Welcome to the first day of the 30-Day Organize Your Ish Challenge! If you’re reading this, you’ve already made a powerful decision: you’re ready to transform your life and move closer to homeownership. And I’m here to tell you that this journey is about so much more than just tidying up. This is about complete transformation.
Why This Challenge Is Different
You’ve probably tried organizing challenges before. Maybe you’ve watched the shows, bought the bins, and started strong… only to find yourself back in chaos a few weeks later. Here’s why this time will be different: we’re not just organizing your stuff. We’re organizing your entire life around one clear goal, becoming a homeowner.
This challenge is built on three interconnected pillars that work together to create lasting change:
The Three Pillars of Transformation
Financial Clarity
Let’s start with the uncomfortable truth: you can’t buy a home if your money is a mess. But here’s what most people miss, financial chaos almost always begins with physical chaos. When your important documents are scattered across three rooms, when you’re not sure which bills are paid, when you can’t find your bank statements, how can you possibly manage your money effectively?
Think about it. How much have you paid in late fees because a bill got buried under a pile of mail? How many times have you been hit with overdraft fees because you forgot about an automatic payment? How much money could you have saved if you could actually see where every dollar was going?
Over the next week, we’re going to bring complete clarity to your financial life. You’ll know exactly where you stand, exactly where your money is going, and exactly how far you are from your down payment goal.
Mental Strength
Here’s something they don’t tell you about buying a home: it’s emotionally exhausting. The mortgage applications, the potential rejections, the inspections, the negotiations, the waiting,it can break you if you’re not mentally prepared.
But mental strength isn’t something you develop overnight. It’s built through small wins, consistent action, and clearing out the mental clutter that’s been holding you back. Every time you make a decision to let go of something you don’t need, you’re strengthening your decision-making muscle. Every time you organize a chaotic space, you’re proving to yourself that you can create order from chaos.
Physical Organization
Your environment shapes your life more than you realize. When you wake up to clutter, you start your day already feeling behind. When you can’t find important documents, you miss opportunities. When you’re constantly searching for things, you’re wasting time that could be spent increasing your income or learning about the home-buying process.
Physical organization isn’t about having a Pinterest-perfect home. It’s about creating systems that support your goals. It’s about knowing where everything is so you can focus your mental energy on what actually matters.
Setting Your Homeownership Intention
Right now, I want you to do something that might feel a little uncomfortable. I want you to get specific about what you want.
Close your eyes and visualize yourself walking up to your own home. Not an apartment. Not a rental. YOUR home. You pull out YOUR keys, unlock YOUR door, and step inside. What do you see? How does it feel? Who’s there with you? What does the space look like?
Now, take that vision and make it concrete. Grab a piece of paper or open a note on your phone and write down your homeownership intention. Not a vague wish, but a specific, actionable intention.
Here are some examples to inspire you:
- “I intend to purchase my first home within 18 months with a $20,000 down payment.”
- “I intend to increase my credit score from 620 to 680 within six months.”
- “I intend to save $600 per month for my down payment by cutting unnecessary expenses.”
- “I intend to eliminate $5,000 of debt within the next year to improve my debt-to-income ratio.”
Your intention should be specific enough that you’ll know exactly when you’ve achieved it. Write it down right now. This is your North Star for the next 30 days.
How Clutter Is Blocking Your Goals (And You Might Not Even Realize It)
Let me share something that completely changed how I think about clutter: every item you own requires mental energy.
That stack of papers on your counter? Your brain processes it every single time you walk past. “I should deal with that. I need to sort through those. What if there’s something important in there?” That’s cognitive load,mental energy being drained throughout the day without you even realizing it.
Those clothes hanging in your closet that you never wear? Every morning when you’re getting dressed, you have to move them, look past them, and make decisions around them. More mental energy wasted.
Here’s how clutter specifically sabotages your path to homeownership:
Financial Impact: When your financial documents are disorganized, you miss tax deductions that could save you hundreds or thousands of dollars. You pay late fees on bills you forgot about. You can’t track your spending patterns, so you don’t know where you can cut back. You might even pay for duplicate subscriptions because you lost track of what you’re already paying for.
