Ok everyone! This is it, the final sprint! The big boss!
After this week you can take a break (ish) so keep on pushing!
Get rid of as much as you can from the garage, the attic, and the basement!
Find those old boxes that are hiding, dust them off and open them up! Chances are, everything inside can go, especially if you forgot you even had the stuff!
Look for any hazardous waste like old paint or stains, cleaning chemicals, or any liquid that you haven’t touched in a while like adhesives or drywall compound.
Check through the condition of old sporting equipment. Check for broken items, missing parts, and especially get rid of things that don’t fit the age of the kids anymore.
Sort through hobby items. Ask yourself if you are keeping it because you feel bad for not using it, or if you are realistically going to still use the old stuff.
Declutter any home decor that you are storing. Get rid of anything that’s broken (yes, no matter how much you might want to fix it one day!) Go through any seasonal boxes that you have as well – it’s funy how differently you might see your stuff when it’s not the right season.
Go through your tools or home repair equipment. Toss anything that’s garbage and organize the stuff you’re keeping.
Try to separate your keep stuff into categories and store those items together to make storage and retrieval easier.
Don’t forget to vacuum, sweep, dust, or wipe down all the surfaces so that you can put stuff away knowing there aren’t any creepy crawlers tucked away. You may even want to consider wearing a mask and some gloves depending on what you find.
If you have all three spaces (a garage, an attic and a basement) all full of stuff, you may want to consider pacing yourself and spreading week 10 into three separate weeks. Alternatively, you could do all three spaces as a speed donation hunting mission. Set a timer for each area and hunt down the biggest most obvious things for donate in all three spaces. You would be surprised how much you can sort with only 20 minutes in each space.
Often times, these areas can end up being the hardest to declutter, especially if you have tucked away personal keep sakes. Remember that you don’t have to sort through every tiny inch in one week. The important part is that some of your stuff leaves your house and that you feel like you are carrying less weight on your shoulders and in the house!
At the end of the week take some time to pat yourself on your back!
You did it!
You worked on decluttering your whole house in just 10 weeks! Did you happen to take any before and after pictures? Look back through them if you did and be proud of your effort! It’s a big job to sort through your whole house! And you have already been working on it for 9 weeks straight!
Now, the hard part is going to be maintaining the spaces! Easier said that done, right? More on that that in the future!
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