The One-Room Challenge: A Simple Start for a Whole Home Overhaul
It might be too much to tackle the whole home at once, so start with just one drawer, one shelf or one spot to organize completely. This tiny space is a success story and a test that these ideas will actually work. It’s also a much more manageable project for your brain to wrap around, and you’re more likely to see results right away. One small success may be all it takes to inspire a larger transformation, so start with a tiny area and you’ll likely be surprised by how much it can change your whole mindset.
Because it’s such a small space, it helps you stay focused and committed to the work. You have to consider whether the things in that one drawer or on that one shelf are worth keeping right now: Are they helpful? Do they make your life easier or more difficult? Do you actually use them or not? It’s all the same questions you’ll need to ask when organizing a full room, but less overwhelming because it’s just one drawer or shelf. It’s somewhat therapeutic and gets you excited to have a sense of calm in that one spot amidst all the clutter. Your eye will keep drifting back to that one spot because it feels so much better than the rest of the house.
This reward is why every small area matters. Not only does it help you to feel finished but it also affects your thoughts and emotions about your space, by demonstrating that you do in fact have the ability to achieve a space that “stays” organized, even when you might be in the midst of telling yourself that you can’t and that you’ll never have success. This doubt is the biggest challenge when it comes to changing and the ability to point to something tangible that you have done is a reminder that you are indeed capable of creating a space that you can maintain. Plus, every time you open up that perfectly organized drawer or closet you feel good and want to create another one just like it.
As you feel more comfortable after your first victory, it’s time to expand to the next shelf, or the next cabinet or the other side of the room. You repeat the process again and again, and each subsequent area is easier because you now have a vision of how you want to live. As you progress, you see your home changing without having to dedicate a full weekend to the task. You are changing your home in everyday moments, which is how we all live. It is no longer a chore, but more of a dialog with your space.
One of the benefits of beginning in a small way is that over time, these small moments of calm will build into a sense of calm within your home, and it will begin to feel like a unified, calm space rather than a series of disconnected spaces. It’s also a very accommodating system for when life gets busy, when things don’t go according to plan, or when priorities shift. Because this system doesn’t require that you do your entire home at once, it’s easier to get started again. The true magic happens when you’ve turned a single drawer or shelf into the launch pad for a calm home, and that is where it all begins.
