In So Many Words

Why is it I can only seem to focus on one area of my life at a time? I’m not complaining, just noticing this to be true.

I have been on a decluttering kick the last couple of weeks and have made some great progress on a couple of areas (not that you can tell from a quick peek inside my home, but I know it’s happening under the surface).

My son and I have actually been through every single thing in his room and he has given up a ton of stuff that he no longer uses or plays with. The gentleman that picked up his old toy organizer and small trampoline today actually has a three year old son who was born three and a half months early and has a trach, along with some other medical issues. It’s great to know that someone else will be getting a lot of use out of them!

Anyway, I got Michael a new cube organizer shelf with some colorful fabric drawers and helped him display some of the items that are more collections than toys, and he loves it! I love walking in his room and feeling the space. Sorry for the lack of photos – my hubby is really the photographer in the family.

Because of all this time spent on organization, I haven’t been on the computer much the last few days and was greeted with almost 200 blog posts in my Google Reader when I checked in this afternoon! Although there are many I would love to visit and comment on, I’m not sure whether I will make it through them all. I’m hoping to have a bit of time tomorrow to catch up on my blogging, but we’ll see how it goes, I guess.

Michael is loving being back at the same babysitter he had last summer and is continuing to show so much flexibility and organization of thought that Bob & I are blown away almost daily by the things he is coming up with. It is such a wonderful thing, and I am determined to enjoy it as long as it lasts (hopefully forever!)

I can hardly believe the first month of 2010 is already over! I have definitely decluttered more than 31 things, although I am still working on the daily part of the challenge.

Some of the stuff I got rid of this week:

• Two organizer units that fit over a toilet, both of which were stored under the basement stairs even though I knew we would likely never use them
• All the empty boxes from the Wii games and controllers we got at Christmas, which had been piled up against the kitchen wall but somehow never broken down for the recycling can
• Several old tops that were either too big or too small and were just taking up space in my closet, found as I searched for something to wear since I can’t do laundry right now
• A few other odds and ends from the basement that needed to be either thrown out or passed on to someone else

My back porch has quite a few things on it now, so my goal this week is to post them on Freecycle and move them out as soon as possible. I am also looking forward to decluttering our old clothes dryer and being able to do laundry again very soon!

If you’re looking for some inspiration to get organized, here are a few posts I would recommend:

• Six Keys to Achieving Big Goals at Michael Hyatt’s blog
• 4 Strategies for Organizational Success at Steady Mom
• There’s No I In Team at The Gang’s All Here

How is everyone else doing with their own goals for 2010??

I’m so ready to get started on this decluttering challenge and make it a routine in my daily life. And I’m even more excited about those of you who have decided to join me. Together we can do it!

The Basic Outline

Simply put, the 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge is a commitment to “donate, sell or toss one unused item from your home every day for a year.”

I’m sure logistical questions will come up as the year progresses, but my plan as of now is to designate a spot in my house to collect the items to be donated and then drop them off to charity or post them on Freecycle once I have a box full. If I find items worth selling, I will post them on Craigslist and donate them later if they don’t sell. Obviously, things that are being tossed will go into the trash immediately.

Focus Challenges

This part isn’t required to participate in the challenge, but Suzanne had created a series of mini challenges to serve as a reminder to the participants that they weren’t doing it alone. Each one focuses on a specific area or type of clutter. I asked her for permission to use them during my own challenge, and she graciously agreed.

Focus Challenge, Month 1 (click the link to read the full, original challenge)

Think of 7 areas or such that bother you (for example: a drawer/closet; a flat surface that always has stuff put on it, your desk at home or work, etc.) For the next week, the focus challenge is to look in one area each day for your declutter item of the day.

If this seems too difficult, or you don’t have that many areas which bother you, you could just focus on one area and remove one piece of clutter from that area each day for a week. The main point is that we are getting rid of the extra stuff!

