Nowadays, with all the creative, fun, and innovative items found in stores and online marketplaces, shopping has become more exciting than ever. You can purchase amazing things for yourself, your family, and your home at often more-than-amazing prices. While shopping certainly has its advantages, it does come with one major downside: all this stuff creates clutter!

You’re probably like millions worldwide who have stuff they don’t really need cluttering up their homes and offices. But did you know that too much household junk can actually harm your health in more ways than one?

Here’s what clutter can do to your health:

Create a perfect breeding ground for germs and other bacteria, which can cause illnesses or worsen allergies
Result in stress
Make it more difficult to maintain a healthy weight, as research has discovered a link between buying too much stuff and eating too much food
Increase the risk of falls, injuries, and other home accidents
Cost you money, as you may purchase items you already have but can’t find
Have a negative effect on your social life and career, as you may not always be able to locate important things such as your car keys or certain documents

You might need a Decluttering Challenge.

Creating a Decluttering Challenge

A decluttering challenge can transform tedious, time-consuming housework into an enjoyable activity for the entire family. Yes, even the kids can take part in it and actually not hate it.

The first phase: planning. Depending on the size of your home and your schedule, split the challenge up into a few days or even a couple of weeks. Not having to do it all at once will enable you to focus on one area of the home at a time, minimizing stress and negative feelings.

Once you’ve made your decluttering plan, talk to your loved ones about each person’s responsibilities for the challenge. As it is a real challenge, develop a rewards system with little rewards at checkpoints for a job well done, which can be especially motivating for the little ones (or the big ones). You can also set up a prize for the whole family to enjoy after successfully completing the challenge.

Here are some tips to help structure your Decluttering Challenge:

Create a list of the areas in the home that need decluttering, starting from least cluttered places to those that need the most work
Declutter one room or one area at a time for optimal efficiency
Set reasonable completion times or dates for each area, allowing yourself more time for particularly cluttered places such as the basement or garage
Develop a sorting system; for example, use color-coded boxes or trash bags to differentiate between stuff you want to throw away, recycle, donate or keep
Take before and after pictures for measuring your progress and additionally motivating the whole family

Call 123JUNK, Your Junk Hauling Experts

Once you have your finished decluttering challenge, celebrate! Then if you’re in Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C., call 123JUNK. We are happy to haul away broken items and junk, and recycle perfectly good and reusable items to our charity partners. Your only challenge with us is what day to schedule your pickup appointment.