As cooler autumn air rolls in, it’s time to tackle the clutter and refresh the entertaining spaces in our homes. Welcome to The Fall Home Organization Challenge, where we’ll guide you through practical, step-by-step tasks to prepare our homes for the cozy months ahead.
Whether you need to declutter your entryway, organize your dining room, or create a tidy living room, this challenge will help you transform your space into a haven of warmth and order—just in time for the holidays!
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Organizing a home can feel overwhelming, to make the process easier, we divide our home into zones and spread the work over four seasons.
ORGANIZE BY THE SEASON
Each season, we organize one zone of our home!
Here are the zones:
- Entertaining Zone (Fall): The main rooms a guest would frequent when coming to our home: entryway, living room, dining room, family/playroom, and guest bedroom and bathroom.
- Working Zone (Winter): We regularly work in the office, kitchen, and laundry rooms. The kitchen is a big job, so we separate it from the pantry. We do the same in my office by organizing the paper clutter and craft supplies on different days.
- Outdoor Zone (Spring): All outdoor spaces of our home: garage (shed), porch (patio, deck), attic (unfinished basement), cars (camper, boat), and yard.
- Personal Living Zone (Summer): These rooms are personal to each individual who lives in our home: master bedroom, additional bedrooms, closets (bedroom, linen, cleaning), master bathroom, and extra bathrooms.
Now that you know how our seasonal challenges work, let’s discuss what’s happening this fall!
THE Fall HOME ORGANIZATION CHALLENGE
Let’s embrace the change of seasons and transform our homes, one project at a time!
The holidays are right around the corner and if you’re like me, you’ll be too busy to organize your home closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas!
Don’t procrastinate, let’s get started now!
Here are the goals we are setting for ourselves this fall!
You can set the same goals or choose your own!
Organization Goals
Here are the goals we have made for this organization challenge!
Organize the butler’s pantry
I have two areas of the dining room that I need to address.
We have a small butler’s pantry and I’ve been tucking items away in the cabinets that don’t belong there.
Declutter the china cabinet
The bottom of our china cabinet is getting full and I need to donate some serving pieces I rarely use.
It’s time to declutter the space.
Organize the sitting room in the guest bedroom.
We have an extra space in our guest bedroom that I originally made into a sitting room with a small TV.
It was so cozy but rarely used, so I converted it to storage for my decor items.
Now it’s out of control and I need to declutter and organize the space to find items easier!
Get organized for Thanksgiving.
I start preparing for Thanksgiving the first week of November and divide the extra tasks over 4 weeks!
It’s all written out in my Thanksgiving planner and allows me to have a stress-free holiday!
Our email subscribers can access this in our free resource library.
Start preparing for Christmas.
As soon as Thanksgiving is over I start preparing for Christmas and have a planner for that holiday too!
These planners are so helpful, so be sure to print and use them, they make holiday prep much easier!
If you’re not an email subscriber, click here to gain access to our free printable resource library!
DIY Home Improvement
Each season, we try to do at least one home improvement project to turn our builder-grade home into a house we love!
This fall, we will play catch-up and work on two projects we did not complete earlier in the year.
As you’ll find out in a moment our theme today is “better late than never”!
Paint the cabinet in the guest bathroom
We are overdue on this project so I am determined to finish it this fall!
I already have the primer, paint, and even new door hardware!
Now, I have to carve out the time!
Paint the front door.
Whenever I hang a wreath on this door I feel embarrassed because it’s so scratched up!
I was supposed to paint it in the Spring but the weather got hot too fast, so it got postponed.
The problem is, that it’s still hot, so I plan to tackle this one day in October!
DID WE MEET OUR GOALS FOR THE PAST CHALLENGE?
We came close to completing all our organizational goals for the summer except for one.
Our bedroom makeover took longer than we expected so we’re only halfway through organizing our primary closet.
But here are the goals we did meet!
ORGANIZATION GOALS WE MET
We spent lots of time organizing our primary bathroom this summer!
- First, I tackled my make-up and moved it from the cabinet to a drawer! I adore this new setup, it makes getting ready so much easier!
- Next, we organized under the bathroom sinks.
- And last we decluttered and styled the bathroom countertops.
- Oh, I almost forgot we also shared how to get organized for back to school!
Organization Goals We Did Not Meet
As I mentioned earlier, we are in the middle of organizing our primary closet!
Not only is it a huge mess but there’s something more…
See all those moving boxes?
They are filled with sentimental items we could not get rid of when we moved.
Now, four years later, it’s time to address these boxes!
