5 Common Clutter Bottlenecks and How to Declutter Them in 20 Minutes or Less!

Hey, it’s Leigh Ann Betts here. Welcome to What’s Up Wednesday. Today I am going to keep on the decluttering theme and share with you five of the common clutter bottlenecks in your home. And how you can declutter them in 20 minutes or less.

It’s springtime, and when spring comes it’s like a really refreshing time of year. We want to get a fresh start. We are, most of us, in winter locations have been kind of denned up and it’s time for us to get out to play. With that we tend to have a whole bunch of stuff that’s kind of accumulated over the winter that you are eager to get dealt with. Today I want to share with you 5 quick and easy ways that you can declutter in your home.

In Feng Shui, clutter is one of the quickest ways to change what’s going on in your life. If you are experiencing lots of struggles and challenges and obstacles, go and declutter. Grab a garbage bag, start decluttering, or do these 5 areas that I am going to share with you today.

Let’s start with number 5. Number 5 is your night stand. Start your timer for 20 minutes and go to your nightstand. Basically, use the filter of what the bedroom is for. In Feng Shui, there is three things that the bedroom is for: relaxation, sleep and intimacy.

When you are going through your nightstand, keep that in mind. And start clearing off the top first. Usually it becomes a catch all for various things. I know for girls it’s like hair barrettes and elastics. You’ve got maybe a couple different glasses of water. Several books. Way more than you are currently reading. In Feng Shui it is recommended to have just one or two books that you are currently reading. The rest of them can go onto your bookshelf. And then, there’s lip balms and creams and whatevers. Put them in a place and have a nice, new, clear counter on your nightstand.
Then continue to go through the drawers. There’s a mantra that there’s a place for everything and everything in its place. If it doesn’t belong in the bedroom, find a place for the item and take it there. Also, in Feng Shui, there is a saying that the closer something is to you, the more effect it has. For example, in your bedroom, when you are sleeping for several hours at night, anything that is around you impacts you a lot more. Really be aware of what’s in your bedroom.

Once you have cleared off your counter, get a wonderful picture of you and your partner, if you have one, that’s in the last 3 years, in a beautiful picture frame and put it on your nightstand or on your dresser. It’s a really lovely touch.

Okay, let’s move onto number 4. Number 4 is the medicine cabinet. This morning I took 20 minutes and did both of my medicine cabinets. So, when you go in there, you find you’ve got dried up nail polish that needs to get the boot. There’s expired meds and vitamins, sometimes. The other thing is old makeup. They basically say for makeup to have a 6 month expiry. So anything over 6 months, it’s time to get rid of. And it could be tubes that are like barely full of anything. You can recycle all of that kind of stuff. Check how many tweezers you have in there. How many nail clippers. How many do you really need, right? You just need one. Then, all the excess you can either get rid of or store it in another place. That’s the medicine cabinet.

The 3rd place is the kitchen utensil drawer or drawers. I don’t know, but there’s like a gadget for everything these days. You can have, for hard boiled eggs, a little slicer that slices them. There’s one for strawberries even. The little scoops for melons. I’m trying to think of the other ones there are. There’s like a gazillion of them.

Really, we don’t use them very often, if at all. And most often we could just use a knife, right? Here’s my challenge to you. I would get a box and while you are cooking dinner one night, while it’s on the stove and you have some time, set the timer and go through your drawer. Anything you haven’t used in the last 6 months unless it’s a complete seasonal item, put in the box and then I’m going to get you to place that box away for 30 days. Then, diarize in 30 days to open the box. See if you really missed anything. If you didn’t, get rid of it. Generally you can use a knife for all of those different gadgets. On that note, you don’t really need a whole bunch of knives either. Then, maybe you are going to have a little bit more room in your drawer for the ladles and things like that, that you keep on the counter top. Again, how many ladles do you need? I see in a lot of homes there’s like a big massive container full of like 8-10 ladles. Really? 3-4, that’s all you really need. If you can put it away, it’s less clutter on your countertop.

Now, we’re down to the 2nd place you can declutter in 20 minutes or less, that is a clutter catch all, and that is the front hall closet. This time of year is the perfect time to switch out the gear from winter to spring. I know, I may be a little bit optimistic on that, because where we live, there could potentially be more snow. But, I like to be optimistic, so keep one winter jacket up there and one pair of boots. But switch everything out. In the meantime, when you are switching, give it a vacuum and wipe the floor down and it will be refreshed and you’ll be ready to go.

The number 1 place, is the junk drawer. Everybody’s got at least one junk drawer. Take 20 minutes, set the timer, plop in there, see what’s in there. It kind of collects everything. For us, we tend to put things that need to be fixed in there. Like if you find a screw for something, it goes in the junk drawer. It’s a good time to look through and see what things need to be fixed and what keys are super old and I can get rid of? How many things of tape do I really need? Elastics and all that kind of stuff. Take 20 minutes to do your junk drawer.

That is my top 5 common clutter bottlenecks in the home. Let me run through those. Number 5 is the nightstand. Number 4 is the medicine cabinet. Number 3 is the kitchen utensil drawer or drawers. Number 2 is the front hall. Number 1 is the junk drawer.

If you are wanting to burst into spring with more energy, I recommend you go to leighannbetts.com and download my 10 ways you can boost your energy now.
Until next week, have a great week. Thanks for joining me!

Photo by Taylor Simpson