Welcome to the 30 Days to Less of a Hot Mess Challenge! We’re clearing clutter, reorganizing and letting in fresh air to build a home we love. New to the challenge? You may want to begin at the start.
Now that we’ve defined our why, we need to set goals for decluttering that are achievable yet challenging. This step is just as important as defining your why, because it gives you the action plans behind what you’re doing.
Ready to find calm in your home again?
You can’t decorate a home full of clutter. Start your decluttering journey with 30 days of encouraging, helpful emails to keep you going!
Goals will help you stay inspired, decisive and focused when you’re digging through the 18th drawer and ready to throw in the towel.
There are several things to do when making goals:
- Make S.M.A.R.T. goals, meaning they are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely. Simply saying, “I want to declutter my home” won’t be enough!
- Write them down.
- Put them somewhere you can see them.
Post them right alongside your why statement, or even write them on the same paper!
I love making goals at the beginning of every year, because when I write them down and post them where I can see them, they become part of me. Even when I’m not always intentional about them, I find that just writing them down and posting them means that by the end of the year, they’ve seeped into the corners of my life and home. Some links in this post are affiliate links for your convenience.
Some sample S.M.A.R.T. goals for decluttering your home might include:
- Give away 20 items of clothing to the local thrift store.
- Eliminate 2 storage boxes from the closet. Throw away, donate and consolidate until 2 boxes are empty. I like to do this when I need to buy a new storage box. I’ll do my best to clear out one box’s worth of stuff to keep things in check.
- Donate any piece of clothing that no longer fits.
- Part with 25 books.
- Sell 5 pillow covers.
You get the idea!
Here were my goals for decluttering this month (and forever!):
- Have ONE place for paper in my home. I wanted to get rid of all the different spots where the eleventy-bajillion papers that come into my home every day tend to land.
- Simplify Organizing. I wanted to actually eliminate 2 storage boxes from my craft closet.
- Methodically declutter all 41 drawers in my home. It’s reckoning time for drawers. LOL
A little note about the KonMari method. It’s outlined in the popular book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. I love this little book and the extreme perspective Marie Kondo takes on clutter. I’ll never be as clutter-free as she is, but her methods work for me. They’re the only thing I’ve found that truly works for eliminating the unnecessary things in my home. No, I’ll never empty out my purse when I walk in the door each day and thank it for its service, but I do appreciate her strictness in her decluttering approach. It has truly been life-changing for me!
OK, back to goal setting! I made a simple yearly goal-setting printable last year (click here). It’s an all-encompassing goals sheet, but you could write your decluttering goals in the space for personal goals.
If you want to be a seriously nerdy goal setter like me (ha!) and really tackle your goals this year, I HIGHLY recommend the Power Sheets from Cultivate What Matters. I used them for the first time in 2018, and I was blown away by how well they helped me reach my goals. The prep work throughout the year kept me on track all year long! Love them!
One more thing before you start …
Before we start the actual organizing, we need to discuss one more thing.
For this whole challenge to work, you have GOT to change the way you think about stuff.
Honestly, it’s hard for me to let go of things.
Why is that? I think it’s because I grew up middle class with a lot of siblings (5 brothers, to be exact), and we didn’t have a ton of money or stuff. We lived in a decent home and had plenty of food and clothes, but I remember we didn’t have money to throw around.
Fast forward to when I got married. We were making decent money for a couple without kids, but we were also paying off debt, which meant we didn’t have much extra.
I naturally wanted to scrimp and save everything “just in case.” Never mind that we hadn’t used it in more than 2 years and probably wouldn’t for the foreseeable future. But I was determined to keep everything we could ever possibly use.
I had to let go of this scarcity mindset.
While I’m not a psychologist and can’t dive into all the issues surrounding a scarcity mindset, I think so many of us live in the space of “what if I throw this out and need it tomorrow??!?!” That “not enough” perspective leads to keeping way too many things in our homes.
Here’s what I tell myself when scarcity thoughts creep in. I say out loud: “Laura, there’s more where that came from. You can get another one tomorrow if you need it again.”
So what if you haven’t used your hot glue gun in 5 years? Set it free, and I promise that next week you won’t even remember what you let go. And if you do need one someday, ask a friend or neighbor if you can borrow theirs. It’ll be fine! (P.S. The odds that you’ll need something you haven’t used in years are slim.)
The Messy Work: Today I want you to write down your goals and post them where you’ll see them regularly.
Tomorrow we’ll be talking about organizing your daily schedule! See you then!
Right there in the mess with you, Laura
More Favorite Posts You’ll Enjoy:
- 30-Day Decluttering Email Challenge
- The Best Holiday Planner Printable Binder
- Daily Simplified Planner Review & Favorite Trick!
- The 10 Easiest Family Command Centers to Get Organized
- How to Tidy a Pantry
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