Focus Challenge - Month 1 (2010)

On my first run-through of the 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge, I defined the 22nd of the month as a special “Anniversary Day” since everyone starts their challenges on different days.

Now that I've accepted another 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge, I was asked if I will again send out a gift on our Anniversary—what I call a Focus Challenge. I wasn't quite sure if I could think up new ways to challenge everyone but the ideas have been coming. The older Focus Challenges are still available and a new one will be posted on the 22nd of each month. Which ever you choose to do, the Focus Challenge will serve to remind us that, actually, we are not doing this all alone. Many other people are right there beside us doing the same thing, at the same time. Some are going through the same challenges, and some face others, but we are all united in one purpose!

You began a journey to do something, anything, towards evicting clutter from your life. That determination to make a change AND actually taking action on it is something that should be applauded all on its own. Starting is almost always the hardest part of doing something.

So, are you ready to rev up your engines, have some fun and work on this month’s Focus Challenge? OK, here we go……

~ Focus Challenge # 1 ~

Stand at the front door of your home and look into the room. This is the most important of all positions in your home. It's where you enter your home environment and where others have their first impression of your home (and you) as well. Your focus challenge is to look for your daily decluttering item in this room for the next 7 days.

Focus Challenge - Advanced Level

On each of the next 7 days, visit a different room of your home (in a clockwise motion from your front door) to look for your item of the day to declutter. On day 1 start on the first room you enter, on day 2 move to the room to the left of your entrance. Continue for all 7 days, circling the exterior facing rooms of your home. If you have less than 7 rooms, then proceed inward like the spiral pic above. If you run out of rooms (for instance, if you live in a 1 bedroom apartment and only had 4 rooms total, like I once did), here's your solution. Apply the spiral to all rooms first and then look for the remaining items in the largest room just the same way as described above, moving from the outside-in.

Top 5 Posts:
How I Define Clutter
Decluttering: A How-To
I'd Rather Stay Home From Work and De-junk
Decluttering Made Simple (27-17-7)
Ever Felt Afraid to Declutter?

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.

Happy Anniversary!

With everyone starting on a different day, I want to define just one day as our “Anniversary Day”. Should it be the day I started and sent out the call to everyone to join me? Should it be the first day that someone did? The first day of the month? So many possibilities.

One of my most inspirational people, Marla Cilley who is known as FlyLady, chooses to use her favorite number as a date to remember an important event. So, in honor of her, I will do the same. My favorite number is 22. Both of my children were born on the 22nd of the month, so I hold that day near and dear already. Now, I’ve just added another reason for importance.

From here forward, the official anniversary of the 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge will be on the 22nd of each month.
H a p p y ~ M o n t h . 1 ~ A n n i v e r s a r y !

On our Anniversary, I will also send out a gift—what I’ll call a Focus Challenge. Decluttering all alone isn't much fun. It can be, if we make a game of it! The Focus Challenge will serve to remind us that, actually, we are not doing this all alone. Many other people are right there beside us doing the same thing, at the same time. Some are going through the same challenges, and some face others, but we are all united in one purpose!

Again I say...Happy Anniversary! This is an important day. You began a journey 30 days ago, give or take, to do something, anything, towards evicting clutter from your life. That determination to make a change AND actually taking action on it is something that should be applauded all on its own. Starting is almost always the hardest part of doing something.

So, are you ready to rev up your engines, have some fun and work on this month’s Focus Challenge? OK, here we go……