When you begin decluttering, it makes sense to start with the most obvious areas—places you can see or things that will have an immediate impact. Once the low-hanging fruit is out of the way, there are still many more opportunities to declutter and simplify. This month’s decluttering update has a list of 7 areas you may overlook when decluttering.
But first, this month’s decluttering progress update.
52-Week Decluttering Challenge
At the beginning of this year, I decided to go back and redo the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge from the beginning. Each month, I share a decluttering update with my progress and any tips and learnings from the month.
If you missed last year’s challenge, here are some links to help you get started.
- 52-Week Decluttering Challenge – Free printable
- Week 1 – Easy decluttering checklist
- Looking back on a year of decluttering
- And, if you just want to jump in and declutter a specific area, you can find links to all the weekly tips and posts on the main Decluttering page.
What I decluttered in August
In August, I revisited weeks 32 to 35 of the decluttering challenge. Here are links to last year’s posts if you’re looking for tips and ideas for these areas:
- Paper files and filing cabinet (Week 32)
- Important documents (Week 33
- Outdoor toys (Week 34)
- Email (Week 35)
In total, I decluttered 152 items last month. Those numbers include some bonus decluttering that got me thinking about areas you may overlook when decluttering. Let’s have a closer look at some of those areas.
7 areas you may overlook when decluttering
When was the last time you decluttered your car? If you’re like most people it has probably been a while.
At the end of August, we picked up our new car. As we cleaned out stuff that had accumulated in our old car over the last 12 years, it dawned on me that the car is just one example of areas we never think to declutter. As I thought more about it, I came up with a list of 7 areas you may overlook when decluttering.
Car
Even though I drive my car most days, it’s something I never thought to include on my list of decluttering tasks. I was amazed at what I found when clearing out our old car at the end of last month.
Here’s a sampling of some of the things that were in our old car. It turns out you throw a lot of stuff in your car and then forget about it.
If you haven’t decluttered your car lately, it’s probably worth a look.
Garage
Speaking of cars, do you park your car in your garage? A 2021 survey by the RAC in the U.K. showed that more than half of drivers with garages don’t park their cars in the garage. Why? The number one reason is they’re using their garages to store other things.
The garage is another area that we often don’t think about when decluttering, mainly because we don’t spend a lot of time there.
With our harsh Canadian winters, parking our car in the garage is a priority for us. But, it might be time to see if we can declutter some stuff from those shelves.
Garden shed
Before we go back inside the house, let’s talk about the garden shed. At our house, we have a large shed where we keep our lawn mower, snow blower, and other gardening items. It’s also where we store the outdoor furniture in the winter time.
We don’t clean out our shed often but, when we do, I’m always surprised at the things that have accumulated in there.
Freezer
For years, we had a chest freezer. When we got rid of it a couple of years ago, we found things lurking in the bottom that were almost unidentifiable. We have since replaced the chest freezer with an upright freezer that makes it so much easier to stay on top of what’s in there.
If it has been a while since you went through your freezer, it may be time. Check out this post for tips and ideas on keeping things organized.
Emails
One of this month’s decluttering tasks was emails. This is another out-of-sight-out-of-mind thing that you may overlook when decluttering. But, our digital footprint comes at an environmental cost—not to mention the time it wastes.
For tips on controlling your email clutter, check out this post.
Medicine cabinet
I always laughed when I would see “expired medication” on decluttering lists. Then, I decluttered my own medicine cabinet and was a little sheepish about what I found.
If you haven’t decluttered your medicine cabinet lately, it might be time well spent.
Fridge door
As part of last year’s decluttering challenge, I decluttered the contents of my fridge, but I totally ignored the fridge door. Ours is full of magnets, notes and all sorts of other things.
Take a few minutes to declutter the fridge door. It will instantly make your kitchen look less cluttered. Here’s a before and after shot of our fridge door. I kept the magnets that are useful or spark special memories, and got rid of any that didn’t have any special meaning or purpose.
Call me a decluttering nerd, but I’m always excited when I get to do a little bonus decluttering on top of my weekly challenges. It’s a good reminder that even when we think we’re done, there’s always something else to declutter.
Can you think of other areas you may overlook when decluttering? Tell me your thoughts below.
These are some very good suggestions on places people tend to overlook. Another suggestion would be your phone. As photos, old contacts, messages and all things get cluttered up! Thank you for sharing your suggestions.
Lauren
Thanks for dropping by Lauren! Oh yes…decluttering your phone is a good suggestion. How often do we download apps, use them once, and then forget to delete them?
I’m currently going through my emails to declutter. Another area I want to tackle is my photos stored online. I’m sure there a bunch of pics there that I don’t want.
The problem with digital photos is it’s so easy to take many shots of the same thing, and then we often end up keep them all. Just deleting duplicates would save so much space.
Ah yes, emails. I constantly ignore them and all my tech when it comes to de-cluttering. But perhaps now that the nights are getting longer, I might sit down and finally go through them all.
Thanks for dropping by. I have found that putting emails I don’t need to keep longer than a few months in a folder named “Temporary” has really simplified my email cleanup.
This is a great list! Especially with digital decluttering like emails. The one I found I really need to stay on top of is sorting, deleting from my downloads. I had so many random PDFs to file, graphics for work, etc and stuff that just needed to be thrown away. Very helpful suggestions here, thanks!
Thanks Andrea. Yes, the downloads folder can really explode if we don’t stay on top of it. I try to clear mine out once a month.
I always love reading your decluttering posts! The car is definitely one that we never bother to tidy – unless it’s getting serviced. It’s amazing how much stuff can be stored in there haha
I know! I couldn’t believe the stuff I found in our car when I cleaned it out. Thanks for dropping by Caroline.
I definitely over look almost all of these areas you mentioned! Thanks for the reminder!
Yes, some areas just aren’t as obvious when you get started with decluttering. Thanks for dropping by.
Great list! We have a teeny tiny car so I’m always on top of the clutter in there, especially because we go camping and I like to keep things ready to go!
Good for you. I could learn a lot from your approach!
I don’t have a car, garden shed, or garage, but I could definitely do with decluttering the other areas! We could do with decluttering the fridge door, as we have a habit of leaving notes on the door under magnets.
Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for dropping by! It’s amazing what accumulates under those magnets. The minute my daughter walked into the kitchen, she commented “What did you do to the fridge?” — Proof that little decluttering tasks do have an immediate effect.