GO MONTH Bag Toss Challenge!

What a better way to start off the New Year and celebrate Get Organized (GO) Month than by shedding unused and unwanted items in your home, then passing them on to others who will use and love them.  I call this The Bag Toss Challenge!  

It’s simple and fun for the entire family. The challenge starts today and ends January 31 @ midnight. Let’s see who can fill and toss the most bags by midnight on January 31^st. The winner gets a signed copy of my book ~ ‘Mom, Can I Help Around the House? A Simple Step-by-step System for Teaching Your Children Life-long Skills for Pitching in and Picking up’

Here’s how it works:

1. Grab a trash bag, grocery or shopping bag (size doesn’t matter ~ the action of doing this does). Make it even more fun and productive ~ get the whole family involved in the challenge. Have a contest between family members for a prize.

2. Purposefully roam your home, room-by-room, and fill the bag with unused /unwanted items that are just taking up space, not being used in your home that need a new home to be appreciated again. Criteria to consider:

• Outgrown (i.e., clothes, toys, textbooks, etc.)
• Broken
• Stained or torn
• Outdated or no longer relevant (i.e., magazines, newspaper, owner’s manuals for no longer owned items, etc.)
• Requires too much maintenance
• No longer loved or meaningful – you feel no emotion toward the item
• Was never loved or you never liked it
• No longer being used
• Duplicate item ~ you have more of the item than needed (i.e., unused kitchen utensils)
• Serves no useful purpose
• Too expensive to repair

3. Remove the filled bags from your home ~ this is the most important step. Here are several options:

• Take the bag to your favorite charity
• Give the bag(s) to a friend or neighbor
• Give the bag to your church or local clothing, household item drive
• Recycle the bag
• Dispose of the bag

It doesn’t matter which option you choose ~ the bag(s) leaving your home is what counts

After EACH bag you fill and toss, post a comment below with your tally. I’d love to hear how you feel as you lighten up and simplify your surroundings. You can do this in your office too!

The highest count at midnight January 31st wins a signed copy of my book ‘Mom, Can I Help Around the House?’

Originally posted 2009-01-12 13:05:18. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Declutter Your Life – Four Steps to Create Inspired Action

Clutter clearing, getting organized, and simplifying your life are ways to uncover what you love and it opens the door to inspired action in whatever you do. Inspired action is different than just being busy or active. You know you are inspired when work becomes play, you have an increase in energy, experience a single minded focus, and listen to your inner voice which makes any task or challenge feel effortless and enjoyable.

If you would like more inspired action in your clutter free journey and get in the inspired zone to achieve any goal or project in your home or life, here are four simple strategies so you can make the shift to be inspired, creative and energized.

Clarify what it is you want to create by letting go of clutter in your home. Decluttering and organizing a home office can reveal the desire to increase business and make more money. Getting rid of junk may be an inner desire to shift from being stuck in any area of your life to making more fulfilling choices. Clearing out a closet may be the beginning of decluttering your wardrobe to motivate you to get fit and healthy and create a new look. Getting rid of what you no longer love and use may be the desire to find your purpose in life. So connect your decluttering and organizing projects to what you want to create in your home and the big benefit you want to experience in your life.

Set your intention. Intention is a few simple words that state what you want to create and empower your actions. Intention is simple, can be visual, a feeling or to define your end result. You could say “I want to create calm in my living room” which inspires you to remove clutter or change furnishings to softer color and add candles or elements for nature for a more relaxing energy.

You may intend to have your financial area in perfect order which may inspire you to feel positive, manage money better and attract prosperity. Your intention could be to run ten kilometers a couple times a week which is a great motivator to declutter and organize sports equipment in the garage, get the kitchen menu and pantry organized and go through your closet making comfortable exercise clothes a priority. Intention connects your subconscious to your conscious which empowers you to intuitively take those inspired action baby steps that make the space, time and opportunity for your inner desire to create an outer result.

Make a detailed crystal clear picture of what you want to create. Think thoughts, visualize an image, and write a description that will uplift your energy, get you focused and make you feel excited about your end result. Play with this, add detail, use your five senses and add to your vision as you gain clarity. A consistent focus on the end result will guide you to intuitively take the right action to get the result you want. Often this process allows you to skip steps and achieve your end result a lot quicker.

Take that first step. Stop thinking about the way things are and keep dreaming about the way you want them to be, while you start creating the positive change that you want. Decluttering and organizing are part of designing how you want to live and create the room for vision and inspired action. Keep in mind baby steps are the beginning of big dreams.

You will find decluttering your home and getting organized will create the positive energy for inspired action in any area of your life. Get clear on what you want, set an intention, detail your personal vision and take that very important first step.

Jane Alais is a professional organizer, the creator of Declutter Befree.com and the author of Get Organized-Get Happy A Step by Step Guide to Clear Clutter and Organize Success. She writes about strategies and solutions to declutter, organize and energize your home and your life.

Originally posted 2010-07-27 20:23:38. Republished by Blog Post Promoter