some helpful hints.

Bathroom – Open the cabinet and toss out old make-up, old prescriptions, ragged towels, or products you bought and didn’t care for.
Junk drawer – Move onto the junk drawer. Throw away random screws, dried pens, old receipts, take-out menus, and old keys.
Kitchen – Open the fridge and throw out old condiments and expired food. Whenever my kids visit they do this for me and then laugh at my “grandma fridge”. Toss duplicate utensils, old spices, and extra cups or towels. Look under the sink for dried up cleaning supplies. It all counts.
Closets – Don’t freak out. Closets can be stressful. You are not trying to clean the whole thing out. Just grab worn out sheets, itchy blankets, coats you never wear, clothes with tags still on that you’ve never worn, hats, scarves or gloves.
Craft Drawers – This one is huge for me. I’ve bought so many art supplies that I thought I would use someday. I didn’t have any idea what I already had and kept buying duplicates. An artist in my local buy nothing group asked for supplies and it made clearing stuff out more fun because I knew it was going to someone who needed it.
Living Room – My living room is my oasis but I still have books and knick-knacks that need to go.
Your Closet – Again, do not panic. We’re not doing an overhaul. Just look for shoes that pinch, unworn clothes, things you “might” fit into someday, and accessories that are outdated.
Garage and Attic – Donate any box you haven’t opened in years. You’ve lived without it this long. You don’t need it!

Of course I can’t recommend this method if I haven’t tried it for myself. I was nervous and began to doubt whether it was possible. One hundred items in an hour? It felt a bit overwhelming, which was the feeling I was trying to avoid!

I enlisted my husband’s help and gathered my box, bag, and timer. I set the alarm and we took off running. My husband was saying things like, “We can’t do one hundred things!” and “I don’t think there’s anything else.”

The result though? We found over one hundred things in twenty-three minutes!

Ann Kirsten

I wanted to take a picture so we put everything on the table. You can skip this step and put yours right into a box or bag.

Things to remember as you work:

This is NOT about making an area look pristine and organized. This is simply getting rid of 100 things in your house.
You will be tempted to finish cleaning areas you search. Good. Go back at another time and do that.
You may find this method so helpful that you will repeat it on a monthly basis.
Enlist your family’s help. You’ll finish even faster.
On those days when you feel guilty for not wanting to do anything, a simple hour (or 23 minutes!) will get rid of that guilt.

I now have gathered a whole bunch of ways to declutter my house. I am adding this method to my list and will choose ways to clean depending on how I feel that day.

And I look forward to the day when I will be in a place where there is no more clutter.

^“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” John 14:3