Declutter 496 Challenge

 

Earlier this year, I stumbled upon a Tiktok from a minimalist girl that did the 496 Declutter Challenge. I figured if she could still come up with 496 items to let go of, so could I.
The challenge works by decluttering (letting go of) as many items as the day you are on. So on day 1 it’s 1 item. On day 15 it’s 15 items. At the end of 31 days you’ll have said goodbye to 496 items. 

I just created a note in my phone with a check box next to each day. Sometimes I worked ahead just to make up for time I wouldn’t be able to declutter. If I only did 5 items so far for day 12, I typed in “5 so far” so I didn’t lose count.

At first I found it easy to do but as the days went up in number I had to really dive into spaces in my home. At one point I was testing every single pen in my pen drawer just to get rid of more items. When I first did my closet, I only got rid of 2 jewelry items but when I needed a higher number I realized I needed to ask myself what I really need to keep. 

Turns out, I don’t wear most of what I had and sometimes I had reasons like it was uncomfortable, didn’t match anything else I wear, or I just didn’t like the look of it. As I went through the days, I gained momentum. Some mornings I was chomping at the bit really ready to start decluttering more.

In the end, I absolutely did let go of 496 things. Some I gave away to people, some I donated, and some were trash because they were literally broken. 

I highly recommend you start this challenge. And it doesn’t have to be on the first day of a month, you can start whenever! I think I’ll do this challenge again and again, maybe more spread out but I will stay do a day by day checklist. 

Have you done this challenge yet? Are you going to try it?

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