HOME ORGANIZING CHALLENGE

Click here for your FREE downloadable home organizing challenge with tips & tricks!

(Click here for my latest and greatest home organizing challenge! It all starts with understanding your personal organizing style. So, click here, for the best way to get started on your organizing journey!)

Woohoo! I’m excited for you! Getting organized has countless benefits for your mental and physical health, your relationships, and your finances (you will see this near the end of this challenge as we prepare for our Finance Organizing Challenge which is available here!) It even gives you time by making things easier to find so you aren’t wasting time looking for things. It increases your productivity and creativity by allowing you to be able to focus in an uncluttered space. It even benefits the earth as you become more mindful of creating waste after you see the results of your declutter. AND, you will become more mindful of bringing clutter back into your home. Getting organized is just a win-win all around!

Click here for the two essential tools you will need for this challenge which are the Home Organizing Calendar and the Sorting Guidelines Chart (this chart is essential) and nowwwww a detailed tips & tricks chart for each day! We are focusing on the 1st and 2nd steps of organizing which are to clear out a space (could be as small as a drawer) and to sort those items into the essential initial sorting categories. You likely already have my FREE organizing guides which outline the 7 steps to getting organized, but in case you don’t, you can download those by clicking here.

Now this “challenge” is not meant to be SO challenging that you can’t get it done.

Whatever you don’t finish during the week, you can catch up on Saturday. Or, just go ahead and save it all for Saturday, if that works better for you. And, Sunday, is a rest day. Nobody needs to get overwhelmed! Besides, my guides make this process much easier for you!

The goal is PROGRESS not PERFECTION.

We are focusing on keeping only what you love, need, and use. This involves simply removing the items from each area that don’t belong whether they belong in another room or need to be sold, donated, or tossed.

You must have these piles before smiles! Here is how to deal with them each day at the end of each session:

1. First things first, throw out the trash! Trash is trash. Put it where it belongs and feel the weight that has lifted as that bag is tossed in the garbage can.
2. Designate an area in your home for the items you decide you want to sell. Make sure it’s away from the kids (maybe even your spouse heehee) so that curious hands don’t bring the clutter back in. You can go ahead and start selling these items, if you’d like! Or just wait until this challenge is complete. Either way, I have two posts to help you maximize the sales of these items that you no longer use (and probably never used! You will very likely be shocked at how many of these never-used items you find). Just click here and here and make some money back. Or, go ahead and forget this category if you don’t need the funds and move on to this next one.
3. Load your car each evening with the items you decide to donate. On your way out or before you come home, the next day, drop these items off at the donation center. Or, you can go ahead and designate an area in your home where you will store these items until the challenge is over and do one big drop off. I even suggest doing this before you have a garage sale. The less cluttered your garage sale is, the easier it is to sell your nicer items. If you don’t think your neighborhood will purchase an item, send it off for donation. You obviously don’t want to donate something that is trash (thus, trash is the first category I outlined). But, if you feel that you won’t be able to sell an item that is still in usable condition, the donation center can decide if it is sell-able in their location. If not, they have recycling programs in place to have it properly disposed for you.
4. Quickly place the items that belong elsewhere in the rooms where they do belong.
5. For the remaining items that you will keep and that do belong in this area, just put them all right back. Don’t worry about creating a Pinterest-perfect or an Instagram-worthy organized system. Just enjoy the newly discovered space after all the excess has been removed and breath out. You can even do a little happy dance! I do it all the time! Organizing is THE BEST!

Don’t be hard on yourself if you don’t finish an area, progress is progress, you are still closer to being organized than you were before, give yourself grace to do the rest at another time and give yourself credit for what you DID accomplish!

This organizing challenge is different from other organizing challenges as we are focusing on the most clutter-causing items.

I have a whole entire quantities to keep guidelines chart in my book for these common clutterers because the struggle to know what to keep and how many can be real. The calendar provided is based on these common clutter-causing items. So, that’s why it is very important to download the free calendar and sorting guidelines because we must get rid of the obvious clutter first and this chart helps make the decision process clear as day.

I would LOVE to see your progress! You can follow me and use the hashtag #pilesbeforesmiles and tag me @terryelisabethllc here. Those before and after pictures will certainly make me happy but, even better, they will help you see the amazing progress and changes you make for yourself which is incredibly motivating!

Now, pay attention. One, you will start to notice that this process gets easier and easier with each space you tackle. If organizing has been a struggle for you in the past, it will start to become second nature! This is truly life-changing for the reasons noted above. You will also start to notice some things about your finances as you go through this process. You will see where you spent money on things that you ended up never using. You will also see how many duplicates you’ve purchased because you couldn’t find things. It is a good thing to notice your mistakes. That way, you can learn from them and be prepared for our Finance Organizing Challenge starting next month. I am so excited, my friend! My love for organizing your spaces and your finances are equal and I have been waiting all year to share my modern money management techniques. Be ready for incredible change!

Happy Organizing!