On Track for a Great Week

I keep kicking myself because I had just gotten into my home routine and everything was going smoothly...then Christmas and I told myself it would take a while to recover from the holidays.....and then I decided to work a couple of days a week and now I feel like I am struggling to get back on track!  Everyone keeps saying well how did you do it when you worked full time...Let's face it....I didn't!!

I decided I am WHAT makes the week work...and so therefore....This week I pledge to make it a GREAT one....not a perfect one. To mark things off my list and move forward in my daily routines. One of which is doing my daily blogs on different blogs each day! It's Monday and I'm marking it off the list...blog at Month by Month!

It's Clean Week....I'll be focusing on the Master bedroom.



Week Three: Organize Week

This week starts off our Organize Week....it's pretty simple...find one thing to organize this week. Maybe it will be some files, the junk drawer, the utensil drawer, the fridge....it doesn't matter. Big or small! Let's get one thing organized.

I know I know...it feels like this (at least to me)

When things get "out of whack" like they are at my house right now it seems like there is no end in sight and you don't even know where to begin. The key is TO BEGIN. Small areas cleaned and organized add up. In the process of rotating through our weeks this year we will be decluttering, cleaning, and organizing, as well as beautifying our homes. I'd like to add another concept to this and this one plays out in each of the weeks. That is to SIMPLIFY. It's so much easier to clean and organize when things are simplified. Now of course, decluttering plays a big role in this BUT there are other areas that can be simplified as well. For example meal planning and grocery shopping, wardrobe choices, cleaning products, etc. I'll write more about this a bit later but be thinking.... "Do I need 50 t-shirts or could I manage with ten?"  That is the kind of thinking that will make our lives so much simpler! 

Week Two: Clean Forgotten Places

 

Okay, let's hope you don't have any forgotten places that look this bad!  This week's challenge is to clean some forgotten places. You can choose to clean three "smaller" places like ceiling fans, under the bed, under the sink etc. OR you can choose a bigger forgotten place cleaning area. (like my laundry room)

 

While we don't really "forget" about them we often avoid certain cleaning tasks for any number of reasons.  What have you been "forgetting" to clean? This is the week to tackle it!  You might be surprised that it will only take a short time and will make a big difference!

Week One Declutter: Ghosts of Christmas Past

 

Okay ladies (and gentlemen) it's time to clean out the ghosts. You know those cookies molding in the cupboard because you don't want to eat them on your new diet, the dips pushed to the back of the shelf in the fridge, the scraps of paper, tape and bows, even the lovely ornaments that are still lingering.

 

Our week one challenge: Ghost of Christmas Past is a declutter challenge. You pick the clutter but your goal is to declutter for 15 minutes 5 times this week. I didn't make the challenge everyday because I wanted to give you a little breathing room....life gets hectic after all.

 

Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!!

 

 

2015 Weekly Challenges

Over at our Facebook group we will be doing weekly challenges. Each month breaks down like this:

Week One: Declutter Challenge

Week Two: Clean Challenge

Week Three: Organize Challenge

Week Four: Beautify Challenge

I'll announce the challenge on Sundays on Facebook and then post here on Mondays with more details and additional ideas.  If you would like to join the group on Facebook just click join and I'll approve you asap.

Why challenges?  Challenges are simply a way to give a focus to our week.....if we accomplish nothing else other than the challenge we can consider it a success!!  These aren't about being over achievers!  These are about getting a little something done each week!  Over time these little accomplishments will add up and start to make a difference in our homes!

The declutter challenge will give you a focus for that week.  I encourage you to start small so if the challenge is to clean a drawer....clean 1 drawer or maybe 2 and do not attempt to clean all the drawers in your home!  These little accomplishments will spur further action on other days and other weeks and you will be more motivated to get things done!

The clean challenge will focus on cleaning some area/item/place that gets overlooked as it's not part of our "regular" cleaning. Perhaps under the bed or cleaning the ceiling fan.

The organize challenge will focus on organizing something....your spices? your sock drawer? your closet....each month this week will be different so we will hit some areas of our homes that we use frequently and when they are disorganized it sets the tone for our day!

The beautify challenge might just be my favorite. Its focus will be picking a small area of your home to beautify in some way.  A pretty little shelf or mantle that you change up each month or perhaps a different area each month, that's up to you!

So in total in 2015 we will do 12 of each of the challenges. By the end of the year our homes should look and feel different just with these small changes!