Of course, it can be done at any time when you feel it needs doing.
The mission itself is rather straight forward, and is similar to the mission where I had you declutter your music collection in another of the missions this week.
First, gather up all the videos and movies into one spot, from around your house, so you can get a handle on how many of these items you actually have.
Remember that all you have to focus on today is your own video collections, because there is another mission coming up this week where we'll focus specifically on kids music and movies.
This mission does include dealing with DVDs, Blu-rays, VHS and other video tapes, as well as digital movie files (but it doesn't include home and family movies, such as those taken of your kids).
If you've got videos where the technology for playing them is obsolete, those are the first ones to seriously consider decluttering.
In my family, for example, when we got rid of our last VHS player (it broke) we knew it was time to say good bye to the video tapes,
since there was nothing left to play them on.
Further, I've found with so many different streaming services these days I really don't want or need as many movie discs as I used to think I did, since I can choose almost anything I want to stream, at least for a price.
Therefore, decide how much space you want to devote to these types of discs or items and then keep reducing the number you do keep until it fits into the space you've designated for the purpose.
(As always, I don't think you need to get rid of all of them, and you get to choose how many is a reasonable amount for you to keep!)
If you want to keep a bunch of discs, but are short on space, you may want to consider getting rid of the cases and keeping only the discs themselves in a disc organizer (you'll see a photo of that below, shown in a reader photo).
If you find you haven't watched a movie in the last year, not even once, you should seriously consider decluttering it.
For digital movies delete any you don't like, and organize the rest in some way that you can easily find and access what you like, and make sure you keep a back up!
Scroll down to see some photos from readers who've already done this mission to get you ready to tackle it yourself!
Top photo courtesy of Morgan and bottom photo in collage courtesy of Mike Weston
It's always inspirational to see the results others have when they've done this mission, and fortunately several readers have sent in their photos of what they've accomplished.
The photos above were sent in by a reader, Dora, who said it was her DVD purge. She really sorted through quite a few movies, didn't she?
These photos above are from another reader, Debra.
Debra decided that she didn't want to completely get rid of the DVD and CDs she owned, but wanted them to take up less space. That's why you decluttered the cases, which you can see in the bags to be discarded, and kept only the discs and insert material inside the organizer case.
Are You Ready To Declutter Your Video & Movie Clutter?
I hope reading these instructions and seeing these pictures has inspired you to get rid of your own video and movie clutter.
That's exactly what happened for a reader, Miranda, who sent in the photo above. She said, "These are our DVDs and I so need to go through them and get rid of some. They're two rows deep plus we have a small cabinet on our entertainment center full too.
You can do it Miranda! And so can you!
Want To Do More Decluttering Missions? Get Started With Declutter 365 Today!
Once you declutter one type of item in your home I bet you'll want to declutter some more. After all, decluttering gives you a great reward for even a small investment of time and energy.
The Declutter 365 system is designed to help you declutter, over the course of a year, your entire house, with just 15 minutes of decluttering each day!
Hundreds of thousands of people use this proven system to get rid of their clutter, and bring peace and calm back to their homes.
Declutter 365 works to guide you to clear the clutter without overwhelm, focusing on just one small area at a time, and without making a huge mess in the process, so you see consistent forward progress without all that "messy middle" that makes it even harder to function in your home than before you started.
In addition to building a daily decluttering habit, the Declutter 365 program, along with the accompanying 52 Week Organized Home Challenge, teaches you the skills, habits, routines, and mindsets necessary to maintain the clutter free and organized state of your home from now on, so it'll never be as messy and cluttered as it is right now, ever again.
If you haven't already, make sure to get your copy of this year's Declutter 365 annual calendar here (it's FREE!), find today's date, and do 15 minutes of decluttering on the day's mission. Then, repeat again tomorrow, and again and again. Over the course of the next year, if you do this 15 minutes per day, you'll declutter your whole house!
Some links on this page are affiliate links, meaning that if you purchase a product through them I receive a small commission which helps me provide this information to you for free, plus support my family. My integrity and your satisfaction are very important to me so I only recommend products I would purchase myself, and that I believe would benefit you. To learn more please see my disclosure statement.
Don't have much to do with this week's challenge. I put my CD's into a large binder 'wallet' a long time ago, and put the cases into boxes so that if I decided to get rid of something, I could match them up. My son has done the same thing. We did, however, go through most of his VHS tapes, and he'll be selling off a whole box, and the ones that wouldn't fit into the entertainment center now fit. We won't be digitizing either due to money issues, as we can't afford an external drive to do this. It's a great idea though and someday we will. All that's left now is my husband's stuff :D
videos by: Janet
Is there somewhere to donate videos? I still have a tv that plays them, but I'd like to get rid of a batch w/o discarding them.
Yippee! by: Anonymous
I gave away about 400 videos via Craigslist as I hadn't watched them for a while. They were all recorded TV shows and movies from the 80's to the new millennium. The recipient was thrilled to get them, especially the ones with commercials. Go figure. He uses them for his job. It gave me a place to store books I needed room for after I closed my office.
County Recycling Option by: Anonymous
In my county, our main recycling center permits recycling of VHS & cassette tapes, as well as CDs & DVDs. I have a 20-25 minute drive to take them there, but it felt good to know they would be taken care of responsibly rather than sent to a landfill.