52 Weeks of Decluttering Project

After completing my Operation Minimize project in 2011 (Original Idea), I knew that I didn't want to accumulate that amount of items ever again and have to go through it all, but there are definitely areas in our house that are clutter magnets.

The 52 Weeks of Decluttering Project Was Born!!
So, instead of participating in that again, I decided to work on not letting areas in my home get cluttered, by working on a single area a week. Of course, this would entail repeating problem areas that accumulate items during the course of a week/month/year (i.e. pantry, freezer and dining room table, etc.).


Using THIS spreadsheet, I'm going to list areas in my home, weekly, that need to be addressed so that the clutter does not become permanent. I'm going to use this 2012 Weeks of the Year calendar as my dates, with the "week" going from Monday-Sunday so that each weekend can be a single project.


I already have the pantry listed as weeks 1, 12, 24, 36, 48 and both freezers listed as weeks 10, 23, 35 and 47, since these area can get out of control easily (unless I get it right the first time- fat chance). Maybe I need to buy a label maker??


There are some weeks where this will be a complete purge/redesign of an area (coat closet, master bedroom closet, basement, etc), but my purpose for this project is to just keep the clutter to a minimum.


There are some weeks that I will be out of town (12 and 37 right now), weeks when I move projects around, and some weeks where things won't be done (I'm being realistic), but I'm going to do my best to keep to my schedule.


My inspiration for this project is:



This 2011 OJ weekly series has inspired me to make the most out of my time, by trying to stay organized so that projects, that would have been HUGE (read- not worth it), are able to be completed easily.


I'm going to blog weekly about what areas were tackled, post before/after pictures and what it took to organize it.


Week #1- The Pantry (January 7-8)


Please feel free to comment with your current/past project. I'd love to hear about your solutions to clutter control.