My End of Year Decluttering Update – Come Link Up

In 2010, Amy over at The Finer Things in Life made a goal to get rid of 730 things in 365 days, and hosted a monthly decluttering linky.

I felt like her challenge was made for me. 

I loved looking back each month at my decluttering progress, seeing that some months were more productive than others, and having the opportunity to pat myself on the back or spur myself to do better the next month.

The best thing about stopping each month to do an update was that it helped me realize an entire month had passed. 

Time-passage-awareness isn’t exactly one of my strengths, especially when it comes to my home.  This is evidenced by things like my daughter’s April birthday cards being removed to make space for Christmas decor.

So here’s my November and December update . . . I had three posts in my decluttering category for those two months.

Three.

And my blog is all about my deslobification process.

In one of them, I didn’t actually get rid of the stuff, I just hid it under the kitchen sink, and another was more about cleaning than decluttering.  The only one that truly counts was about my joy (experienced after the what-if-I-need-that-tomorrow-moment-of-panic) over having someone come pick up boxes and boxes of junk from my front door.   Even though I had technically decluttered all of that stuff in previous months, I’d driven around my small town for quite a while with all of it sitting in the back of my Suburban, waiting to be dropped off by this scatter-brained mama.

I was a little relieved when I realized that although I didn’t post about it until January, it was technically still December when I threw away 21 pounds of coupons.  But other than that, not a lot of decluttering went on around here during those months.

The fact is, there are seasons of life when decluttering can’t take priority over . . . living.  Decluttering is mentally-tough-decision-making-work, and in the midst of preparing your home and family for the holidays, it’s OK to take a break from it.

Because no matter what, there will always be more decluttering to do.

Amy has had an extra full life for the past four months or so.  With a newborn, three other children and a hubby to care for, the last thing she needed to think about was decluttering.  Those are the days when you live with, and in-the-midst-of . . . whatcha got.  So, when I volunteered to host the final 2010 decluttering linky, she quickly agreed.  I believe her exact words were, “I’m tired.”  She also gave me her blessing to keep the monthly link-ups going, here at A Slob Comes Clean.

Because decluttering is a never-ending process.

I’m going to go back over my own progress after each month, in an effort to be sure that I’m in a constant state of decluttering, and I’ll host a monthly linky, too.  I’d love it if you would join in, sharing your own decluttering progress either in the comments or by linking up a blog post.

I’ll host the first one on February 1st, which is a Tuesday.  Since January tends to be a great month for being motivated to organize, I hope you’ll come back and join in!  I’m already excited about the decluttering I’ve done in the past week, and I know others of you are madly organizing as well.

Something about the fresh-start-feel of January makes you suddenly become aware of the things you don’t need anymore.

For now, you can link up below or leave a comment about how you did in November/December, or an overall report for 2010!