Declutter Week: The Left Behinds

So at my house there is a class of clutter that I like to call the “left behinds.” It’s the stuff that is laying around because it doesn’t get put away. There are several reasons for this:

• laziness (most often)
• “I’ll do it later” (see laziness)
• no real permanent home

Really it’s a never-ending battle, dealing with the left behinds. The best way I’ve found to deal with this type of clutter is to put stuff back as soon as you get it out. If that doesn’t work (see laziness, let’s be honest here), work in a regular pickup into your daily or weekly routine.

Right now with our kitchen under renovation, there are a lot of left behinds whose permanent home is temporarily missing. I have my canning pot, lap trays, cookie cutters and miscellaneous kitchen things taking up space on our extra seating in the living room. We have a leftover backpack also sitting on the extra seating, and I have craft stuff that I’m trying to keep contained to a chair near the small desk in the living room. That extra stuff has more to do with how little energy I have at the end of the day to deal with things and put them away (and the fact that I’ve had one Tuesday at home in the last two months).

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How do you keep your left behinds under control?

Daily Challenge: Hunt down your left behinds and return them to their proper spot. If they don’t have a permanent home, find one. You may need to give your current belongings an honest assessment to see if there is anything to can get rid of to have a spot for a permanent home.

31 Days 2016 - Reset Your Home

This post is a part of the series 31 Days to Reset Your Home, part of the 31 Days challenge. Please join me during the month of October. Each day I’ll be posting what I’m working on, challenges so you can join in, and update my progress (and hopefully hear about yours!). The 31 Days challenge is a writing challenge to pick a topic and write a post on it every day in October.

• 31 Days to Reset Your Home
• Resetting Your Morning Routine
• Resetting Your Evening Routine
• Resetting your Weekly Routine
• Declutter Week: Paper
• Declutter Week: The Left Behinds
• Declutter Week: The On Purpose
• Declutter Week: The Kitchen Pantry
• Declutter Week: Your Schedule
• Lovely Links – Oct 10
• In Other News – Kitchen Renovation Progress
• Deep Cleaning: Master Bedroom
• Deep Cleaning: Bathrooms
• Deep Cleaning: Living Room
• Deep Cleaning: The Kitchen
• After the Deep Clean
• A Good Sleep
• Another Kitchen Update
• Maintaining – How to Create a Habit
• The Art of Stress Free Productivity
• Resetting Your Email