DeclutteringHappy 2019! The new year is finally here, and if you’re anything like me, you’re ready to declutter!
One of my favorite parts of starting a new year is having a clean slate, and I love that no where more than in my home.
Parting with the things that are no longer serving us (like emotional, mental, and physical clutter) opens us up to everything new that’s coming our way so the sooner it can be gone, the better. What better way to do that than with a brand new decluttering challenge game?!
I have to be honest… as much as I love a fresh start, I wasn’t really planning on doing a decluttering challenge right now. I’ve created a number of free decluttering challenges over the last four or five years, and as much as I hate to admit this… they were starting to feel a little stale.
I knew that if I was feeling that way, others were probably feeling the same way so I didn’t want to create another run of the mill decluttering event. I only wanted to do this if I could come up with something that felt new, fresh, and fun just like the new year, and I think I’ve done it!
I am so excited to share our new decluttering challenge…
Decluttering Bingo!
Now, I wish I could take sole credit for this brilliant idea, but the credit really belongs to a couple members of the Declutterathon facebook group. One has been creating and shared her personal bingo chore/goal cards for years, and the other suggested it could be our next challenge. I thought that was a great idea!
Every week, I’ll be creating a new bingo game card that has a variety of different tasks and activities designed to help us on our decluttering journeys.
How does it work?
Complete five tasks in any row, column, or diagonally across the board, and you’ve got a Bingo! You’ll also have less clutter in your home woohoo!, and you’ll be eligible to enter our weekly Decluttering Bingo giveaway. Say what?!
Giveaway? Aren’t we supposed to be getting rid of stuff?
If the idea of winning a giveaway has you on the verge of breaking out in hives, don’t worry! It’s totally optional. You can play along with the decluttering bingo game and not enter in the giveaways if you’d prefer. That’s perfectly okay.
My goal is to choose giveaway items that will either help you on your decluttering journey, make your home a little more organized, or make life a little more enjoyable. After all, we deserve to be rewarded for all of our hard work, don’t we?! 🙂
The last thing I want to do is clutter up your home with meaningless stuff (that would kind of defeat the purpose of this, right?). The prizes are just supposed to be a fun twist to help motivate and inspire you, but if it’s not your cup of tea, that’s okay. Whether or not you participate is totally up to you.
How can I play along?
Playing along is easy. It’s just like regular bingo. Complete a row, column, or diagonal line of five tasks, and you’ve got a decluttering bingo!
Every bingo you get gives you another entry in the prize drawing so the more you declutter, the more chances you have to win. Complete every task on the card, and you’ll get 12 entries in that week’s giveaway!
I may also include bonus activities for extra entries, but everything you’ll need to know about that week’s bingo will be explained on that week’s card.
Where can I get a card?
I’ll be creating new cards every week to keep things fresh and exciting so the first thing you’ll want to do is download your decluttering bingo card each week. I’ll be sharing them in my free printable library every Saturday so they’re always in one place and easy to find.
Newsletter subscribers can use the link and log in information at the bottom of the weekly newsletter to access their cards. Haven’t subscribed yet? Just click here, and we’ll get you taken care of! You’ll receive a post to confirm your subscription as well as exclusive access to my free printable library just for Happy Organized Life VIPS. Feel free to help yourself to the 40+ other free printables in the library while you’re there too!
The majority of tasks I’ve included should take around 15 minutes or less to complete (so no need to worry about having to declutter entire rooms!), and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by some of the things I’ve included.
How to Enter the Giveaway
If you’d like to play along for prizes (woohoo!), just take a picture of your card and submit on or before Saturday in one of three ways:
- Visit the Declutterathon group on Facebook, and post a picture of your card in the decluttering bingo game thread for that week
- Post a picture of your decluttering bingo card on Instagram with the hashtag #declutteringbingo and tag me at @happy_organized_life
- Or email me at emily@happyorganizedlife.com with “Decluttering Bingo Card” in the subject line
I’m providing a few different options because I know everyone has their preferred way to communicate, but you only have to choose one. Please don’t submit your card in all three places. I’d be totally overwhelmed! 😉
Why do I need to take a picture?
The picture of your card is important because it will allow me to see not only how many entries you’ve earned, but also which tasks are the most and least popular among the participants so I can tweak future cards and make the game as beneficial as possible.
If you’d like to share more pictures like before and afters of your newly organized space or a decluttering action shot, I would love to see them too!
