Today, we’re kicking off the second half of the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge with some night table decluttering. If you missed the mid-way recap, I reported that I had decluttered 716 items in the first 26 weeks. Let’s see if I can beat that total in the second half!
This post was originally published in July 2021 and republished in July 2024.
Before we start, I have a fun story to share. Decluttering can be quite lucrative, and you never know what you’ll find. Last year, when clearing out my night table drawers, I found $250 that had been given to us for our 25th anniversary a year earlier. I had tucked it away in a drawer until we found something we wanted to buy, and then completely forgot about it.
I don’t think this week will be as profitable, but you never know.
Are you ready for week 27? 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.
You can get easy access to all previous weekly posts on the main Decluttering page.
Week 27 – Night table decluttering
My night table has 3 drawers. When I emptied them out, here’s what was in them.
That’s a lot of stuff in 3 small drawers!
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This week’s decluttering and organizing tips
Before we get to what I got rid of, here are my tips and learnings from week 27.
- Declutter drawers first, before surfaces. When I decluttered my bedroom surfaces last week, I put a few things away in my night table drawers. As I emptied out my night table drawers today, I realized I should have done the drawers first. That would have avoided me taking things I’d put in the drawers last week out and having to sort through them again.
- Decide what each drawer is for. It helps to keep things organized if each drawer has a designated purpose. For example, my top drawer contains things I use regularly like my journal, my eyeglass cleaning cloth, and my prayer cards and books.
- Small baskets are great for keeping smaller items organized.
What I got rid of
Here’s what I got rid of this week. A total of 47 items!
- 6 bottles of nail polish
- 1 manicure set
- 3 packages of nail art stickers
- 1 sewing kit
- 3 prayer books
- 15 pamphlets
- 3 dried up pens
- 2 nail files
- 1 sunglass clip
- 2 eyeglass cases
- 1 business card
- 1 bible cover
- Headphone adapter
- An empty container of eyeglass cleaner
- 1 broken storage tin
- An empty pill container
- 1 rosary
- A flashlight
- An earplug container
- 1 set of headphones
And…here’s a before and after shot of my top drawer. It’s much less cluttered and more organized.
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.
After the good progress I made last week, I hoped to continue to momentum this week. Since my first decluttering challenge, I’ve mostly avoided stuffing things mindlessly in my night table drawers. Even so, I found 10 items to get rid of, including some stale candies, cloth masks, and a few books and papers.
So that’s week 27 done. I didn’t find a large amount of cash this time around, but I did get rid of a lot of things I had decided to keep last year when I did this task for the first time.
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!
Do you have any tips for organizing your night table drawers? Tell us below.
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Reading your list of things you got rid of made me realise I need to be more ruthless. I need to think about whether I will actually use items rather than keeping them because they’re not used/empty etc ….except notebooks. I can never have enough stationery 😁
That’s the trick, Brenda. We keep so many things because “we might need them”. But will we? And I’m with you on the notebooks. I probably have a dozen or so of them laying around the house. LOL
As you can imagine, we’re clearing out some of my MIL’s things. Probably linked to that mindset of keeping things ‘for good’/special occasions, I came across a boxed canteen of cutlery that looks like it’s never been used. I’ve got something similar at home. I’ll be updating my cutlery when I get home
Ha ha. I have one of those canteens with cutlery we received as a wedding gift. I use it three or four times a year. At some point I expect the cutlery, and my good dishes, will be for everyday use.
Oh my goodness. Will you send a team over to tackle the table on hubby’s side of the bed? Urgently. I’m pretty sure there’s no cash hiding out…but one of everything else seems to be there. 😜
Ha ha. I’ll get on that right after my hubby cleans out his! 😂
Deal! 🥰
🤗
That was a great decluttering exercise, Michelle! I noticed you now have space in one of the drawers! I don’t think I’ve ever had that! LOL The baskets are such a great idea!
Thanks Cher. Yes it is nice to have empty drawer space. Now the challenge is not to fill it up with junk again.
I’d love to find that much money when I clear out my drawers!
It was a lucrative find. No money this time around though.
I think the nightstand is one of those areas that become a ‘catch-all’ or a place to store all the junk since it conveniently located next to the bed. You decluttered so much 🙂
by the way, have you finished this decluttering challenge yet? How much more ofyour house do you have left to declutter?
Yes. It’s definitely a convenient place to store things and it’s one you don’t often think to declutter. I’m just over half way done the challenge. I started in January and I’ve finished most of the “big” areas in the house. I’ll wrap up by the end of December.
$250! Finding money is a nice benefit of decluttering. 😁 I’m looking forward to finding out how many items you remove over the second half of your challenge.
Yes. No such luck this time around, though. I have a number in mind I’d like to hit before year end. We’ll see if I can hit it.
My bedside drawers have my underwear in, but could still do with a tidy out. Not something I’d be sharing publicly though. I love these posts, I even sometimes clear out a little after you’ve motivated me.
Ha ha. I understand why you wouldn’t want to put your undies on display! Glad to hear some of my posts motivate you to clear out. Every small step helps.
Drawers are so easy for me to clutter up because nobody can see inside. I need to go through mine and organize stuff this weekend. 🙂
I can relate. “Out of sight. Out of mind.” I really try to resist the urge to just stuff things in a drawer to get them out of the way.