Focus Challenge - Month 2 (2010)

Where did my weekend go? Anyways, I apologize for forgetting our Anniversary yesterday and not posting our Focus Challenge. This time we are going to help our future self out just a bit.

Find 7 small pieces of clutter over the next week IN ADDITION to your daily item. Put your daily item in your Donation Station and stash the other items near it.

During your 365 day journey there will come difficult days. It happens; life does get in the way of our grand plans sometimes. If you are too busy on a particular day to find an item to declutter, pull one from your saved items to use. You will thank your past self for helping you out like that!

Similarly, if you miss a day because life was so busy and the day was over before you knew it, allow yourself the mistake and renew your commitment for the days following. Believe it or not, you decluttered something...the guilt & frustration with yourself would have been mental clutter. If you don't allow it to take root, then you have decluttered it! With that said, beware of starting down the very slippery slope by allowing yourself to miss a day on purpose.

If you must make it up (remember...there's no guilt allowed here!), then pull an item from the "just in case" stash on the very next day, put it in your Donation Station and call it good. The point of the challenge is not all-or-nothing defeating perfectionism, but to build the routine of doing something each day to develop it into a lifestyle habit. If you miss a day, keep going!

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 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?

Day 365

It's here, it's here. Today is the official last day of the 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge! We made it!!

I can't begin to thank you enough for what everyone's involvement in my little challenge has done to propel me during this whole journey. It's also led to me deciding to continue blogging (more details in a later post), which I find quite amusing, since I only started this blog due to the insistence of a friend!

Thinking back about my 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge, it's actually a bit difficult to remember when it was so hard to let go of things. Most times now I rarely even have to question myself to make a final decision. I am very pleased with all of the past clutter that I've finally evicted. I've also done really well at keeping current clutter from entering our home, or from having a long stay anyways.

My official last day was Wednesday, February 18th but I wanted to wait and celebrate our official last day. Your 365th day may not be here yet. It's still OK to celebrate with us; we are all on the same journey together. When your 365th day arrives, please be sure to post on here and let us know so we can share in congratulating you!

Focus Challenge - Month 5

It's anniversary time once again. We have been going strong on our own challenges for approximately 5 months now.

How ya feeling? Are you inspired by the challenge to keep the decluttering going now as a lifestyle instead of a fad diet? Do you feel you've grown through all of your hard work to keep true to your challenge and declutter an item each and every day? I hope you are feeling those things and more.

Congratulations to you all! You are doing awesome.

How about we play a word game for our next Focus Challenge? For the next seven days, use the letters in the word C-L-U-T-T-E-R to inspire your decluttering. You can declutter something that starts with one of the letters (ex: cup, catalog, canned food...and so on for each of the letters), look in a location that starts with one of the letters (ex: cabinet, car, closet...and so on), etc.

Have fun with this...and don't forget to post your decluttering finds so we can enjoy your puzzle too! :-)

C =
L =
U =
T =
T =
E =
R =

Focus Challenge - Month 4

Where did my weekend go? Anyways, I apologize for forgetting our Anniversary yesterday and not posting our Focus Challenge. It is a short & simple one this time.

What is the weirdest/craziest/silliest item that you have already looked at once during your 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge and thought it was clutter AND KEPT? Have you progressed on your lighter & brighter journey to a new life and would consider flinging it now?

For me, it is a pair of shorts. They are the most uncomfortable thing I have ever worn and have been since I bought them last summer. I love the color and the design but oh.my.goodness are they cut so, so wrong for my body. They are jean shorts and I guess I've hoped that repeated wearing & washing would loosen them up. Or maybe I hoped I'd lose weight in just the right spot to make them fit.

I can't remember how many times that I have worn them, cursed at myself over & over while wearing them for picking them to wear that day, washed them AND HUNG THEM RIGHT BACK UP IN THE CLOSET. Why? I have no idea...because I am seriously not into torturing myself.

Well, what made this last wearing so different? This time, as I ended another long & miserable time of wearing them and thinking, yet again, that I really should get rid of them, I was doing so with a different perspective on my life and the things I choose to be in it. I have decluttered enough items now to realize fully and completely that I DESERVE to be surrounded with only what I use, love, want and need.

How about you? What is the most memorable item that you have considered decluttering along the way and just didn't bring yourself to do it? Are you ready to do it now? See what others have decluttered in their Focus Challenge.

Your 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge is to rid yourself of 365 unwanted, unloved, unneeded and unused items in your life. Join me in releasing it and affirming to yourself that YOU DESERVE to be surrounded with only what you use, love, want and need!

I'd love it if you'd add a comment here to share your feeling of victory over your clutter with your fellow 365 Challengers. You will definitely be an inspiration and motivation to us all!

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……