There are 182 days in the first six months of the year and 184 in the second. It’s even more unbalanced when it’s not a leap year. So, with there being 366 days this year, by the end of today (1st July, day 183) I will be half way through my 2020 challenge. That’s the maths out of the way, now it’s time to move on to reflecting on the first six months…

• Starting without a plan I had no particular plan when I started my challenge, I just made a decision on 1st Jan 2020 to make some sort of daily improvement around the house for 10-15 minutes a day in an attempt to shift the clutter. Most of my followers will know that I spent a lot more time than that each day because I was so determined!)
• Writing By writing about my achievements daily, it has held me accountable for these changes
• Teens’ rooms My decluttering rubbed off on my teenagers. It took a few months but their rooms are now tidy most of the time and I never once asked them to do it (as I felt that they were more likely to continue to keep it tidy if they did it themselves and organised things the way they wanted them)
• Teens’ decorating The girls asked to paint our lounge one day in the May half term holidays (they did a great job). It also gave us the kick we needed to declutter the room as well. We also bought a lovely big house plant for the room.
• Garden The garden got a lot more attention than usual, partially thanks to lockdown, and I learnt to grow plants from seed. They are doing really well. We even slept in the garden in a tent last month.
• Conservatory The conservatory went from a very cluttered room full of unwanted items, to a much clearer and brighter space, with a new desk which I’ve been working at.
• The kitchen The whole family got involved with decluttering the kitchen cupboards and drawers – a few cupboards still left to do.
• Spare room I spent a lot of time decluttering the spare room (still so much to do there though)
• Garage The garage got some attention even though I always said that it would be last on the list after the spare room. Still loads to do there too.

The second half of this year

I switched to ‘planning’ mode for a bit today in order to work out what’s left. Downstairs: This has had a lot of attention apart from the utility room and a few other kitchen cupboards. Upstairs: Our bedroom needs completely decluttering and organising, although I did make a start on my clothes just before lockdown. And then there’s the spare room which I was leaving until last, but I’ve actually spent quite a bit of time in there in the first half of the year.

I’d like to include the garage into the 2020 challenge but that all depends on how I get on with the rest of the house. I call it my cluttered hideaway at the moment; somewhere to escape. The problem is that if it’s the last place I clear then it’ll probably be winter and it won’t be as appealing to go out there. I’ll see how it goes over the summer.

Self-discipline

I need to be able to maintain my self-discipline for the rest of the year in order to achieve my goal. On Day 134 on 13th May 2020, I reworded my goal to read:

Clearing space in my home, my garden, and my mind

Today, I am going to revise this slightly as follows:

I have a clear and organised space in my home, my garden, and my mind

It’s important that I use the ‘I’ word at the beginning of my goal as if I have already achieved it. It will be my daily affirmation for the rest of the year. I am going to write it down and keep it near my desk where I can see it every day. I might even get my daughter to make me a sign like the one that she did for the kitchen.

Thoughts on a basic cleaning routine

As I’m usually busy juggling lots of things, cleaning tends to take a back seat (I much prefer decluttering and tidying, and cleaning sort of follows in the area that I’m doing). I want to introduce a basic routine so that we all keep on top of things; however, more on that tomorrow as this post is getting a bit long now and it’s late.

Until tomorrow…

Sandra