The following is a guest post from regular contributor, Katie at Organizing Moms.
Are you looking for ways to motivate yourself to declutter? Many of us start out the year by doing huge organization projects and decluttering challenges. But, by the end of January, our motivation starts to wane. We know we should keep up the momentum of our start-of-the-year decluttering, but it’s easy to lose interest, energy, and inspiration.
One way you can motivate yourself to declutter throughout the year is to look for decluttering opportunities. If you’re watching out for them, chances to declutter and help others come up all the time.
Decluttering Opportunities to Seek Out
Calls for donations – Churches, schools, and even workplaces often collect gently-used items to donate. When you hear about these calls for donations, make sure you participate! You’ll be decluttering your home, participating in a community activity, and helping others.
Charity pickups – In some communities, various charities will come to your home and pick up your donated goods. Often, they will leave a flyer on your door or in your mailbox alerting you to when they will be in your area to do a pickup. All you have to do is leave your items on your front porch, and they will pick them up from your home.
Recycling events – Some communities will set aside days when you can bring in your used electronics, expired medications, or other toxic substances for recycling. It’s a great way to get rid of those hard to dispose items.
Community yard sales – Watch for any planned yard sale days in your community. That’s a great time to try to sell some of your used goods. Or, if you’re not in the mood to go through the whole garage sale process, you could put a box of things out on your driveway, and label it “FREE.” It will most certainly be picked up by someone looking for bargains!
Resales – Resales give you the opportunity to sell your gently used items. They often take a lot of work to prepare for, but they can be extremely popular. I’ve had the most luck with selling gently-used children’s items.
Friends in need – Listen to what your friends talk about needing or wanting to buy. This is often a great way to get rid of items you don’t need, and help your friends out at the same time.
Although these decluttering opportunities don’t come up every single day, they are great ways to help you stay motivated to declutter and keep your home organized.
Do you know of any other decluttering opportunities we could watch out for? Please leave your suggestions in the comments!
Katie is a loving wife and stay-at-home mom to busy twin boys. She is passionate about making life at home more manageable through simple organizing solutions. Her love for organizing has spilled over into her popular blog, organizingmoms.com, where she shares realistic organizing solutions for busy moms. In addition to her love for all things organized, she also enjoys traveling, reading, and spending time with her family.
Emily says
Great ideas. I have not had luck with charity pick ups, but our trash company does allow us a bulk waste pickup once a year, which is nice for items that are large and not in good shape to donate.
Katie @ Organizing Moms says
I think the charity pickups vary by region. When we lived in Chicago, I signed up for pickups all the time. Where we live now, it’s not so common.
Micki says
I call up all my nieces and nephews and offer items first. They are in college or on their own and have no spare money for extras. I’ve cleaned out my extra furniture, kitchen items and dishes this way. Cooking magazines have been donated to high school family consumer science classes and to nursing homes. (The elderly women may not be cooking, but they still love reading about it.). My grade school art teacher appreciates magazines and yarn, and craft donations.
Cait says
love these ideas!