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Yesterday I started the 40 bags in 40 days challenge. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s basically a pledge to dispose of at least 40 bags of stuff in 40 days. (Trash, recycling, and donations all count) It’s a great way to get started decluttering and reorganizing, so I figured why not do it at the beginning of the year?
The first step in the process is making a list of all the places you want to clean out. That way you can choose a different spot every day and it won’t seem like one giant chore. I’m sure people probably put whole rooms on their lists here, but that seems too daunting. Instead, I’ve divided up my house into each little cubby, that way if I get home and only have an hour or so before going to bed I’ll still get a chance to check something off my list. So here’s the list I came up with:
- Master bath vanity
- Guest bath vanity
- Under the kitchen sink
- Coat closet
- Night stands
- Office shelves
- Dining room cabinets
- Kitchen drawers
- Kitchen cabinets
- Laundry room
- Utility closet
- Shoe closet
- Guest room closet
- Present/prize dresser
- Built-in in the living room
- Shed
- Master closet
Some of these are clearly going to take more than an hour (hello, shed) but I can tackle those on weekends instead of at night after work. When I first looked at this list, I was a little concerned that since I didn’t have forty locations on the list there was no way I was going to have forty bags by the end of my forty days. I like to think I’m pretty good at getting rid of things I don’t need, but after my first task last night I realize how wrong I was!
So day #1 was the master bath vanity. I’m new to this whole blogging thing, so sadly I forgot to take before pictures. The lead photo is of the five bags of trash I had to throw out after going through the vanity. That doesn’t include the bag of recycling I had either. So six bags just going through and getting rid of expired drugs and cosmetics I don’t use any more. Here are some photos of my cleaned-out vanity. If you like those green bins, they are available at Walmart for $2.50 each (maybe $2.49 or $2.48 but you get it). The white tray with hair stuff on it was from TJMaxx and the white bin under one of the sinks I already had. I’m pretty sure that’s from Ikea if you’re looking for one. 
One of these days I swear I’ll post something that isn’t housekeeping. But it’s winter so I don’t have a lot of gardening going on. And I’ve been baking for two months so I need a break from the kitchen!