As Spring approaches, all unneeded items accumulated throughout the Winter turn from sentimental into something that is taking up space. To reduce the clutter that can tend to pile up, families are participating in an event called 40 bags in 40 days. This is an effort to clean and/or organize different sections of a house, everyday for 40 days.

“40 days in 40 bags is basically an effort of spring cleaning,” office secretary Angie Smith said. “It is a chance for people to clean out closets, and dressers, etc. and fill up a bag/bin with unneeded items in their home everyday for 40 days. This is open to everyone, even those who don’t plan on participating in Lent, because the center of this is simply cleaning/organization.”

This challenge, being a lenten based one, starts on Ash Wednesday, which was Feb. 14, and ends the day before Easter, March 31. After cleaning the desired amount of clutter up, there are the options of donating, selling, or simply just throwing everything away.

According to home improvement blog, Refined Rooms, “You aren’t required to fill a certain sized bag. In fact, you don’t even have to use a bag. Any size or shape of container is okay. It’s up to you to determine what makes sense. If the idea of removing 40 bags worth of stuff from your home feels impossible, count your blessings. You can still join in on the decluttering by getting rid of 40 items during the Challenge period.”
Every little bit of decluttering helps, because it is a step in the right direction towards a cleaner home and mindset. Decluttering is found to also be a potential threat to your health.

“Clutter is bad for your physical and mental health,” according to health website WebMD. “Too much clutter can be a fire hazard. Dust, mold, and animal dander that collect in cluttered homes are all bad for allergies and asthma. Those overwhelmed with ‘memory’ clutter may have an undue preoccupation with things in the past and become depressed. Those who can’t toss out items because they worry they will need them may be too anxious.”

Keeping an unneeded quantity of sentimental items, has been found to be linked to depression, for lack of being able to live in the present. All of these health conditions can be prolonged with the littlest attempt to clean the place people the most time, at home, and it can easily be kick started with 40 days in 40 bags.

40 days in 40 bags isn’t something that is specific to just the season of Lent. Even though it started on Feb.14, anyone can join in at anytime, and even go past when the scheduled 40 days is over.