Time to Get Started

Now go find one thing in your house to throw away, give away or sell. And then do the same thing tomorrow and the next day!

I will be putting up a MckLinky in a week (on January 8th) so we can all report on how the decluttering is going and encourage each other to stay motivated. I can’t wait to hear how it goes!

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

I’m a little late posting my To-Do List this week because of all the birthday busyness, but I still wanted to do it. I have a couple of items from last week that didn’t get done, so I’m making them the top priorities this week!

My To Do List:

Daily items –

Add school communication form notes to spreadsheet. (Only have four check marks because Michael was sick on Monday and didn’t go to school.)

Do dishes. (Yes, I realize this is pathetic. While I could say it was the whole birthday thing and then Michael getting sick, the truth is I just hate doing dishes!)

Left over from last week –

Write book review!!

Do taxes!!

New items –

Prepare agenda for ASD HOPE board meeting.

Schedule respite for night of church volunteer reception.

Submit paperwork for contact lens purchase to FSA.

Call contact place about two defective lenses. Update: That went well – they are actually sending a whole box to replace the two bad ones!

Buy cat carrier so we can return the one we brought the new kitty home in. (Not done but I did return the original one.)

Email list of GFCF snacks to Michael’s psychologist.

Write Try This Tuesday for next week.

Maybe next week I will be brave and add in more household chores that really should be getting done!

For more To-Do Tuesday, visit Crazy Adventures in Parenting.

As I was hopping around today visiting Nightstand and Tackle posts, I came across a new meme that seemed like it was made just for me — To-Do Tuesday from Lisa at Crazy Adventures in Parenting.

For this meme, you post your to-do list for the week, link up to the main post at Lisa’s blog and then come back and either cross off or
check off things as you complete them. She even has a great HTML tutorial to show you how to do it (although I can’t figure out how to make the checkbox not start a new line, harrumph!).

As an inveterate list maker, I could come up with many, many items for this list, but I have decided to try to keep it manageable and realistic. My hope is that by posting this, I will feel more accountable to actually get the things done. And I am really excited about getting to check things off; in fact, I already have one thing done!

My To Do List:

Add school communication form notes to spreadsheet.

Do dishes daily.

Select pictures for Michael’s birthday scrapbook and order them from Costco.

Copy paperwork for respite program and mail it in.

Reschedule appt with DAN! doctor.

Make flyer for ASD HOPE April/May Empowerment Workshops.

Write review of Rex (now that I’ve found it again!) and get it posted.

Write Try This Tuesday for next week.

Return videos to Blockbuster, pay fines and sign up for Netflix.

I guess you’ll have to check back to see how I’m doing. Maybe I’ll post my completed list along with my new list next week – we’ll have to see how it goes.

To see other people’s lists or to link up your own, visit To-Do Tuesday. Let me know if you do it, so we can encourage each other!

I have been planning to start working on the amount of clutter in my house and join in on Tackle It Tuesday at 5 Minutes for Mom for a while now. Since today is the day for What’s On Your Nightstand? over at 5 Minutes for Books, I thought there would be no better way to get started tackling than to clear off my nightstand!

Now I know some of you are saying, “That doesn’t look too bad; at least everything is neatly piled up.” But all of those books have been read, many of them several months ago, so it just needed to be dealt with!

Well, in just 15 minutes, I was able to:

• Put the library books in my bag ready to be taken back and exchanged for new ones.
• Separate the rest into keep, return to the person I borrowed them from, and pass on to someone else. The books to keep were put onto the bookshelf, and the others placed by the front door to go out.
• File the papers and catalogs from the last autism conference I went to, empty the gift bag of Christmas stocking stuffers into the right places in the closet, and give everything a good dusting and vacuum.

And, voila, a beautiful clean nightstand, with my Bible and journal easily accessible and a space all ready for the next round of books to be read!

And for a bonus, I found the book I was supposed to write a review about last month and had completely forgotten about.

So, what are you reading or tackling today?