Focus Challenge - Month 9 (2010)

Otherwise known as "Forgotten Fall" around here (please read). I am so sorry for completely forgetting about posting your September Focus Challenge!

For this challenge, take a look at all of the Autumn and holiday items you are bringing out. Do like, love and intend to use them all? Or are there a few that have seen their usefulness in your life end and can now be decluttered? If so, get them out of your space and give them new life elsewhere*. And be sure to congratulate yourselves for staying true to your decluttering challenge!

*If they're useable, please consider giving them away to someone you know or one that you don't (donating to a charity). One's mans treasure and all that. Plus the landfill doesn't need unnecessary stuff thrown in there; there is already too much in the way of trash being generated!

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 8 (2010)

For this month's Focus Challenge, let's focus on our outside space some more. Whether it's just a patio or an entire backyard, odds are good that some clutter is hiding out there.

My suggestions would be to look for items that were left there "just for a bit" but then were forgotten, unfinished projects, decor items that we no longer use or love, etc.

On each of the next 7 days, stand at the entry to your outside area and take a good look around the whole space. What catches your eye? Your focus challenge is to identify and purge 7 items of clutter.

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 7 (2010)

I've been spending so much time outside enjoying the beautifully mild summer we've been having here in Northern California that I haven't been inside enough to keep track of my calendar. I completely missed posting a Focus Challenge on our anniversary. Whoops and sorry!

This month's Focus Challenge is to examine physical items of clutter that have been able to stay around because of a mental clutter hold, whether it was because of sentimentality (i.e., missing someone), fear (of not having the money to replace something decluttered if you ever need to), practicality (I can't get another like this if I want it again later), etc.

If it's not the item itself that you cherish, but the memory that it invokes, can you keep a picture of the item?

What about the mental "have to, should do, etc." that has been placed on the item, whether by others or ourselves? Do you "have to" keep this dish from Aunt Sally? If you feel it is a yes, do what you can to make it a cherished keepsake. Treat it with respect by displaying it yourself, or loaning it to a family member who will, instead of being destined to live its life buried in a box in the attic or closet.

Is there a way to retain it but in an uncluttered way? For example, if it's a fabric item, do you really need to keep the item in its entirety or could you keep a swatch of it?

When you realize the sway that our thoughts have, inducing us to hold on to clutter, you gain awareness. As your awareness grows you learn to see these mental clutter holds and will hopefully take action at that time to release them.

Challenge yourself to find 7 items that didn't appear to be clutter until you thought about why you have them. Let these items go. Begin to see life in a whole new way...where you own your stuff and don't allow it to own you!

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?