Welcome to week 1 of the Ultimate Room Refresh! This is going to be the ultimate purge, cleaning, and organizing challenge! For the past couple of years I have wanted to have a cleaning challenge, but it just felt very overwhelming to put together. However, with the pandemic I’ve been obsessed with creating systems to keep my home a sanctuary. I also might have binged “The Home Edit” on Netflix this year, which might have also lit a fire under me…haha!

Anyway, whether you’ve been busy purging and organizing this year, went a little overboard ordering every comfort you could find online, need to find space for your Christmas gifts from this year, and/or just want a fresh start and reset for 2021, this is for you! This is going to be an 18-week challenge. Yes it may seem daunting at first, but each week we will edit, clean, and organize one area/space. This will give everyone enough time to keep up with their weekly schedules and dedicate time to creating a renewed space. Part of this challenge will include establishing routines and implementing systems that will help you stay on top of clutter and cleaning in your household! I wasn’t lying when I said that this is the ultimate challenge! This challenge will end at the end of April, so while everyone else is just getting started or will be in the middle of spring cleaning, you’ll already be done and enjoying your new home! With that, let’s get this challenge started!

Week 1 Challenge – Planning

Getting started without a plan is a recipe for disaster. When you don’t have a plan, you’ll mostly end up with rooms that don’t function well, organization that doesn’t work for you or your family, and systems that don’t make any sense. When this happens, you’ll most likely become frustrated and give up on your efforts.

This week’s goal is to create a plan for each of the rooms in your home including your basement and garage. Think about how the space needs to function. Does the room need to be multi-functional? For example, does your dining room need to operate as an office as well because you find yourself working from home more often?

Do you need to accommodate certain routines? Take note of any patterns or habits you notice in how clutter accumulates in each of these room. Our goal is to not eliminate our natural tendencies, but to create easy solutions for them. For example, you may want your children to take their backpacks or sports bags to their room when they get home from school or practice. However, you find that they always drop their stuff by the door. You might think it looks gross and messy, but they may find it tiresome or pointless to lug their bags back and forth at least twice a day to and from their rooms. The solution then, might be to set up storage or a drop zone for their stuff near the entry versus getting angry at them for not lugging their gear through the house or up the stairs multiple times per day.

For each room write down goals you have for the space and how the room needs to function. Take into account patterns you notice and/or habits and routines of how the clutter got there. Write down any thoughts or ideas you may want to try for the space. I will warn you that systems may need tweaking as we go along. We will give our first organization implementation a lot of thought, then tweak storage and routines until we have the best fit for us and our family. Storage and systems are fluid and can change based on what’s going on with our lives.

Tips

To keep yourself on track and to experience as little stress as possible during this challenge, I highly suggest trying to make things as easy for yourself as possible. Some things I suggest include:

1. Not over-booking your schedule
2. Having simple meals or eating leftovers on the days you plan to work on the challenge
3. Limiting distractions and interruptions
4. Establishing an accountability partner to get you through the tough times and to keep pushing you when you want to give up
5. Enlist the help of the entire household, as what you purge and the systems you implement will affect everyone

I am beyond excited for this challenge! Although I’ve recently purged and organized almost everything in my house, I’m jumping back in for a second round! You guys are my accountability partners!

If at any point you have questions, need help, or want to share your progress or ideas for a space feel free to leave a comment below or shoot me an email!