31 Days to Less Clutter and More Peace

A 31 Day declutter challenge that will help you get rid of both physical and mental clutter.

This decluttering challenge was born ten years ago as I finally tackled the clutter in my home. Since then, I try to take the challenge once a year, and it has made a huge difference in my mental health.

One of my former words of the year was PEACE. I started off strong, as I usually do, but by the time I was in rehearsals for the opera I performed in that year, I lost my focus.

I tried hard to relax that summer and not let myself get over-anxious about things that truly don’t matter in the end. I believe I was mostly successful with this, but the fact is, clutter had really started to take over my life.

While physical clutter (oh man, you should have seen my office!) is a big part of this clutter, it’s also mental and spiritual clutter. Schedule clutter, even.

All of this clutter causes me deep anxiety and makes it really hard to find the peace I so deeply long to have in my life.

The clutter comes from so many different sources:

It’s my messy desk full of the papers that multiply while I’m not looking and which have no other home. It’s my email inbox full of emails that I have not yet dealt with. Or it’s my brain reminding me of all the things I have on my to-do list and not allowing me to sleep.

No matter the source, I waas finished with the clutter.

I wanted it out of my life!

As I thought about how to do this I thought of the old adage

“A Place for Everything and Everything in Its Place.”

While I had places for many things, I didn’t have a place for EVERY thing. And the many things that did have places? Well, I’d say a large percentage of them were not often actually in their place.

That all changed with this 31 day declutter challenge.

This declutter challenge will help you focus on the hows and whys of clutter. It will also help you find practical ways to eliminate the worst clutter in your homes and in the rest of your life. Each day features a new post, which is linked up on this page.

I hope you’ll join me on the journey, and that you will not hesitate to add your own thoughts and experiences to the challenge. I am excited (and a little bit scared) to tackle this challenge, but I will not let clutter steal away my peace!

• Day 1: Introduction—you’re here!
• Day 2: Make an Action Plan
• Day 3: Get Rid of It!
• Day 4: A Place for Everything (Why labels are important)
• Day 5: Decluttering the Closet
• Day 6: Decluttering and Organizing Toys
• Day 7: A Place for Electronic Devices
• Day 8: Keep Children’s Clothing Off the Floor
• Day 9: Organizing School Papers
• Day 10: Why Clutter Happens
• Day 11: Take Control of Your Make-up!
• Day 12: Keep Your Email Inbox Clutter-free
• Day 13: Decluttering Books
• Day 14: The Cost of Clutter
• Day 15: Stop Saving Magazines!
• Day 16: Declutter Your Mind
• Day 17: A Clutter-free Entryway
• Day 18: Practical Organization
• Day 19: Everything in its Place
• Day 20: Junk Drawers
• Day 21: How to Declutter Your Schedule
• Day 22: A Bag for Everything
• Day 23: Dealing with Hot Spots
• Day 24: Rules for Mail
• Day 25: Just 15 Minutes a Day
• Day 26: Decluttering Games
• Day 27: Six Reasons to Declutter
• Day 28: Declutter Kitchen Cupboards
• Day 29: Getting the Clutter out of the House
• Day 30: 4 Ways to Stop Bringing in Clutter
• Day 31: An Accounting