Is there an area in your home that is such a disaster that the idea of decluttering it makes you want to go back to bed, pull the covers up over your head and pray it disappears? In my home, this week’s task in the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge is that area. It’s week 22 and I can’t put it off any longer. This week, it’s time for a long-overdue laundry room declutter!

This post was originally published in June 2021 and republished in May 2024.

Without a doubt, the laundry area is the messiest room in my house. I’m not sure why, but it’s a massive dumping ground for junk. The washer and dryer seem to be an invitation to pile up stuff, and the shelves beside the dryer aren’t much better. And don’t get me started on the shelves above the sink.

I definitely have my work cut out for me in week 22. Let’s get decluttering!

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.

Week 22 – Laundry room declutter

If our laundry room was on the main floor of our house, I’d probably be more inclined to keep it neat and organized. But, it’s out of sight in the basement where only my family sees it. That makes it easy to ignore the clutter. But I can’t ignore it any longer! A good clear out is long overdue.

Here’s how things looked before I started. What a disaster! There’s lots of opportunity here.

This week’s decluttering and organizing tips

This week was definitely a challenge. Here are my tips and learnings from week 22.

• If you’ve been putting off decluttering an area that’s a big job, break it down into smaller tasks. I decided to declutter the laundry room over the course of a week. On day 1, I started by cleaning up the junk on the floor. After that, I tackled the shelving unit one shelf at a time. Next, I cleared off the top of the washer and dryer. Finally, I cleared out the shelves above the sink.
• If your storage areas have turned into a dumping ground, consider the purpose of each one. Think about what you plan to keep here. That helps you decide what belongs and, more importantly, what doesn’t.
• Put things away in their rightful place. I found that almost all of the stuff piled up on top of the washer and dryer didn’t belong in the laundry area. In fact, most of it I didn’t need at all. After I’d relocated things that didn’t belong, decluttering the rest was much less daunting.

What I got rid of

Here’s a photo of what I got rid of this week – 74 items in all.

• 1 small plastic storage unit
• 7 binders
• 13 books that I missed in Week 16
• 6 vases
• 1 baby monitor
• 8 plastic containers
• 5 dryer balls
• An unopened container of stain remover, and a container of powdered bleach
• A bag of old mismatched cutlery
• 1 old scrubber
• An old SOS pad and a dried-up sponge
• 3 plastic travel containers for toiletries
• 1 old leaky water bottle
• 1 empty hair developer bottle
• 2 empty shampoo bottles
• 1 bottle of liquid hand soap
• 2 plastic straws
• 1 button
• A bag of shells
• 1 toothbrush
• 4 dried-up paintbrushes
• 1 bottle brush
• 2 small toys
• 1 old measuring cup
• 4 unidentified items
• 1 miscellaneous lid
• 1 toy iron

This was definitely one of my more productive decluttering jobs. My laundry room looks so much better now.

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6 months of decluttering – 1 garbage bag

There’s something else I’m feeling pretty good about this week. After 6 months of decluttering, I filled my first garbage bag. Yes, that’s right. Only one garbage bag after purging hundreds of items.

Some decluttering experts take great pride in bragging about the number of bags of garbage their clients have disposed of with their help. I don’t buy into that philosophy. While I want a lot of this stuff out of my house, one of my main decluttering goals is to send as little as possible to the landfill.

To me, this is one of the benefits of decluttering little-by-little rather than a big event. It gives me the opportunity to be more thoughtful about what happens with the stuff I no longer want. Check out 6 ways to turn your junk into treasure to learn more about how I breathe new life into my old junk.

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.

Our laundry room had started to look a little cluttered again, but when I looked back on the before photos from 2021, I felt good that it was nowhere near that bad. In total, I decluttered 21 items from the top of the dryer and the shelves beside the dryer.

So that’s week 22 done and I’m feeling a huge sense of accomplishment and relief.

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 there a room in your house that you’re afraid to venture in to to declutter? Tell me about it below. I might have some tips for you!