Simple Declutter Challenge – Decluttering Bathrooms and Laundry Room
Let’s finish this 28- day Simple Declutter Challenge strong! On this final fourth week of the challenge, we will be decluttering bathrooms and laundry room.
Welcome to the fourth and final week of the Simple Declutter Challenge! This week we will be decluttering bathrooms and laundry room. I’ve also decided to throw in a couple of bonus rooms to tackle. One being the craft room and then any room specifically to you that needs some extra decluttering love!
Now since this is the fourth and final week of the challenge, you may have missed a ton of information from the prior three weeks of the declutter challenge. So, if you missed week three (decluttering closets and bedrooms) or week two (decluttering the office and living room) or possibly even week one (decluttering the kitchen and garage), be sure to go back and check those out! Then come back here to tackle week the final week. 🙂
Before We Get This Simple Declutter Challenge Started…
If you happened to miss the introduction to the Simple Declutter Challenge, you will find it here. And if you haven’t downloaded and printed the Simple Declutter Challenge calendar, it’s not too late!
I suggest you mark tasks complete on the calendar as we go through the challenge. By doing so, you will feel a greater sense of accomplishment and hopefully stay more motivated to complete the entire 28 days of tasks.
Don’t Forget Your Tools
Before you actually start decluttering, you will need a few items to help you. Grab a cardboard box (or two), a couple of large trash bags, a large basket and a timer. The boxes are for items you want to donate. The trash bags are for anything you want to throw out. And the basket is for items that don’t belong in this room and need to be moved to a new location. Your goal is to stay in the one location you are decluttering and stay focused on this space, uninterrupted, for as long as you can.
Once you’re ready to start decluttering, set the timer and work in a systematic pattern moving quickly to see what clutter you can remove from the space. Now, you may be thinking: a timer? And I have to move quickly? Yes to both and here’s why. Putting a timer on, creates a little bit of urgency and will help you make a gut decision rather than debating with yourself whether or not you really need the item. If you don’t immediately say “I use this” or “I love this”, it can go. Spending time thinking about that “just in case” situation when you may or may not need it, is not helping you!
Always Keep These Four Questions In Mind
As you’re quickly sorting through items in your home, you may come across something and not know what to do with it. So here are a few questions to keep in mind and ask yourself. This will help you make a decision faster and keep you on task with decluttering!
Do I use it? If yes, move on to next question. If no, there’s your answer. (And no, the question is not ‘WILL I USE THIS ONE DAY’.) 😉
Do I have more than one? If no, move on to next question. If yes, extra items are just that – extra. Donate for others!
Would I buy this today? If yes, move on to next question. If no, there’s your answer. Maybe your style has changed. So if you don’t love it, you don’t need it. Donate or trash.
Does this help to make my life easier? If yes, keep it. If no, then most likely this item is adding to the clutter in your life. Donate or trash.
So now the details of what you need and how to declutter are out of the way. Let’s continue removing more clutter from our homes by returning back to our closets.
Let’s Start This Fourth Week Decluttering Bathrooms
When the bathroom starts feeling cluttered and chaotic, it’s time for a good decluttering! By getting rid of all of that extra “stuff” we don’t use, we’ll be able to create a much more functional and calming space. And don’t we all want a more spa-like bathroom retreat? I think so!
DAY 22: Today we will declutter our bathroom cabinets.
Luckily decluttering the bathrooms is a pretty simple and straightforward task. Basically we’ll need to purge and the reorganize the items taking up space in the cabinets, inside drawers -even on the counters. The good news? You should be able to get your bathrooms in order with one afternoon of work. 🙂
So start by emptying the cabinets and drawers. By completing this step, you will have a good visual of the access items. Sort everything into the three standard piles: keep, trash, and donate.
Tips to Keep in Mind:
As you are reorganizing and deciding what to keep, here are a few suggestions to consider. If you’re holding onto a product that only has a little bit left, give yourself a month to use it – if you don’t by then, throw it out. Did you end up with a ton of extra towels? I would suggest donating them to a local animal shelter.
Organizing Tip for Bathrooms:
I recommend decluttering multiple bathrooms at once to really get an idea how much excess is in each room. You may have enough soap to last you for two years and not even know it! 🙂 So if you tackle them all at once, you may discover you want to reorganize and store items in different bathrooms then you were currently. This may seem like more work at first, but it will actually save you time in the end.
Bathroom organizers to consider: (click on image to shop)
DAY 23: Today we will declutter our bathroom toiletries and makeup.
So here’s a question for you. How many beauty samples do you have in your home right now? It’s amazing how those tiny little samples can quickly take over our bathrooms. I’m so guilty of this – I set them aside intending on trying them ‘some time’. And then like a year later or so, I’ll accidently stumble upon them again and feel like a fool because I never used them.
When the quantity of the product is very small, like these samples for example, the quality deteriorates much faster. So that’s why, decluttering the toiletries in our bathrooms is important to do (rather often).
