Tally Tuesday – May 27

Dealt with paper clutter in office (yay me)

Girl pants

Girl shoes

Discarded paper clutter in nightstand (cards I received, old notebooks)

Plastic sheeting we were using for painting LR (Husband wanted to reuse it…it’s not really useable with all the tape sticking to it so it’s finally outta here)

4 pancake molds (a leaf, turtle, duck and cat)

Book

Focus Challenge - Month 3

First things first...C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S to all of us for working our 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge for approximately 3 months!!!! During this time, there have been ups & downs for each of us but we are still going strong, and still evicting clutter from our lives!

We can do this. Just gotta keep our FOCUS on our CHALLENGE!!!!!

For Focus Challenge #3, I am using Kris’ great idea about integrating it with the current FlyLady Zones. I tried to think up something really creative but, well, it didn’t happen. LOL! Here’s what we finally ended up with; hope you enjoy this month’s Focus Challenge. ;-)

As Kelly says in the Missions, your bedroom is your private retreat and you deserve to not be surrounded by clutter while you sleep.

--> For the 2 remaining days in Zone 4: The Master Bedroom (May 19 - 23), plus the weekend*, the focus areas for finding your decluttered item are:

* Nightstand

* Bed (look under it…use/love/need the linens you have for your bed…etc.)

* Closet/clothing/jewelry & accessories

* Miscellaneous pile, box or such that rests in the bedroom with you.

--> For the first 3 days in Zone 5: The Living Room (May 26 - 30), the focus areas for finding your decluttered item are:

* Entertainment center/armoire/whatever your TV lives on :-)

* Any table in the room

* Miscellaneous anything that lives in the living room with you.

If you find something to declutter in the focus area, that's great, because you're done with your challenge for the day! :-) If not, you'll just have to find one elsewhere. Hopefully, many of us can find at least ONE clutter item there that is ready to be evicted.

* Unlike Kelly's Missions, there is no day off in my 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge. Please remember: if you do schedule a day off in your 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge, you are no less of a very worthy challenger ;-)

Tally Tuesdays – May 20

4 books

Picture album

Virtual makeover software

2 boy shirts

3 sheets

Picture in closet (hung in laundry room)

2 prints in closet of one room + 2 frames in dresser in another…
(put it all together and hung in bathroom)

Tally Tuesdays - May 13

Bath mitt with pigs on each finger

Outgrown undershirt of my daughter's

3 restaurant toys

2 outgrown shirts

Cool Hand Luke DVD (part of a gift basket & I never watched it)

Some kind of electrical/adapter cord

Really old pictures (scanned them and threw their remains out)

Pair of pants my daughter doesn't like to wear

Tally Tuesdays

I'm on Day 84 of the 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge and, I admit, I'm bored. So I've decided that I'm going to start posting my boring (really) decluttered items for the previous week on each "Tally Tuesday". I really hope you'll join in because I'm sure your items will really add some spice to the mix. And, you might just inspire a fellow challenger to look in places they didn't consider or to declutter items they thought of decluttering in the very beginning but forgot about. C'mon join me for some tallying every Tuesday! :-)

Decluttering, Our Own Way

After putting the children to bed, I start winding down from the day. This is when my brain has a chance to process a lot of miscellaneous stuff in my mind, because us moms are just go-go-going a lot and trying to juggle many thoughts at once during our day. I think of it as a brain dump and my mind is trying to make sense of things that I’ve “forgotten” or thoughts that were pushed aside during the day. This is when I remember that tomorrow I have a meeting or the boss will be out of the office as I’m laying out my clothes for the next day. Recalling a discussion with my child's teacher about a class topic, and my child's request to bring in a share item about it, will prompt me to put the item in their "out-the-door basket". Etc.

I don’t tend to think about decluttering as I am going through my day. It is a second nature behavior for me and is so routine that my auto-pilot mind just doesn’t register it. Now, since I have accepted the challenge to declutter one item each day, I have to pay a little more attention to it. During my evening brain dump, I think back about what I decluttered today. If I can’t recall anything, then I find something right then and deal with it. For example, decluttering by doing (such as putting up hardware on the wall for a picture that’s been stashed in a closet & hanging it), throwing it away or tossing it into my “Donation Station”—which is just a bag in a coat closet. If it’s in the bag, though, it’s as good as gone. We never take anything out; it’s as if it doesn’t exist to us anymore. When the bag is full, I put it into my trunk and run it over to my charity of choice after work in the next day or two.

I have heard from others in this challenge who are nearly the opposite. They are thinking decluttering, decluttering, decluttering all throughout the day. It’s as if their eyes are sending a picture to their mind about every object they lay their eyes upon, with a note attached asking, “Is this clutter?”

It has been amazing to hear about this change in their perspective. Items they have had in their home for years but haven’t really been seen for so long are now being seen. Purging items that they don’t want, use, love or need has been so uplifting. Rediscovering the items they do truly enjoy and having those items around them has had a great effect too. The sense of accomplishment has been fulfilling and finding so much new space in their home has created happiness. As well as purging the burden that those things brought upon them and feeling the peace in their minds, hearts and homes from decluttering it.

As your 365 Days of Decluttering journey continues, I am eager to hear from you about the happiness, fulfillment and peace you are bringing into your life and home.