This Is This Week

This month, I opted to complete Modern Minimalism’s 30-day challenge.

Robyn previously mentioned her experience with the challenge and the “kitchen shutdown” she instilled each morning (an expansion of the “nightly reset” suggested in the challenge).

I decided to complete the various items in a somewhat random order, choosing a challenge for each day based on my available time, energy levels, etc. (rather than following the list sequentially).

Here’s how the first half of the month has gone.

Days 1-15

Clear one flat surface from clutter

I opted to clear my nightstand since this didn’t require any tough decisions and is a surface I see immediately upon entering my room.

Clean out your closet

Since I recently purged my closet, I coerced A. into going through his clothes with me. At the beginning of this year, I had placed a bunch of t-shirts he rarely wears in “t-shirt purgatory” and turned all of the hangers on his side of the closet backwards.

This backwards hanger trick helps you to physically see what clothes you really wear – and which you don’t. As you wear a clothing item, you wash it and hang it back up in the closet (with the hanger facing the normal way).

Both of these tricks made the first part of his closet clean-out efficient. We were able to start by looking at the backwards hangers and the shirts that he hadn’t worn all year and made some quick decisions about items to donate.

We ended up going through everything in the closet and his dresser, and A. found so many items to donate, we needed a contractor bag to pack it all up.

This was a super satisfying part of the challenge.

Declutter something digital

I skimmed through my Google Photos account and purged a bunch of blurry photos, photos I no longer needed, and duplicates.

Don’t check email or social media until lunch

This was actually more challenging than I anticipated it would be. I don’t use social media, so I thought this would be an easy task on a weekend day when I am not obligated to check email in the morning. But I had to consciously catch myself a few times in the morning from opening my email on my phone reflexively!

Practice single tasking

I opted to work on this during lunch one day. I struggle with distraction during meal times, though I know the benefits of mindful eating. This one was tough, but I did make it through a meal without checking my phone, watching a video, or multitasking at work.

Choose 10 toys, kids’ books, or knick knacks to donate

With my youngest son now 3 1/2, I opted to move some older kids’ books to the donation bag – though toddler-size board books were easy to downsize.

Declutter your car

Most Saturday mornings, I have been getting gas after my early morning walk. I’ve gotten in the habit of clearing out trash and shaking out my car mats every time I pump gas, so I did an extra thorough job one week during this challenge.

Purge 5 things from each closet and dresser

I didn’t purge every closet and dresser in the house, but I did take a quick look through our “miscellaneous” drawer (I avoid the term “junk drawer” since I only keep useful things in the drawer!) and cleared out a few items: some coins, a roll of twine that belonged elsewhere, a pair of kids’ scissors, some old coupons, and a pencil sharpener we never use.

Establish a family donation box

I usually keep a bag in my closet for collecting donations, but I had gotten away from that habit. When I purged the kids’ books, I stuck them in a bag and set it in my closet to gather additional items through the rest of the month. I’ll make an effort to donate and replace the bag at the end of each month.

Say “no” to something

We were traveling the first weekend in November, and though it was only a quick two-day road trip, I was pretty worn out by the time we arrived home late Sunday night.

Normally, I would push myself to meet all my normal Monday obligations (and Monday is the busiest day of the week for me typically). This month, I gave myself permission to sleep in a little and cleared my schedule a bit to make the Monday less stressful.

I was thankful for the recovery time!

Items I “marked complete” because I have previously completed them

Turn off notifications – I went through my apps a few months ago and did this

Create a morning ritual – I have a pretty well-established morning routine and it is working for me. The only item I added was trying to drink tea more often

Do one load of laundry start to finish – I already do laundry nearly every day

Go through your books – I vetted my bookshelf back in September too

Get a library card and download the mobile app – I have had the app for ages and am a voracious consumer of audiobooks and ebooks!

I’m looking forward to the rest of this challenge!