It’s week 13 of the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge. We’re one-quarter of the way through the challenge. This week, we move on to our living areas. This includes some of the high-traffic areas of our homes like living rooms, dining rooms and family rooms. We’ll start with decluttering living area table surfaces.

This post was originally published in April 2021 and republished in March 2024.

Many experts suggest living areas are the best places to start decluttering. In some ways, this makes sense because they are the most visible areas in our homes. We see them every day, and so do our guests.

For me, living areas aren’t a big concern. As I’ve said before, I accept some clutter in these rooms because our house isn’t a show home. It’s our home. Real people live here! If you drop by, you’ll find my daughter’s half-finished jigsaw puzzle, craft and knitting supplies, and the books and materials for my latest course out on display.

But, despite my willingness to accept the clutter that goes with day-to-day living, one area that is an ongoing annoyance for me is table surfaces. For some reason, any horizontal surface seems to be an invitation to pile up stuff. Our coffee tables and dining room table are frequently so full of junk you can’t actually see the table surface.

So, we have work to do!

What is the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge?

In this year-long journey, we’re tackling one task at a time with the goal of cleaning up and organizing our homes. If you’ve just joined us, no worries. You can jump right in with this week’s challenge. Just check out the first two posts in the series to download your free checklists.

• 52-Week Decluttering Challenge
• Week 1 – Easy Decluttering Checklist

You can get easy access to all previous weekly posts on the main Decluttering page.

Are you ready for week 13? Let’s get decluttering!

Week 13 – Decluttering our living area table surfaces

Here’s a “before” photo of our living room coffee table and dining room table. As I said, these horizontal surfaces seem to be a magnet for junk.

If you look closely at the dining room table, you’ll see Christmas trees on the table runner. There was so much stuff on the table that we made it to the end of March, and I didn’t even notice I hadn’t put the Christmas table runner away.

And, then there’s this little pile of stuff on the floor. Most of it had been there since Christmas.

This week’s decluttering and organizing tips

Here are my tips and learnings from week 13.

• Create a RELOCATE basket to gather up miscellaneous items that wander to your living and dining room.
• Make a 5-minute sweep part of your daily routine. At the end of each day, take 5 minutes to clear off table surfaces and return everything in your relocate basket to its rightful place.
• Stop the clutter before it starts. When you’re tempted to set something down on the coffee table or dining room table that doesn’t belong there, make a point of immediately taking it to where it belongs.

What I got rid of

Interestingly, I didn’t actually get rid of a lot this week. It was more of a relocation exercise than a decluttering task.

But there were a few things I got rid of. There were some papers that went into the recycling bin, a small watering can, an empty CD case, a packing box from a recent delivery, and a few novelty toys.

The bigger problem for us was definitely the relocate pile. Here are the items I relocated to their proper home from the living room.

Here’s how things look now.

Now that my coffee table and dining room table are clean, the trick will be to stay on top of the clutter. I’ll definitely have to make handling the relocate basket every day a priority.

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2024 Update

It has been three years so I’m rebooting the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge to see how much I can get rid of in 2024.

Since my first round of decluttering, I’ve done a decent job of keeping our living area surfaces free of clutter, so I only found 3 items to get rid of.

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So that’s week 13 done.

If you have friends or family members who could benefit from a little less clutter in their lives, please share this post and spread the word!

Is this a problem area for you? Do you have other tips to share for decluttering living area table surfaces? Tell us below.