Each week’s winner will be announced on Tuesday in the Declutterathon group, my Instagram account, and the weekly newsletter, which may or may not go out on Tuesday. If you want to know who won as early as possible, be sure to follow along on Facebook and Instagram.
Whew! This is a longer post than I anticipated, but I hope I’ve done a good job explaining how simple (and fun!) this will be! It really is as easy as getting your card, completing at least one bingo, and submitting the card on or before Saturday to win a prize. Easy peasy!
I can’t wait to get this started and see all the progress we make around our homes!
Happy decluttering!!
Just, “Yay!” It sounds like fun!
Thanks for all your work and creativity!
Yay!! I think so too! Thank you for being excited!!
I love this!
Thanks, Patty!
I tried several times to get the Bingo card. I submitted my name and email address but no luck. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Hi Lynn, Are you a member of the Declutterathon group on Facebook? I posted step by step instructions in there on how to get the card. I’ll have to add them to the blog too. If you want to email me with exactly where things are going wrong, I’d be happy to help. Thanks!
SAME! I am so frustrated!! I have tried multiple times. I keep getting directed to a page to enter my email and first name. Then I am taken to a page where it says to confirm my email, “but first”, I can take advantage of printables for only$… SO annoying. I don’t want to purchase additional printables. I only want to print off the bingo card. I posted on the page. Got one comment saying it’s spam and to close all open tabs. That doesn’t make any difference, and it isn’t spam. It’s all the happy organized life stuff. ugh.
Hi Lora, sorry to hear you’re frustrated. You don’t have to purchase anything. It’s completely up to you. If you aren’t interested, just close out that page. As I stated in the directions and on the special offer page, the link and password to the free printable library are automatically emailed to you after you sign up. If you haven’t received an email, it’s probably for one of the following reasons: 1) the email address was entered incorrectly 2) the email has ended up in your trash, junk, or promotions (if using gmail) folder or 3) you’ve previously unsubscribed from my newsletter, which prevents me from being about to email you.
I took a minute to look up your address, and it says you’ve been a subscriber since 2016 (yay! Thanks!). This means you didn’t actually have to sign up for the cards at all. You’ve had access to the free printable library this whole time. Just click the free printable library link at the bottom of any of my emails, enter the password, scroll down until you see the bingo card for the week, download and print. If I can help with anything else, please let me know. Take care!
This is such a good idea!
Chloe X
Week #1 Bingo done! Now on to week #2. You compiled a good balance of tasks making this so doable. This is so much fun!
Thank you, Ginger. I’m so happy to hear that! That was my goal <3 Thanks for inspiring us and playing along!
So, we can only show the Bingo card for that week? I just saw this and there are two Bingo cards.
The card will change each week to keep things fresh. Card #2 is for the week of January 12-18 🙂
Hi there! Love this idea but I can’t gain access to the printable. I’ve signed up several times just to make sure but I can’t access the printable. Help please!
Hi Patty, I just looked up your email address, and it looks like you received today’s email (woohoo!). If you scroll to the bottom of that email, there’s a link for you to click that will take you to the decluttering bingo printables. I’ll be including that link in every weekly newsletter to try to keep things as easy as possible. If you have any other questions, please let me know. I’m happy to help! -Emily
I’m hoping that next time this happens, while it’s been fun, every time I come to get the free printable bingo card, it’s confusing to find my way to it. May be next time, instead of mailing the letter with links, you can just email the bingo card? I keep getting to the Paypal page for the printable library. Grrr. I’ve gotten to the right page before…will keep trying.
Sounds like you’re signing up every single time. That’s not necessary. All you have to do is go straight to the free printable library (I include the link in every email), enter the password (if your computer hasn’t already saved it), find the card, and print. I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying the bingo!
I can not find the Bingo cards anywhere?
They’re in the free printable library. Once you subscribe, you’ll be emailed a link. I’ve outlined the steps here in the post.
I ordered but they got my email wrong!?!? Help lol
Oh no! Megan, please email the correct address to emily@happyorganizedlife.com with “Correct email” in the subject line, and we’ll get it taken care of. Thanks!
Yeah!! Looking forward to this motivational game to make things fun! Can I still do it without printing? My printer’s not working right now.
Sure! Some people take a screenshot or write the activities down on paper for themselves. Whatever works for you! 🙂
How much does this cost?
Decluttering Bingo is free! 🙂
Love the idea of the of the Declutter BINGO. Can’t wait to get my card so I can play along.