Conquer the Clutter Challenge: Project #1 COMPLETED!

CTC (Conquer the Clutter) club has officially started in my home with project 1 completed!

I completed my first de-cluttering today, and (ashamedly) it only took a measly 20 minutes—in other words I  can't use the excuse that I haven't had the time before. I really should have done this a long time ago.

But I tend toward laziness.

I can at least say that it's done now, and I feel so much better about it.

My project was the area next to my bed, including the window seat, my night stand, and the floor.

As you can see in the picture, the laundry basket is full of clothes—clean clothes that were washed over a week ago—that have yet to be put away. The stack of books on the window seat is mostly library books with a few homeschool curriculum books and novels mixed in between. The window seat and night stand tend to be a catchall of receipts, papers, and other junk that should really just be thrown away.

When cleaning just about any area of my home, I like to follow the "Remove and Replace" approach, which is for me (psychologically anyway) the easiest way to conquer the clutter. Here's how "Remove and Replace" works:

• REMOVE everything from the area needing to be cleaned, place it all in a basket, and remove it to an area with a large open space (like a living room floor)
• DUST AND VACUUM the area. It's at this point that my mind says, "Ah, that looks so good!" giving me the motivation to finish since I can see how great it looks without all the clutter.
• SORT through the basket of stuff, dividing into different piles as necessary. Usually the largest pile ends up being the trash pile, but for this de-clutter I also had library bookshelf, kids bookshelf, homeschool bookshelf, desk drawer, first aid kit, and bathroom counter piles.
• REPLACE the items to the now-clean area.

Now on to my conquer the clutter project #2, the tops of my dressers!