It’s Day 30 of the 31 Days of 10-minute Purging Tips Challenge. For the past 29 days, our goal has been to eliminate things we don’t need from our lives and home so that we can better enjoy life. Today is the same and we’ll be going through the cabinet with all your coffee mugs. Let’s jump right in, see what we want to keep and what needs to be purged and start clearing clutter.
Today should be an easy day with few emotional attachments involved. I don’t even drink coffee, but somehow every couple of years I wake up one day and notice that we have an invasion of coffee mugs. I’m not sure how they all sneak into our home; some are freebies (but if it’s just taking up space in my house and not being used then it’s not free, it’s costing me space), some are gifts, some are rewards and some are just inexplicable. If you drink coffee, you may need more coffee mugs that I do, but I’m pretty sure you don’t need as many as you have collected in your cabinet. Purging coffee mugs is just like purging plastic cups. It’s not difficult, but you need to make time to just do it.
Clearing Clutter – Tips for Purging Coffee Mugs
Grab the 6 purging bags you created earlier and your free copy of the Purging Clutter Checklist. Let’s head to the kitchen and start purging coffee mugs.
Take Everything Out- Keep in mind that we’re doing this in 10 minutes. I’m pretty sure that you’ll be able to handle this task in our 10 minute limit, but if not, then just take out as many items as you can go through in that time. Set the coffee mugs you take out on a table or counter.
Group Like Items Together – Quickly group like items together. Place all coffee mugs that match your dishes. Place your favorite mugs together. Place travel mugs together. Place all the odd-ball coffee mugs together.
Evaluate – Look at each group you’ve created. Start with your odd-ball group. Do you really need those? Probably not, so they need to go. Now look at your other groups. If you prefer your favorite mugs more than the ones that match your china, then how about getting rid of the matching mugs. If that hurts, could you pack them away in the basement, attic or a closet? If you’re not using them frequently, then either get rid of them or at least move them out of the prime real estate of the kitchen cabinets.
Purge – Remove items you don’t need to keep and place them in one of your 6 purging bags.
Put Everything Away – Put the items you’ve decided to keep back away.
You may find these tips on how to reorganize a kitchen helpful.
Or if you want to start from scratch, these are the tips I use when I decide how to layout a kitchen each time we move.
And if you have lots of mugs to purge, you might want to try this Easy Sharpie Dot Mug craft to give as gifts (not to keep more mugs!).
We’ve done it. Day 30 is done. Woo hoo! Join me tomorrow for our last day in the 31 Days of 10-Minute Purging Tips challenge. Let’s purge some more so you can make room to enjoy life more.
I’m a mom of 3, a veteran and military spouse. I’ve moved into 20+ homes all around the world. My passion is helping busy people make the space and time for what’s really important to them.
Brenda says
Unfortunately, this one is an emotional one for me! My mugs have all been given to me by various people to mark various occasions. I even still have, and use, a mug I’ve had since I was a kid!
susan says
If they’re keepsakes, then that’s different. But if you’re ever ready to purge some of them, try taking photos of the mugs and then you’ll have the photos as the keepsake.