Step-By-Step Instructions for Today's Declutter Task

The declutter task for day 2 is to purge your unwanted/unneeded/missing a lid/has seen better days food storage containers. 

Break this task down into smaller sub-categories,  if needed.  Consider working on only glass containers or only plastic, if you have a mix of both.  

*If you don't have a lot of food storage containers, keep reading for an alternate task*

The video above shows me decluttering food storage containers, and the photos below are from when I decluttered mugs and tumblers.  

Location:  Kitchen

Focus:  Food Storage Containers

The process:

1.  Gather all your food storage containers

2.  Match lids with bottoms

3.  Decide what you are going to do with each one and group them into the following categories:

• keep
• toss  
• donate
• repurpose

Put the keepers back where they belong.  Don't forget to give the shelf, drawer, or cabinet a quick wipe down first.  Toss the containers that have seen better days, and consider donating the ones that are still in good shape.

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If decluttering food storage containers didn't strike your fancy, I've got another task you can undertake....drinkware!  Seriously, coffee mugs, tumblers, and plastic cups seem to multiply like crazy so it's good to reign them in a couple times a year.

Alternate Option for Day 2 - Mugs/Tumblers/Other Drinkware

Location:  Kitchen

Focus:  Drinkware.  Choose one of the following:

• Glassware
• Stemware
• Mugs
• Tumblers
• Plastic cups/souvenir cups

Supplies: 

• surface for sorting
• cleaning cloth

Process:

Reminder - before you begin, make sure you have a place to do the sorting.

Step 1

Gather the items to declutter and place them on your sorting workspace.  I'm decluttering mugs, tumblers, and sport bottles because at our house they live in the same place.  Be sure and grab all items of the category you are going to work on so you can see everything you have at one time.  

Step 2

Decide what you'll keep and what you want to purge. 

Today's challenge might tug at you a little, because these items are often given to us as gifts, and gifts can be hard to part with. 

At our house, we have a lot of nice mugs, and many were gifts.  However, there are only two coffee/tea drinkers in our house.  We don't need, nor do we have the space for the 16 coffee mugs and 6 coffee tumblers we had at the start of this challenge.  

As you work through today's task, think about which ones constantly get pushed to the back of the cabinet while you reach for your favorites.  How about the ones that are chipped?  If you don't use those any more, get rid of them.  Do you have some tumblers with wonky seals that cause the lids to leak?  Those are great candidates for purging.  Keep only the ones you use and love.  If your dishes came with mugs that you never use, get rid of 'em.  Don't let stuff you don't use/want take up space in your kitchen any longer.  

You can also repurpose a mug or souvenir cup into a pencil cup, button collector or a place for loose change.  

As you go through the decision-making process, put the ones you're parting with off to the side.

Step 3

Now that those to be purged are out of the way, group the keepers together by type.

Step 4

Return the items to their designated home(s), keeping them together in the groups you created in Step 3 for  quick and easy organization.  Don't forget to take a minute to wipe down the shelf, cabinet, drawer, etc before you put them back in.

Even though I've included them here, the actual numbers of what you keep and what you purge aren't important.  What's important is that the items you are keeping have a designated home.

Great job so far!  Are you starting to feel lighter?