CLUTTER CONTROL: 20-1-7 Challenge Week #12

Dr. Grimes’ 20-1-7 CHALLENGE:

  • For the first TWENTY weeks of this year,
  • Pick ONE healthy change every Sunday, and
  • Commit to that change for SEVEN days.

CLUTTER CONTROL: 20-1-7 Challenge Week #12

My family is NOT inherently neat and tidy. Paper clutter engulfs our kitchen counters, home office and dining room table ten times faster than I can sort, record, and recycle. Scientific studies have well documented that visual clutter ADDS significantly to stress/anxiety, and that LACK of clutter does the reverse. I tend to be an all or nothing person, so when I start to spring clean, I obsessively purge one closet or room, taking the entire day. Point in case- in January, I literally took every single thing out of my walk-in bedroom closet (which had not been emptied since we moved in 20 years ago!), and then re-filled starting from scratch. It took NINE HOURS…but I am happy to report it has stayed beautifully neat with relative ease, especially since I donated an SUV carload to charity, considerably thinning out my wardrobe. Every morning, my clean closet makes me smile, and even motivated me to clean the adjoining bathroom drawers and linen closet- but I never reached beyond the master bath.

So- this week’s challenge canNOT be to clean a room every day, because like the rest of you, I can’t spend a ton of hours on this! Since I have an “ahem” SLIGHTLY competitive nature, I decided to go with a ten minute, stopwatch (phone timer) controlled cleaning/organizing spree per day, racing the clock to see how much I can accomplish. I realize I have drawers that can’t be touched in ten minutes, but I’m betting I can find at least 7 areas in my home that concentrated 10 minute purging can make a significant impact.

What method should you use? Right now, the Marie Kondo method is certainly sweeping my Facebook pages, and I’ll admit though I laughed at the “does this item spark joy” approach initially, I actually have found it to be very liberating, allowing me to “release” many things- especially clothing- to new owners, rather than tucking that old beloved shirt back into my stuffed drawer. I will confess that I now have three boxes set aside to mail off to create t-shirt quilts for our girls (yes, there’s a groupon for that! I will no longer save this in the garage for that day that I take up this new craft.) As I cleaned, I ironically unearthed The Clutter Diet from my clothing shelves- and found useful tips there as well, like using a rolled-up magazine to make your boots stand up (great use for my journals!) Whatever works for you!

BOTTOM LINE: This week I will challenge myself to daily 10-minute cleaning attacks on my clutter clusters, in the hope of decreasing visual clutter to decrease stress! (*and I will actually DO last week’s YOGA challenge. Typing this to hold myself accountable!)

20-1-7 Challenge Week #1: COLOR

20-1-7 Challenge Week #2: Veggie Spiralizer

20-1-7 Challenge Week #3: Medication Dispenser

20-1-7 Challenge Week #4: Meditation

20-1-7 Challenge Week #5: WATER

20-1-7 Challenge Week #6: Exercise BOOST

20-1-7 Challenge Week #7: FLOSS

20-1-7 Challenge Week #8: ZZZ

20-1-7 Challenge Week #9: RESIST

20-1-7 Challenge Week #10: No W(h)ining

20-1-7 Challenge Week #11: YOGA FEEDBACK: Well, once I started vacation, I completely dropped the ball on this one. No point in lying, right? LOL! Good news is I am making the rules, so…I am actually adding the yoga challenge to this week’s challenge, doubling up. Sometimes we all need “do-overs!”

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