Tips to Keep in Mind:
As you sort through your toiletries and makeup, be sure to think of expiration. Just like when you’re clearing out your pantry, food past its prime is the first thing to go. Well, the same idea holds true for beauty products. To be fair, it’s hard to tell what a product’s expiration date is, because it’s not quite as clear as it is for food products. And heck, some products don’t even suggest an expiration date.
So if your not sure when your makeup has actually expired and it’s time to throw it out, here’s some guidelines to help you below. (Print it off for easy reference or PIN it!)
Organizing Tip for Makeup:
When reorganizing your makeup, start first with the items you use most/daily. Place those up front so they’re easier to access. Then deal with the rest of your makeup. And as always, organize products by type. Put all foundations in one drawer, and all concealers in another, etc.
Makeup organizers that work wonders: (click on image to shop)
DAY 24: Today we will declutter the medicine cabinet.
The medicine cabinet can acquire so much clutter, fast! Expired medicine or old prescriptions that “might come in handy someday.” But really, those medications may have already expired and can cause more harm than good. So it’s important to declutter your medicine cabinet every six months or so.
Here are a few guidelines to help you decide whether or not to keep or throw out. First things first, check those dates. And not just the prescriptions but also ointments, supplements and vitamins. Toss out any item that’s beyond the expiration date. And for prescriptions, if they are older than a year – they need to go.
We don’t have any medicine cabinets in our home so our medicines and first aid items are actually stored on a high shelf in my linen closet. It’s out of sight and reach for little hands. But is also located in place for easy access. 🙂
Tips to Keep in Mind:
Some caution for disposing of medications! Almost all medicines, except those on the FDA flush list, can be thrown into the household trash. These include prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs in pills, liquids, drops, patches, and creams. Here’s the correct steps to dispose:
- Remove the drugs from their original containers and mix them with something undesirable, such as used coffee grounds, dirt, or cat litter. This makes the medicine less appealing to children and pets and unrecognizable to someone who might intentionally go through the trash looking for drugs.
- Put the mixture in something you can close (a re-sealable zipper storage bag, empty can, or other container) to prevent the drug from leaking or spilling out.
- Throw the container in the garbage.
- Scratch out all your personal information on the empty medicine packaging to protect your identity and privacy. Throw the packaging away.
Organizing Tip for Medicine Cabinets:
Keep your medicine cabinet organized into categories. In my pharmacy basket I have adult medication and children medication separate. Then items are organized by type of medication and like items are grouped together.
Some helpful items for keeping you medicine cabinet organized: (click on image to shop)
DAY 25: Today we will declutter our laundry room.
When it comes to a room in house that’s goal is to be cleanest and most orderly, the laundry room is often a place of contained chaos! We got orphaned socks, torn jeans, and missing-button shirts mixed up with messy detergent bottles, dirty and clean clothes, unfolded clothes piles. But don’t you worry: we are gonna get our laundry rooms declutter in no time!
Tips to Keep in Mind:
Start by taking out all the obvious trash first! After that’s complete, focus on items that do not belong here. Anything being stored in the laundry room that you don’t need to do laundry should be moved elsewhere. These out-of-the-way shelves may seem useful for storing craft supplies or miscellaneous junk. But keeping odds and ends in a space designated for laundry will be adding to our clutter problem.
Organizing Tip for Laundry Rooms:
Since you likely have a laundry routine already in place, focus on it and see where you can add in a few minutes of decluttering every time you’re doing the laundry. Taking five minutes to put the laundry detergent away, clean the lint filter, and pick up that stray sock will go a long way in helping you stay on top of your organization.
Some amazing laundry room organizers: (click on image to shop)
DAY 26: Today we will declutter our craft rooms.
Has your creativity for crafts gotten buried under clutter? Well, let’s take back that craft room and get to crafting once again!
Tips to Keep in Mind:
If you’re a crafter, more than likely, you like to create with more than one type of craft. Perhaps you crochet and sew, paint and sketch. or scrapbook and make jewelry. So if that’s you, instead of gathering up all of your craft supplies, dumping them into a massive heap, and attempting to declutter them, you should choose one category of craft supplies to focus on at a time.
Organizing Tip for Craft Rooms:
Remember to store like items with like and keep things close to where you plan to use them. Also, use clear storage containers when possible so you will be able to locate items as soon as creativity strikes.
Favorite craft supply organizers: (click on image to shop)
Now, Let’s Declutter Any Room You Need
DAY 27 and 28: Over the next two days we will declutter any room you need and use a free day to get caught up.
Remember to grab all the tools mentioned above (box for donations, trash bags and a basket for items that belong in another location). Remove all the trash first. Then create an area to sort the remaining items.
You Did It! You Finished The Challenge!
Great news my friend! You have finished the 28-day Simple Declutter Challenge and I am so proud of you. Stop and take a good look at your newly clutter free home and enjoy it. You earned it! And a very big THANK YOU to you for sticking with me over the past month! 🙂
If you found this weeks tips on decluttering bathrooms and laundry room helpful, be sure to PIN IT so others might find these tips as well!
