Challenge Time: 40 Bags in 40 Days

In order for me to be successful in activities, whether it's cleaning house, doing errands or meal planning, I must have routines and very pointed goals. Even with those, I'm still really bad about getting things accomplished because I get distracted really easily. One way I attempt to make progress on the hard things is to find every challenge I can find in blogs and on social media. So far this year, I've already attempted 2 challenges with only a 50-60% success rate. Luckily, neither of them are done yet, so hopefully, I can catch up.

Anyway, in addition to various challenges, I use Lent and Advent to attempt to meet challenges and prepare for the upcoming celebrations. Today, I will share a Lent challenge I have tried a few times and am doing again this year.

 Lent, to me, is a time of renewal (just like spring), commitment, ..... and preparation. As part of lent, I like to get the house cleaner. After the winter of hibernating as much as possible and just not having motivation, the house needs  a lot of help. The challenge I use is "40 Bags in 40 Days".

40 Bags in 40 days means just getting rid of a bag of stuff out of the house each day for 40 days. I started March 1st and so far, just going around the house and gathering trash and pop cans has garnered my 3 bags. With 8 people, the house gets so trashed so I'm sure I'll have more bags before the challenge is over.

Ann Marie, of White House Black Shutters, started this challenge seven years ago and now has printables and groups to help us with the motivation. She has been a huge motivator to me even though I've never completed the challenge. Maybe this year will be the year.

Be sure to check out her blog post: http://www.whitehouseblackshutters.com/40-bags-in-40-days/ and learn from her like I did.

I will be posting updates periodically throughout the challenge.

Finally, I challenge you to declutter your house for Lent! Even though, we are three days into this, you can still do it. Start from now, do a little extra to catch up or even just do a couple bags a week. Anything is better than nothing. Comment  below if you are going to try this to prepare for Easter, and let's keep each other motivated.

How We are Celebrating Lent

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Lent is a holiday that is celebrated in preparation for Easter. It's 40 days long, not counting Sundays.
This year Lent is March 1-April 15th.

Lent is a time to fast, pray, reflect on Christ and our life. Many protestants do not celebrate it; however, I have come to see that it is an important time and in years' past has been a life-changing time for me. I don't celebrate it in the traditional Catholic manner. In previous years, it has mostly been a "me" holiday. I stop drinking the pop. I commit to decluttering so much junk. I vow to spend a certain amount of extra time in Bible Study. Those times have truly been great. This year, however, I wanted to include my littles since we are home together everyday doing schooling.

So, for myself, I am going to stop drinking the pop...again. (You notice I didn't stay away from it the first time.) I am going to aim for the 40 bags of junk gone in 40 days. (I've never gotten rid of that much so it's an annual goal. I'll explain this project more in another post.) I am also going to do some extra Bible Study and prayer time, by starting a mini retreat time on Sundays.

With the boys, and hopefully the olders on days or evenings when they are home from school, we will be aiming to do an act of kindness every day. I will also be doing a unit on Lent with the littles to teach them the significance of what we are doing and why. What are you going to do to celebrate Lent? Post in the comments and let's share ideas.

Our Acts of Kindness

March 1

March 2

March 3

March 4

March 5

March 6