Back at the beginning of the year, I hopped on board the 2016 How Jen Does it Challenge. The goal was to clean/declutter your home by working on specific areas for 15 minutes per day. I did really well for the first few weeks, but then life got busy and despite my best intentions, I just gradually stopped doing the challenge. It happens.

I’m now back on a mission to clean/purge all the things! I want to be realistic about the process, so I’ve basically divided up several sections of my house and have dedicated one week to each room/area to deep clean and de-clutter. Here’s my game plan:

Week 1: Master bedroom. On the surface, our master bedroom looks nice. However, our night stand drawers have become a “catch-all” and our dresser is full of clothes that I don’t wear. My goal is to clean out and donate as much stuff as possible from those areas.

Week 2: Master bathroom. Again, at first glance this room looks fine, but I really want to get in and get rid of a lot of things. I’ll specifically focus on the linen closet and under the cabinets. I did this earlier in the year, so it shouldn’t take too long to do again. This time, I really want to focus on purging a lot of my trial/travel size bath items. I have SO MANY samples of soap, shampoo, lotion, body wash, etc…Please tell me I’m not the only one who hoards this stuff!

Week 3 – Laundry room. My main goal in here is to organize the storage area under our staircase. When we got back from our beach vacation, we basically dumped everything beach/summer related in this area, and those items just needs to be properly stored.

Week 4 – Turner’s room and bathroom – The major project here will be to transition his closet/drawers from summer to fall/winter. The kid has a lot of clothes! I like to go through everything that he has outgrown and go ahead and hang it in an upstairs closet in preparation to sell it at the next Divine Consign sale. I’ll also donate several things and make room for all his fall/winter gear. Not much to do in his bathroom besides toss some old bath toys if necessary.

Week 5 – Kitchen (Upper cabinets) – We have approximately 13,592 cups in our cabinets, and I’ve declared that this is the year that we get rid of all but about 4 of them! Seriously, it’s time to go through and get rid of the kitchen things we no longer need.

Week 6 – Kitchen (Lower cabinets) – Same as week 5. Purge and organize!

Week 7 – Kitchen (Pantry) – I generally keep our pantry fairly organized, but a few times a year I like to REALLY clean it out and toss anything that may be outdated and reorganize if necessary.

Week 8 – Living Room + Hallway Storage – Just need to deep clean under couch cushions and whatnot. Should be a fairly easy week.

Week 9 – Upstairs – Bathroom and Storage Closet – The bathroom will be easy, but our storage closet upstairs houses all of our extra bed linens, some of Turner’s toys, and several miscellaneous items. I have a feeling I’ll be donating a LOT of this stuff!

Week 10 – Guest bedrooms and closets – These aren’t used frequently, but we do have some items stored in one of the closets upstairs. Again, I see another trip to Goodwill to drop off donations after this week!

Week 11 – Master Closet – I need to devote some time to try on all of my clothes and finally say goodbye to some pieces that are either too big or too small. I put this at the end of the list to purposefully give myself some time to drop a few pounds before I do this. If 10 weeks pass and I’m still the same size that I am today, I know that I’m likely to stay this size and can confidently get rid of anything that doesn’t fit.

I may pop back in a few weeks from now with an update and some before/after pictures to keep you all posted along the way!