Focus Challenge – Month 8

We've been decluttering our way through spring, summer and now we're into autumn. As the weather in my area has done an abrupt about-face and went from 90 degree days to 60/70 degree days PLUS cold wind in the last week, I am suddenly feeling very autumn inspired.

It wasn't so last year. I'm kinda excited! Last year I was not in the holiday mood, did almost nothing to decorate our home and even let holiday gift-giving sneak up on me...anyone who truly knows me understands that I buy holiday gifts during the year and have only little things to buy after Thanksgiving. So, this year, I've signed up for The Holiday Countdown to inspire me via babysteps to gear up for the festive season.

Many of us have decorated for Autumn, Halloween and maybe even Thanksgiving already. If you've not done so and want to, c'mon, join us! Let's illuminate our spaces with little touches of the season to give thanks for the harvests; to enjoy the time of gatherings between friends, families and neighbors; and to celebrate the end of another year.

Let's use this inspiration for our Focus Challenge this month.

1) If you've got your holiday things here, there and everywhere, spend 15 minutes each day to bring it all together. If you've already decorated, look for stuff that you did not put out--odds are good there is a reason for it.

2) As you find things, give them the "clutter or not" once over. Do you love it?...Want it?...Use it?

If not, declare the item to be your 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge item of the day and celebrate another day that you stayed true to your challenge!

For those who haven't decorated and want bonus points, choose a holiday decor item that passed the clutter or not test and put it up. ;-)

3) After all of your holiday stuff has been given a once-over, start thinking of a central way of storing it after the season. There's no use having to start at Step 1 (bringing it all together) next year.

- Do you have adequate containers, shelf space, etc. to store it together?
- Do you want to separate Autumn decor from the Halloween decor? Or separate Thanksgiving from Christmas, etc?
- Do you want to put everything that gets put up first during the season into one container or in one place? If so, maybe having the containers or spaces labeled as one, two, three, etc. will help you out next year.
- Can your holiday gift wrapping supplies be stored together and away from your regular gift wrapping supplies?
- How about storing seasonal cookware, cookbooks, etc, together and away from your everyday kitchen stuff?

No matter the task, my thought process is this: don't let stuff overrun me.

Since we are trying to declutter our homes, it makes sense to declutter our seasonal stuff too. If we use it/love it/want it, then we should take care to have it around for the next year. Use this season to declutter and give yourself the gift of order next year!