Extreme Declutter With Me: Before and After

I’m going to share with you my big declutter – before and after!


It was the largest donation pile I have created yet and I did it in one day . We are donating everything we own except the absolute essentials.


I have been feeling stuck and bogged down by the magnitude of the task of getting rid of everything we own. It was just so sentimental. Why did we decide to declutter the whole house?


We are moving into an RV full-time in just under two weeks. Tiny living and minimalism here we come!


But this is how I got myself unstuck: I wanted to make progress by making the biggest donation pile I’ve ever made.

Decluttering
Decluttering

1. Where I got stuck

I did the upstairs closet which was a hodgepodge of things, off-season clothes, and hand-me-downs. I just took everything out and put it in the middle of the room to go through. I got stuck on a bucket full of family photos. It took an hour to go through but it was well worth it. I only kept the things I think we want to see in the future years.

Decluttering

2. Today’s 10-minute challenge

I’m going to set a timer for 10 minutes and run around the house as fast as I can to fill up the donation pile with everything I can grab in 10 minutes. I was shocked at how easy it was to make a relatively large pile in the middle of the living room in just 10 minutes on the timer.

Decluttering
Decluttering

3. Decluttering another closet

I went back to the other closet where I got stuck. I wanted to be done with it. I wanted to get rid of winter and summer clothing for my girls. I just can’t keep as much as I have. It was too much.

Decluttering
Decluttering

4. My two signs

I need to have my two signs visible: “Do I love it enough to pay for two years storage to keep it???” and “Do I love it enough to clutter up my RV with it??”


These are the only two questions I’m asking myself when I’m going through this process. It will either be cluttering up my RV or costing me money.

Decluttering
Decluttering

5. Kids clothing

My girls end up getting clothes for birthdays and Christmas, so there’s no need to keep everything. So I bought these very short bins to fit things into rather than full-size ones. As you can see, nothing went back into the closet!

Decluttering

6. My donate pile result

It’s huge! It’s going to take up the whole back of our truck.

Decluttering
Decluttering

7. Our RV pile

It is significantly smaller than our donation pile. We kept the sizes of clothing that our girls are going to move into. We also decided to keep the girls’ Easter baskets and of course our wedding photos.


Declutter before and after

We’re doing good so far! I hope this was a little inspiration if you’re looking for ways to declutter your house. You may not need to do an extreme decluttering like I have to but just know it’s never easy so don’t feel bad if you are procrastinating doing it!


Let me know in the comments what may have helped you declutter, or if you are going through a huge decluttering of your own home for any reason, such as moving.

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2 of 6 comments
  • Darrellg Darrellg on Dec 13, 2023
    Good timing with this story. I guess I'm kinda afraid to dive into my decluttering project. I love gadgets, especially electronic gadgets and could probably open up my own Radio Shack store with all the electronics I have. I am at this very moment thinking up reasons to keep everything. Oh well, at least I'm coming to a realization about all of this
  • Van49678878 Van49678878 on Dec 13, 2023
    Sentimental. This is my problem. I guess everything that was my Mums is sentimental to me. That will become my Declutter 2.0. I miss her very, very much. Love your Mums, friends! xo
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