Clearing Clutter Challenge and Home Organizing Ideas

Create your own clearing clutter challenge that works…

Where do these people get the energy? That’s what I want to know. Every January, the web is on fire with organizational exuberance.

Everybody suddenly decides that they are going to get their shiznit together. Resolve to do away with the clutter and start afresh.

It’s a lovely thought. But personally? I’m just too tired for all of it right now. December comes in like a freight train for us moms, doesn’t it?

The whole month we run as fast as we can to stay a few feet in front of that engine that’s bearing down on us. And then December leaves, and I for one am a flattened pancake.

Well, more like a lumpy pancake. I ate A LOT of Christmas cookies.

But you know what I mean. And NOW, suddenly, we’re supposed to scrape ourselves off the train tracks and not only take down all this darn Christmas decor, we’re actually supposed to organize our entire life on top of it?!

Who are these people kidding? Not THIS flattened (yet lumpy) pancake!

If they want me to organize, I need to be incentivized. We’re talking serious gifts, prizes, pats on the back, foot massages, bubble baths. I want rewards to endure the punishment that is “organization.”

And if I’m going to endure this trauma, then I’m dragging you along with me. Because misery loves company. But don’t worry, I’ve come up with a plan to make it as tolerable as possible. How? Chocolate. And bubble baths, and such.

• muffin tins
• downloaded, printed and cut out free printables downloadable here
• treats of choice

I’ve created a list of over 30 of the typically most unorganized, cluttered spots in our homes. Our collective job is the following:

1. Print out the free printable below (just click on the graphic).

2. Pick your poison, and tape your tasks onto muffin tins.

Poison meaning the organizational and decluttering tasks you will be attempting to tackle for the next couple weeks.

There are enough on the printable for over one full month, but don’t get all ambitious on me. I’m going to tackle 14-20 TOPS.

3. Choose your rewards and stuff them into the tins.

This is going to be our adult organizational “advent” calendar of sorts. I realize that the prize at the end of real advent…a savior born in a manger…is much more exciting perhaps than ending up with an organized junk drawer.

BUT, being able to find one’s mascara in a millisecond rather than spending 20 minutes wading through a haystack of old makeup in one’s bathroom drawer to find that one lone plastic tube-looking-needle is definitely an exciting thing, I’d say.

There are SO many organizational approaches, methods, tactics, hacks out there…and I don’t profess to be an expert…or even a novice in ANY of them. So if you’ve had good success with anything in particular, SHARE with our group! I would love to benefit from your insights!

The first item I’m going to tackle is our junk drawer. Here’s how it looks right now:

So now, get out those spatulas and let’s all scrape ourselves off the railroad tracks. It’s time to organize, people! May the organizational and clearing clutter force be with us all. Ugh.