31 Days of Decluttering - Day #15 - Catch-Up or Relax

Today is the day we're supposed to catch-up or relax and take the day off from decluttering.  

According to "From Overwhelmed to Organized", this is what's on the agenda:

Today you get a day off!  You've been working hard decluttering your home.  You deserve it!

One of the main reasons for decluttering is to be able to enjoy your home and your family more.  So do that today!

Decluttering Inspiration For You Today

I thought today I'd share a few quotes to help you celebrate how far you've come and motivate you to keep going.

The Things We Say

Here are 15 great reasons to continue on your decluttering journey!

Produced by SpareFoot. Copyright 2013.

If you're feeling discouraged about your decluttering efforts, remember this:

Nerdfit.Tumblr.com

If You're On A Roll...

If you really want to declutter something today, you can catch up on a day you missed (see all the links at the bottom of this post).

Or you can declutter more of something you already did.  For example, if you decluttered your sock drawer or your underwear drawer, you can spend time today decluttering your kids' drawers.  Or if you decluttered your hanging clothes, you can declutter your hubby's side of the closet today.  {Hopefully you inspired the rest of your family to join you on this decluttering mission!}  You can even tackle some other surfaces in your home by applying the decluttering principles you used when you decluttered your coffee table.

Another option is to back and clean or organize a space that you decluttered earlier this month (if you only focused on decluttering it at the time).

Now of course I can't sit still, so I decided to go thru my bathroom towels and throw away any that were worn, stained, or just really old and funky in general.  When I did the Day #6 Sheets exercise, I found some brand new towels with tags on them that I got as bridal shower presents many years ago.  Since I know I still have some towels that are nearly 10 years old, it's time to turn the old ones into household cleaning rags (or let my husband clean his golf clubs with them).

Here's the "before" photo of my washrags/hand towels:

This is a small basket (it fits in the top of my equally small hall closet).  Still - there's only 2 people living in this house and hubs doesn't use wash cloths normally.  I don't need this many of either.  At most, I need 14 for the week if I'm showering twice a day (which I don't usually) and don't do laundry for a week (that part is feasible)  :).

Here's what my towel situation looked like "before":

For this exercise, I used the following principals to purge my existing towels/wash rags:
1.  Purge those that are worn and/or have lots of threads showing.
2.  Purge those that have stains on them.  (That just looks nasty)!
3.  Purge those that have bleach marks on them.
4.  Purge those that have any type of smell/odor to them.
5.  Purge those that no longer match the color scheme in your bathroom.

And the "after" photo of my wash rags/hand towels:

I kid you not - I found wash rags from 7 different towel sets I've had over the years when I went thru this basket alone!  I've narrowed it down to 12 washrags and 5 hand towels (which is till about 3 too many) in the basket.  The two hand towels in front of the basket are headed to the downstairs bathroom.  The green wash rag is actually a dish rag (not sure how it got in with the wash rags).  The other 3 wash rags are becoming rags due to stains/bleach spots.

Here's the towels "after" photo:

Here's what all became cleaning rags or are getting donated to the animal shelter:

Some of these weren't in too bad of shape (minimal stains or bleach marks).  However, since they're all at least 5 years old and I have other towels in storage, I decided to let them go.  I'll give hubs a few and donate the rest to the animal shelter along with the bedding from Day #6 (Sheet Day).  

Note to self:  No more white/cream towels.  They show mascara and foundation stains WAYYYY to easily!

Next Up:  Day #16 - Cooking Utensils