365 Days of Decluttering Challenge

by Trish on December 28, 2009 · View Comments

I have made some significant progress in decluttering my home this year – after years of moaning and groaning about it without taking any action. It has been a wonderful thing, but as I look around, I realize there is a lot more to be done, and I’m also finding that it can be difficult to keep the decluttered areas from becoming messy again.

So when I discovered the 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge, I was very intrigued. The basic idea of the challenge is “to donate, sell or toss one unused item from your home every day for a year.”

My first thought was – one thing? That’s not very much, how will that help? But then I thought about how much of a difference 365 things would make by the time a year is up. Of course, there will be days where I get motivated and do more than that, but I love the idea that I can make a difference by removing just one unused, unneeded or unloved thing from my life each day. And that by doing it every day, I am creating a routine that will become an automatic mindset.

Suzanne Sergis, who started the challenge and also blogs at Taking Care of You, even created monthly focus challenges to help inspire and motivate people as they go through the year. For her original year of decluttering, she had declared one day of the month as an anniversary and posted a focus challenge on that day.

My Plan

I have decided to take this challenge for myself and start on January 1st (And why not? It’s the classic day to start something new, after all.) Anyone want to join me?

My plan is to post the focus challenge on the 1st of each month and then put up a MckLinky a week later so we can report on how we did and encourage each other to stay motivated. I may post at other times throughout the month about how it’s going or what I’m learning through the process as well.

So, who’s with me? Leave me a comment and let me know if you’d like to join me so we can encourage each other over the coming year.

Links to the Monthly Focus Challenges:

January 1 – Month 1 Focus Challenge

Pass It On:

Tagged as: 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge, decluttering, focus, getting organized

{ 16 comments }

MiaHysteria December 29, 2009 at 12:16 am

OMG. I’d love to, only I think that would drive me insane. I will be working on de-cluttering, just not every single day. Good luck with this.
.-= MiaHysteria´s last blog ..Who Coobies? Not Me Monday 12-28-09 =-.

Trish December 29, 2009 at 12:38 am: That’s totally cool – just let us know when you declutter something really crazy or funny, okay?

Kristin F. December 29, 2009 at 12:17 am

I think I’ll do the challenge as well. I was just mentioning this as one of my new year resolutions. I have so much clutter it’s chaos! So, January 1st then?

Trish December 29, 2009 at 12:46 am: Awesome – glad to have you on board! January 1st it is!

Jeannie December 29, 2009 at 12:33 am

Kind of already doing this, but I’ll make it official and say yes to 365 days of decluttering. I’m off to a good start. Yesterday I decluttered my front hall closet and laundry room, not to mention spending time on the kid’s toys and cleaning out the laundry closet.

Decluttering sure feels great!

I use flylady.com to help me keep organized.

By the way, in grad school I wrote a 35-page essay on clutter.
.-= Jeannie´s last blog ..One Family, Four Kids, Two with Autism and Foreclosure is Looming =-.

Trish December 29, 2009 at 12:47 am: Wow, you’ve done a lot already! I like FlyLady a lot, although I have gone on and off the wagon over the last few years. I am getting my routines back together though and think this will help make it more of a habit.

Glad to have you on board!

2kats December 31, 2009 at 9:11 pm