Mental Impact: When your space is chaotic, your mind is chaotic. You’re operating in survival mode, just trying to keep up with the mess, instead of growth mode where you can focus on improving your financial situation, researching home buying, or developing new skills.
Opportunity Cost: Every minute you spend searching for your keys, looking for a document, or cleaning up clutter is a minute you could have spent on a side hustle, learning about mortgages, improving your credit, or viewing potential homes.
But here’s the empowering part: every time you clear clutter, you create momentum. Every organized drawer proves to yourself that you can make decisions and take action. Every system you implement makes your life easier and frees up mental space for what matters.
Your Day 1 Action Steps
Okay, enough theory. Let’s get you moving! Here’s exactly what you need to do today:
Action Step 1: Display Your Intention
Take that homeownership intention you wrote and put it somewhere you’ll see it every single day. Write it on a sticky note and put it on your bathroom mirror. Set it as your phone lock screen. Tape it to your refrigerator. Make it impossible to ignore.
Action Step 2: Clear One Small Space
Choose ONE small area and make it completely clean and organized. I’m talking about something you can finish in 15 minutes or less:
- Your nightstand
- One kitchen drawer
- Your car’s front seat and cup holders
- The top of your dresser
- Your bathroom counter
This isn’t about tackling everything at once. This is about proving to yourself that change is possible. When you clear that one space and experience how good it feels, you’ll have the motivation to keep going.
Action Step 3: Take Your “Before” Photo
Find the area in your home where you currently handle finances, maybe it’s a desk, a corner of your kitchen table, or a spot in your bedroom. Take a photo of it exactly as it is right now. Don’t clean it up first. Capture the reality.
Save this photo. In 30 days, you’re going to look back at it and be absolutely amazed at how far you’ve come.
Action Step 4: Set Up Your Basic Organization System
You need three containers, boxes, folders, bins, whatever you have available. Label them:
- Important Documents (birth certificates, social security cards, deeds, titles, insurance policies)
- Bills to Pay (anything with a due date coming up)
- To File (statements, receipts, and documents you need to keep but don’t need immediate access to)
These three simple categories will be your financial organizing system for this entire first week. We’ll refine it as we go, but for now, just get them set up.
What to Expect This Week
Over the next seven days, we’re building the foundation for everything that comes next. Here’s what we’ll be working on:
- Day 2: Gathering all your financial documents (yes, ALL of them)
- Day 3: Creating your master financial tracking system
- Day 4: Building a realistic budget that actually works
- Day 5: Confronting your credit score and creating an improvement plan
- Day 6: Identifying and eliminating money leaks
- Day 7: Setting up automated systems that keep you on track
By the end of this week, you’ll have complete clarity about your financial situation. You’ll know exactly where you stand and exactly what you need to do to reach your homeownership goal.
You’re Not Alone
I want you to know something: showing up today was the hardest part. Making the decision to change, admitting that things need to be different, taking that first step, that takes courage.
Over the next 30 days, there will be moments when you want to quit. There will be days when the clutter feels overwhelming and the goal feels impossible. But you’re not doing this alone. Thousands of people just like you have taken this journey and are now living in their own homes.
You have everything you need to succeed. The only question is: will you take it one day at a time?
Tomorrow, we’re diving into Day 2: Gathering Your Financial Documents. It’s going to be eye-opening, maybe a little uncomfortable, but absolutely necessary.
You’ve got this. Let’s go.
👉 Join our Facebook community: Dream It Affirm It Own It
This is where we share wins, ask questions, stay accountable, and grow together.
Share your Day 1 wins in the comments! What small space did you organize? How did it feel to clear it? Your story might be exactly what someone else needs to hear.
FTC Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored video or article. All opinions are genuinely my own. This post also contains affiliate links and I earn a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. It does not cost you any extra. Thank you for your continued support to keep the Bri Callis Blog going!
bricallis.blog 