A guest blog by Bneato team member Lauren Mang

I first learned of the 40 Bags in 40 Days Challenge from Pinterest while browsing organization ideas (follow my Hyper Organized Board if you dare). If you haven’t already signed up for a Pinterest account, I highly recommend you do. It’s an amazing and essential tool for the paperless lifestyle!

Back to the challenge… My interest was peaked as soon as I realized it was a giant list of rooms/areas to purge. The 40 Bags in 40 Days Challenge has been featured on a couple of different blogs, but I first learned of it on Little Lucy Lu’s page where she states ‘I love throwing things away like it’s nobody’s business. No, you don’t understand… I LOVE IT.’ Is this woman me?! Because I love it, too!

Here’s the breakdown: Rid your life/house of 40 bags of ‘stuff’ during the 40 days of Lent (which begins February 13, 2013 this year). This includes: junk, clutter, garbage, or things you no longer use or love. Bags do not have to mean great big giant garbage bags – they can be any kind of bag: ziplock bag, brown paper lunch bag, shopping bag, plastic bag, or even 95 gallon trash bags (yes, those exist). You can use the list above (from Little Lucy Lu) or you can create your own list according to your own needs. The point is, challenge yourself to really evaluate your items and make decisions of what you need and what you don’t.

Donate your bags to charity, or if you must, put them in the trash. Lent is traditionally a time when devote Catholics repent or fast. According to Wikipedia, today’s Catholics usually ‘give up a vice of theirs, add something that will bring them closer to God, and often give the time or money spent doing that to charitable purposes or organizations.’ It sounds like this challenge covers all three!

So take a page out of a Catholic’s book and give up clutter, give up junk, give up things you no longer love or use. At the end of 40 days you’ll have a better appreciation for the things you kept, and maybe even a small addiction to purging. Trust me, it’s one of the best feelings in the world. We can all learn to live with less… in a matter of only forty days.

*side note: if you read this post after February 13, 2013, feel free to still take on the challenge. You can tailor it to your needs: do 2-3 areas or bags a day, instead  There are no rules other than doing your best to rid yourself of clutter!