We have to find a home for them or they will get donated!
So this space is also taking longer than I planned for!
But as soon as it’s finished we’ll share it with you!
Better late than never, right?
DIY HOME IMPROVEMENT GOALS We Met
- We completely changed the look of our primary bathroom by building frames for the two mirrors!
- We are so excited because we have been working on our primary bedroom makeover and it’s almost complete! It took way longer than we thought, but we’ll share it soon! It’s a huge change! Again, better late than never!
DIY GOALS WE DID NOT MEEt
You all saw the picture of the guest bathroom cabinet above and if you’ve been around for a while, you know we were supposed to paint it last year during our summer challenge and didn’t get to it.
So we added it to our summer goals this year and somehow fall is knocking on the door and it’s still not done!
I can’t stand to wait another year, so this is going on our to-do list for fall!
Now you know what we’re up to, so let’s talk about setting goals for you!
HOW TO SET Fall HOME ORGANIZATION Challenge GOALS
Are you ready to set some goals?
Let’s get the Fall Home Organization Challenge started!
MAKE A BINDER
The first thing you need to do is make a Home Organization binder to store your printables!
- If you’d like to use them, sign up for our email list here and gain access to our entire resource library for free!
- Put your printables in a home organization binder!
- Fill out the sheets!
- Start organizing!
BE ACCOUNTABLE
Choose an accountability partner!
You will more likely succeed if someone holds you accountable for following your goals.
Contact a friend or a relative who can go on this journey with you.
I’m sure you know someone who can use help in this area!
Subscribe to our email!
Subscribe even if you don’t want access to the printable library.
By subscribing to the blog, you can see what we’re working on each week and gain inspiration and ideas to organize or improve your spaces.
You can ask us questions in the comment section or comment on what works for you!
We don’t have all the answers, and you may have a suggestion to help someone else!
Follow us on social media!
For more inspiration and behind-the-scenes info, follow us on Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram!
WHAT WILL YOU ORGANIZE AND IMPROVE?
Now, you need to decide what space(s) to organize!
To follow our plan, print the sheet pictured above!
Print the empty sheet below if you want to organize different spaces from us!
If the thought of organizing an entire room is overwhelming, that’s okay!
Choose one item in a room to organize, like the china cabinet in your dining room!
If it’s too much, choose to organize one drawer in the china cabinet!
Set yourself up to win!
Once you’ve successfully organized one space, you’ll have the confidence to do something bigger the next time!
WHEN WILL YOU DO THE WORK?
If you want to meet your goal, look at your calendar and set aside time to do the work!
This printable will help you decide what to work on each week!
COMMIT TO THE CHALLENGE
Are you ready to commit to the challenge?
If so, get a binder, set your goals, and start the Fall Home Organization Challenge!
If you enjoy the blog, please sign up for our email list so you won’t miss a post and get access to our free printable library!
Blessings, Donna and Rich
MORE HOME ORGANIZATION INSPIRATION
Here are posts to help you organize the areas of your home guests spend time in, when you entertain!
- Easy Ways to Keep Your Dining Room Decluttered
- Best Ideas to Create an Organized Entryway
- Simple Tips to Get Your Living Room Holiday Ready
- Organize a Guest Bath with 11 Ultimate Essentials
PIN IT FOR LATER
Don’t forget to pin this to use every fall!
**Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, we will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. We appreciate your support. (disclosure policy)
So many great thoughts here Donna (and Rich). I am inspired by your organizational skills. I have a system I created years ago based the Flylady philosophies but I fall off the wagon all the time. I have to get back at it. I also have a holiday planner that is a huge help! I refer to it all the time. There are so many details we always think we’ll remember but never do. It’s priceless to write them down. Thanks for reminding me to stay on task. Happy almost fall. XO- MaryJo
Thanks MaryJo! It’s so easy to procrastinate and put off organizing our homes! That’s why I love the challenge because it keeps me accountable! I think I would dread holiday celebrations if I did not use a planner. It’s just too much to do and remember! Happy Fall to you!
Love hearing about your home organization projects so much, Donna. They inspire me to do my own! Thank you for sharing all of the process too. Sometimes I feel so discouraged when we can’t get to things that I swore we’d be able to get to. It’s hard when life or weather get in the way, you know? I’d love to hear more about how to handle the sentimental stuff. Goodness, does it pile up! Big hugs, CoCo
I get discouraged too when I don’t reach a goal, but I’m trying to let it go and not let it get me down! Trying to put my health first! Those sentimental items are tough! Sounds like a post I need to write! Hugs to you!