How I Purged My Entire House In a Week
We just completed the first leg of our move to McKinney, Texas, and I feel really great about it! Part of this is because I spent a week decluttering our entire home before a single item was packed. The only items that made it to McKinney were items we loved or needed, which is going to make unpacking a much more enjoyable experience! Here’s how I did it:
I picked one room per day. I set a schedule and did not waver from it. Do I recommend your schedule be as intense as this? Not necessarily. Time was of the essence, so I made it work for our tight schedule. One of the perks of my job is that I am able to take a week off to declutter my home, so please adjust accordingly! Here is what my schedule looked like:
Sunday: Office/Playroom
Monday: Bathrooms
Tuesday: Bedrooms
Wednesday: Garage
Thursday: Kitchen & Dining Room
Friday: Hallway Closet & Laundry Room
I maintained a bag/pile system. I set up one bag for donations, one for recycling, one for trash, one pile for shredding, and one pile for keeps. This system will allow you to move quickly through each room.
I kept a box of items to put away at a later time. In additional to my keep pile, I kept a small bin where I put items I wanted to keep, but the items didn’t necessarily belong in the room I was working on. The bin was easy to carry around the house, and I could drop off the items in their designated rooms.
I immediately loaded my car with donations. Instead of keeping a growing pile of donations in my garage, I packed them up into my car and made a trip to a donation station as soon as my car was full. Getting these donations out of your home will also serve as motivation because you will be able to truly see all of the progress you’ve made!
I cleaned as I went. After taking everything off a shelf, I wiped that shelf down to get rid of dust or debris. Same with items. If the item was sticky, dusty, or dirty, I wiped it down. This was especially true in the kitchen! You would not believe how quickly kitchen appliances like stand mixers and pressure cookers can accumulate grime. Now I know every item I am moving to my new home is in the cleanest condition. Afterall, who wants to bring something dirty into a new space?
I touched every single item. I made the decision to keep, toss, or donate on every single item in our home. Papers, books, cooking utensils, towels, clothes, toys, etc. If you don’t pull out every item, you can truly miss some hidden gems. I discovered a book that was hiding behind my other books. I knew I wanted to keep those books, but because I moved them to dust them and clean the shelf, I found a book I had been “missing” for two years! It was like a reward ;)
I asked for help. I was getting down to the wire on the day designated for the kitchen. There were so many pots/pans that I wanted wiped down. This was not a task that only I could perform, whereas the actual making decisions on what stays and what was to go really was really only up to me. (Sidenote: My husband was out of town, so he really could only help with the decision making via texting pictures of items for which I had questions). This meant I had to bring in the big guns: my mom! She scrubbed down pots and pans and emptied out dirty from planters. My wonderful aunt even came to help! The moral of the story is: Never be afraid to ask for help. There is no way I would have been able to complete this decluttering in such a short time period if it were not for my family’s help!
While decluttering your entire home in a week is completely possible, it is also incredibly exhausting and takes your focus for an entire week. Because I regularly declutter areas of my home, this was able to move a little bit more quickly.
What would I recommend as a more realistic goal? A month to three months. Take every room in your home and assign it a week! At the end of the week make your donation runs!
I hope this is helpful for anyone wanting to declutter their home! Happy pile making to all!
Do you feel overwhelmed by the stuff and the chaos in your home? We can hold your hand during a greatly therapeutic decluttering session, and then send you off to live your wonderful life while we put together a maintainable organized system at your home! Send us a message to get started today!
