31 Days To A Clutter Free Life Days 28-31

Welcome to 31 Days To A Clutter Free Life Challenge! If you want to find out what the challenge is all about or would like to read the previous posts, simply go here.

The final day of the challenge is here!! I took a trip to New York City with my friend Esther of Coupon Cutting Mom for a media event this week. I had a great time, but the trip also threw my schedule off and I fell behind on the challenge. To top things off, I had a rough day yesterday and was feeling under the weather most of the day. However, as you’ll see below the last days of the challenge can be tackled in one day or spread out if you prefer. I’m actually relieved because I truly thought I would be playing catch up over the next several days.

So here’s a breakdown of the last days of the challenge:

Day 28-Control Center

I personally don’t have a control center, but it’s something I’m working towards. Those that do have one rave about how it helps the family stay organized and up to date with things. My issue is finding a space for it. I did see some smaller organizational boards that can be nailed to the wall and serve as a control center so I’ll be looking into this further for our family.

If you do have a control center in your home, Ruth of Living Well Spending Less has some great tips to organize your control center space:

1. Gather your essentials. To create your control center you will need a magnetic clips, whiteboard or chalkboard, a bulletin board, magnetic clips, a calendar, and chalk or dry-erase markers.
2. Create your control center. Hang control center essentials in a central location in your home so that it is easy and convenient for all family members to reference it on a daily basis.
3. Identify your players. Make a list of each household member and assign them a color on the board.
4. Plan meals. Make a list of your family’s favorite meals and basic ingredients for those meals. Calendar the meals on the chart.

Read more at Living Well Spending Less.

Day 29-Address Book

I can’t even remember the last time I used a physical address book! So for this challenge I’ll be focusing on my digital address book and also creating a document to keep all my current contacts. I came back from the NYC trip with several business cards and I also have several from a prior trip I attended. My plan is to:

Gather all of my contacts and business cards.
Input the information in a Google document.
Separate information by category (business and personal).
Input information on my cellphone’s contact tab.
Toss out cards after everything is saved.

Day 30-Calendar & Schedule

For this portion of the challenge my plan is to find a family calendar that I can use to keep track of appointments, to-do lists, meal plans etc. There are some great planners and calendars that can be found online. Now when it comes to calendars I personally enjoy writing things down. Something about seeing it on paper makes it tangible and I feel like I can’t forget as easily. I’m currently eyeing this *Orange Circle Studio Do It All Planner with Stickers which seems to have everything I’m looking for.

If you prefer a digital option, check out my favorite apps for busy moms to find out which one is my favorite!

Day 31: Clutter Free Forever!

Is it possible to be clutter free forever? Yes, it is! Is it easy? No, but it’s certainly not impossible.

If you truly want to keep your space clutter free you’ll have to be intentional and proactive about it. That simply means making sure that you are not going to buy things “just because”. You will need to make this decision each time you are going to purchase something and ask yourself if it’s something your family truly needs. It means getting rid of things that you don’t need and that are not adding value to your family. It will also require you to take the time to go through your home periodically to de-clutter.

I find that focusing on my family and creating memories allows me to not get so caught up in this consumer-driven culture. It’s not easy and I won’t pretend that it is. You have to be comfortable with being different from your family and friends. You can’t worry about whether or not you have the latest and shiniest things. The freedom you’ll find from having a clutter free home is worth the effort. So I hope this challenge (even with some bumps along the way) was encouraging to you. I hope you have a clutter free holiday so that you can focus on the things that truly matter and create some awesome memories with your loved ones.

If you want to start the challenge or simply want to get caught up, click below to find all the previous posts.