Free 30 Day Declutter Challenge Printable Checklist
Here you can find a free printable checklist that you can use to complete the 30 Day Declutter Challenge. This is a tool that is meant to accompany our discussion of the 30 Day Declutter Challenge, which we encourage you to check out! There we discuss what you will be trying to accomplish in detail so that you can really think about what you’re doing and why.
We want to help you develop a 30 day declutter plan that will start you on a path to a sustainable, long-term decluttered home
Studies have shown that when you frame your tasks as a test or challenge, you will be more likely to persist and succeed. A great example of such research was recently done by faculty at Stanford in Mind-set Interventions Are a Scalable Treatment for Academic Underachievement. While it was in the context of academics, the lesson is likely more widely applicable.
Decluttering your home, and keeping it decluttered, is a challenge for everyone. You aren’t alone! As we discuss in articles such as The Best 12 Low-Stress Tips for How to Declutter Your Home, the sad truth is that decluttering is an ongoing, long-term project. But it’s one that can be handled with minimal stress after building the right sorts of habits.
That said, you have to start somewhere! We’ve already suggested The Best 12 Places to Start Decluttering Your Home, and here we’re going to give you another tool that you can use either in conjunction with our suggestions in that article or even just on its own. (Though we suggest reading both the Best 12 Low-Stress Tips and Best 12 Places to Start since that might make you even more efficient!)
Make sure you read through our discussion of the 30 Day Declutter Challenge!
You can click the image below to download a high-quality printable PDF:
The Rules
We really hope that you check out our more extended discussion of the 30 Day Declutter Challenge, but in case you don’t have time, we at least want to make sure that the rules of the challenge are clear.
The one other thing that we do want to say, though, is that what we truly hope that you get out of succeeding at this challenge is the foundation of a habit. To keep clutter-free, decluttering needs to be an ongoing part of your life.
Rule #1 At Least 2 Days Per Week
We think that 30 days straight of any substantial time commitment is almost impossible for anyone with a typical life. Between family, friends, work, other chores, and life’s many surprises, even 30 minutes every single day really adds up. And we want you to succeed with the challenge!
2 days per week is doable, even for someone with a busy schedule. We recommend that you do not do two days in a row, but it’s certainly fine if you do! We prefer that you space the days out over the week because regularity is a better way to develop habits than being sporadic.
In the ideal case use the same times on the same days each week.
Rule #2 At Least 30 Minutes Per Task
This is a challenge! Anyone can spend 5 minutes twice per week doing something. You need to spend at least 30 minutes decluttering whatever space is the task for the day.
We want to make sure that you’re making real, substantial, obvious progress with the clutter in your home. If you’re spending 30 minutes for each of the 30 days, that’s 900 minutes–15 hours! You will be amazed at what you will accomplish in that time!
That said, we want to make it clear that you don’t need to (and probably can’t, with some) finish each space that you start. Decluttering a packed shed, or stuffed attic, won’t be possible in 30 minutes. But you will make a dent in it, and you will have a much better idea of what will need to be done the next time you dive into that space. That’s genuine progress.
Rule #3 If You Don't Possess The Space, Declutter Elsewhere!
Many people don’t have a garage, a car, an attic, or other things on the list. That’s okay!
If you get to a day that assigns a space that you don’t have, go back to something you didn’t have time to finish earlier on the list.
If you’ve managed to finish all of the prior spaces (that’s amazing!!), look ahead to one of the upcoming spaces that you’ll need to tackle and start on that.
Make sure you’re spending your minimum of 30 minutes on something that declutters your home!
Rule #4 Put a Big Red X Through Each Completed Day
We know that you might think that this is silly. But we urge you to give it a try. It is incredibly satisfying to mark the successful completion of a task with some sort of mini ritual like this.
Even small things like this give you something to look forward to that can truly help to motivate you when you’re doing your next task!
Conclusion
We truly hope that this free printable 30 Day Declutter Challenge printable checklist that we’ve made for you can help you on your journey to decluttering your home. As we say in most of our articles: decluttering is not easy. Clutter has a way of relentlessly creeping in whenever we look away.
Please take a read through our longer discussion of the 30 Day Declutter Challenge. There we’ll say a few words about each of the tasks we’ve assigned and why we’ve assigned them.
Good luck!!
