Create a Clutter-Free Home – 30-Day Personal Challenge Wrap-Up

Hello and thank you for reading Thoughts on the Good Life. I hope your world is happy and bright today. And I hope you are making progress on whatever personal goals you’re working on. I’m excited to give you this update on one of my current efforts.

Mixed Results

My home-decluttering challenge has been a mixed success. I’ve made some excellent progress. But I can’t claim my home is truly clutter-free. There is still so much to do. I’d say my success rate with this personal challenge is at about 40%.

So I’m not finished yet. My goal of a totally clutter-free home was a little overzealous. I bit off more than I can chew. Decluttering is hard work that requires thought and focus. And let’s be real: there are so many more exciting things to do than declutter. In general, I don’t love working with things; I prefer working with ideas and people.

It has also been difficult to find the time to declutter. Between my toddler son, full-time job, sleep, and everything else, time is sparse.

I still have six more days of this “create a clutter-free home 30-day challenge.” So I’ll keep on decluttering and making progress this week.

Then I’ll make clutter-clearing a long-term habit. I’ll slowly chip away at any remaining clutter in the coming months and years.

With all that said, I’m thrilled I got some serious decluttering done this month. I squeezed in bits of decluttering wherever I could: early in the morning, late at night, and during moments of free time. My husband did some impressive clutter-clearing too, and I didn’t even ask him to. Our home and life is now more spacious and organized than it was last month.

Below, I share with you the highs and lows of my decluttering challenge. I’ll start with my favorite successes. Then I’ll explain how I’ll approach the remaining six days of the challenge. I’ll also share what didn’t get done.

Favorite Decluttering Successes

• Master Bathroom: Completely decluttered. This was relatively easy, because there aren’t many sentimental things in my bathroom. The objects are all about utility.
• Linen Closet Toiletries: Completely decluttered. I had two shelves overflowing with toiletries like sunscreen, deodorant, makeup, and bug repellent. I threw out anything yucky. I donated a big box of items to a friend who works with homeless women. I gave my Mom a few things. I kept about half the items, neatly boxed on one shelf.
• My Clothes Closet: Partially decluttered. I donated a big box of clothes and shoes that I never wear.
• Outgrown Baby Stuff: Partially decluttered. I’m giving away much of my 22-month-old son’s baby clothing and gear. I’ve boxed up some stuff to give to a friend’s 2-month-old son. But I’m keeping some of my son’s baby stuff, as this stuff is extremely sentimental.
• Bedside Junk Drawer: Partially decluttered. I emptied out the entire drawer, threw out or re-homed about half the stuff, and kept about half the stuff. I consider this satisfying progress.
• Tupperware Drawers: Completely decluttered. I discarded all mismatched and unneeded items.
• Purse: Completely decluttered. I discarded all unnecessary items from my purse and wallet.
• My Car: Completely decluttered. I removed all garbage, beverage containers, and stray baby gear from my car. Then I washed and vacuumed the car for good measure.
• Garage: Partially decluttered. My husband gets credit for clearing enough space in the garage to park a car in there. This results in an additional parking space in our driveway.
• Storage Unit: Partially decluttered. We have a large storage unit on my in-laws’ property. My husband and I spent an afternoon sorting through boxes of books, clothing, and household items, and donated anything we don’t need to Goodwill. I was thrilled to find some long-lost belongings of a friend that had gone missing.
• Work Cubicle: Completely decluttered. This was relatively straightforward and easy. My work space is mostly designed for utility, with only some sentimental items. I was able to optimize both my filing systems by discarding many unneeded papers. It feels great to only have the items I need.
• Bookshelves: Partially decluttered. I discarded a few books, but we’re keeping most of them. We need to add another bookshelf to our home. I had some frivolous fun and organized one of the bookshelves by color.

Goals for This Week

Here are my decluttering goals for the final six days of the challenge. I’m going to attempt to keep my goals realistic, since my week will be busy as usual with work, childcare, and sleep. Here’s what I most want to sort through and declutter:

• Home Filing Cabinet: Move the filing cabinet into my clothing closet.
• Bedroom Chest of Drawers: All clothing drawers.
• Bedside Stand Junk Drawer: Go through the decluttering process one more time, to eliminate remaining unnecessary items.
• Living Room Toys: My son has two overflowing toy boxes. We’re holding the overflow toys in brown paper boxes for now. I want to find better-looking homes for these toys in my son’s closet upstairs.
• Kitchen Hot Spots: We have two surfaces in the kitchen that need decluttering: the top of the fridge and one particular countertop.

For these last six days of the challenge, I’m not going to overthink my plan of attack. But I do have two strategies in mind. I’ll work on decluttering for at least 15 minutes per day using a timer. And I’ll team up with my husband, so we can focus by coordinating who is watching our son and who is decluttering. We seem to get more done when we work as a team.

Plenty of Remaining Clutter

Beyond the next six days, there’s still a lot of decluttering work to be done in our home. Here’s a short list of other areas of the house that still need attention in the coming months:

• Linen Closet
• My Son’s Closet
• Bedroom Furniture Drawers
• Garage
• Attic
• Downstairs Bathroom Cabinet
• Kitchen Cabinets
• Coat Closet
• Desk Drawers

Moving Forward

As I mentioned, I’m very happy that I made some significant decluttering progress this month, but my success rate was only about 40%. Moving forward, I’m going to experiment with making my 30-day challenge goals more realistic. I think setting realistic goals will further develop my ability to accurately estimate what I can accomplish, which I think is a powerful skill.

Until next time, take good care. As always, I wish you the very best!

NEXT WEEK: “30-DAY PERSONAL CHALLENGE – TAKE 10 FRAME-WORTHY PHOTOS OF MY BABY SON”

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