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Everyone can use a little extra motivation, especially on Monday, right? This new series is designed to motivate you in different areas of your life whether it be trying a new recipe, organizing an area of your home or testing out a new cleaning tip. I’ll be giving you my take on the assignment and hopefully inspiring you to try it out yourself! This week I’m trying to tackle the clutter that has accumulated throughout the year. I was going to wait until after New Year’s but I’m anxious to get the house in order now that Christmas is behind us.
I used to run a series called The 10 Minute Challenge. I’ll be revisiting it here from time to time. If you don’t have a lot of time, this is the perfect way to make progress on decluttering your home. You’ll be amazed how much you can get done in 10 minutes and you’ll feel better for tackling a problem area instead of making the excuse that you don’t have the time.
We have a large island in our kitchen. It tends to get cluttered with mail, kids papers and other random stuff. Whenever we have company I clear it off the best I can but usually have a small stack of stuff that needs sorting or putting away that I just can’t get to. So, into the hideaway cupboard it goes.
Ugh. What a mess! I figured I could at least get the top shelf clean in 10 minutes so I set my timer. When it went off, this is what my kitchen looked like:
I wasn’t super pressed for time but I did have some other things that I needed to do so I tidied up my area which took another 4 minutes:
I was able to put away all the junk on the floor. The top shelf is now papers that need to be filed and yes, I did shove a few things back into the bottom area. Still, progress! I’ll take another 10 minutes today while the kids are having snack to either start on the bottom shelf or file the papers. I feel like now that I’ve started, I’ve gained some momentum and am more motivated to get it done!
Does this kind of strategy work for you? I usually find that once I get started, I want to keep going, even after the timer goes off. The nice thing about it is that since I only challenged myself to 10 minutes, I feel like I have permission to stop if I’m not feeling it. I can come back to it another time and at least some progress was made, usually much more than I expected!
Normally my reward is feeling good about having a cleaner area. This time I was also rewarded in the treasures I found! Several gift cards I forgot we even had turned up in the mess! Looks like I’ll be treating myself to a movie and some ice cream!
In what areas do you need motivation in YOUR life?