Focus Challenge - Month 11

Over the last month I have been thinking about February 22nd, which will be the official end of the 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge. I have already heard from some challengers that they are signing on for another 365 days. Way to go!

To me, decluttering doesn't end. We all consume. We all buy. We all have to decide what stays and what goes, because there is always more clutter trying to make its way into your space and into your mind.

Only you can decide how you will proceed after February 22nd. Has this been fun while it lasted and you are ready to put your efforts into a different area? Has decluttering become routine and you can't imagine not regularly decluttering? Have you run out of things to declutter? Did you finally begin addressing mental clutter and don't want to stop?

With a month remaining, I want to use our final Focus Challenge for introspection.

1) Think of the 7 pieces of clutter that you purged that were the most difficult, the most meaningful, the most inspiring (i.e., decluttering it led to other things being decluttered that had a fabulous effect on you or your life), etc.

2) For each item, write the name of the item on a piece of paper in the very center of the page. Draw a circle around it. Then, develop a mind map. To do so, draw a line out from the bubble with emotions/feelings you associated with the item. Then, from each of those feelings, draw branches out from it relating to how you felt when you possessed the item and later once you let it go.

It is my hope that our remaining Focus Challenge will provide insight to you on your clutter. Each item that you let go of during this challenge was only a thing, an item, an object, stuff. The emotion we attached to them (aka mental clutter) was the part that was the most difficult to purge.

Gaining this insight will aid us in the days to come by, hopefully, preventing more stuff from having an advantage over us by tapping into our emotions. As you might have heard before, you are not your stuff. You own your stuff; it does not own you...or, at least it shouldn't.

Thank you for taking this challenge with me. I greatly appreciate what I have learned along the way. I hope this journey has also been wonderful for you as well.