I took most of December off and just focused on not bringing in too much junk. I feel it worked ok, but with Christmas and a birthday for a well loved kid, it still feels like a big influx.
This month I want to finish the basement declutter. Unfortunately we are storing stuff that doesn’t belong to us in some spots (some stuff for H’s grandma and some cub scouts stuff) but I think we can still use the space better and purge stuff.
I also need a pass through all my clothes as I got a few new pieces and didn’t do my usual 1 in and 1 out. Hoping to get that done this week before I go back to work.
For organizing, DS is finally starting to take some pride in his spaces so I’m going to work with him on some more systems for his room. We have clothes down pretty well but he needs a bookshelf to display stuff. I also want to rearrange his furniture and put some new art/posters on the walls. We took down all the younger kid stuff but haven’t replaced it. I want him to love his room again as he’s getting the the age where he wants to be in there more.
Nice idea! What are you working on this month? Ooh I think it will have to be going through the boys clothes again. I've actually started not saving much besides jackets because I hate having to go through the boxes of old clothes to see if anything fits and oftentimes it doesn't fit the next boy at the right season anyway or they don't like the style or whatever. Better to just give it away or sell and keep the boys wardrobes up to date and smaller. Unfortunately they never sort out pieces that don't fit. They always just leave them to rot in their dresser or come out in pants that are clearly way too small. Biggest challenge? I should get rid of some of my Christmas stuff but by the time I'm putting it all away I'm so over it and just throw it all on boxes and ignore the stuff that hasn't been used in years. Recent win/success to share? I barely got the boys any "stuff" for Christmas. They got some books but otherwise mainly practical stuff like a new computer monitor or video games that take up no room. The youngest got new gravitrax but they fit in the box for it he already has.
I was a woman on a mission yesterday. Took down tree, wreath and decorations, pulled a bunch of boxes from storage and organized their contents into permanent storage, put other stuff down in the storage locker, and went through DD2s clothes and collected everything that's too small for donation.
My big thing to tackle is DD1's closet. She needs drawers installed, and it's not a great space as it is.
So many things to declutter and organize. The girl's playroom, their toys, their clothes and so on. I also need to weed out my clothes and reorganize my bedroom and closets. I want to move our bed around to a different spot in the room, but I think I'll tackle the closets and drawers first.
I also need to sort through our kitchen stuff. I'm a weirdo who likes to change out the dishes with the seasons and thankfully we have the space for it in the butler's pantry, but I want to come up with some better systems.
Post by skategirl128 on Jan 2, 2024 8:20:14 GMT -6
What are you working on this month?
We are in the process of starting our kitchen renovation. This has been an awesome time to really look at everything that I’m in the process of packing up to decide if I really want/need an item and what really needs to be tossed or replaced.
I’m also working on touching up our regular spaces. We keep on top of decluttering since it’s made a huge impact on our small space but with the holidays things just need a touch up.
Biggest challenge?
Storing all of our kitchen supplies in the interim of our kitchen renovation. We have a small house for the 5 of us and we use our kitchen all the time so this has been a huge challenge for me. Going through everything in the kitchen has been challenging too- so much to go through!
Recent win/success DS2’s space has been maintained and he actually plays so much longer on his own with the way we’ve organized his space and really limited toys. We did get add ons for Christmas but we had space for all of it. I have a system now for his toy rotations so it’s been a huge win for us!
I did the laundry room in December. There's still some storage bins in there that need to be gone through, but I tossed a bunch of stuff and better organized some household supplies.
This week I need to focus on the kitchen: Freezer and fridge clean out, pantry, baking cabinet, etc. It was all very well loved and used the past month.
Otherwise I don't have too much deep cleaning to do but I have some projects I'd like to get done: touch up painting, recaulking the tub. I really want to replace the old ass plywood bookcases we have with something more 'built in' looking but I am just keeping my eye out for ideas right now.
My goal for this week is to finish up taking down Christmas decorations/organizing the influx of stuff. I am usually done by New Year’s Day but clearly that didn’t happen in this year.
I am debating what my best strategy is for the year. I tried the adhd cleaning hack where you make a list of what needs to be cleaned and roll a dice to figure out which one you do BUT there’s also a part of me that wants to start in one room and work my way through the house in an orderly fashion. Maybe there’s a solution of some marriage of the two.
I realized last week I want my January to be fresh and clean like new snow (weird but that’s the vision in my mind) so I really want to clean up the spaces we’ve let go. Our office is one issue We also have 2 closets I need to tackle. I did some reorganizing of the main coat closet last Oct and I love it now. DS room/closet is a big project.
I have so many little things to tackle. MH will be home to help a lot (yay) but also our income in Jan will be vvvvv small. So budget will also dictate some of what needs to be done.
I lost a Christmas present so that was my unplanned opportunity to reorganize some spaces. I touched every single item in my closet and dresser and got rid of sooooo much stuff.
De-Christmasing is the big item; I will get some help from the rest of my family there. I took the stuff out of my office, but that's as far as I made it. Hoping to be done by mid-month.
My pantry is the 2nd item on my list for this month. I just don't think there's an answer that will stick there, but going to try again. I redo the pantry like twice a year and it's still a disaster. I use my office as the "overflow" pantry for events and the holidays. I'm thinking of just getting a cabinet and leaning into that this room will have some pantry like storage? As long as I didn't have to stare at it, I'm not sure I'd care. It would be better than just piling stuff on a chair.
I am gamifying cleaning and organizing because I am finally starting to understand how my brain works.
I made a list of mini cleaning and organizing tasks I can do in 10-30 minutes. I numbered them and will draw a number at random each morning, complete the task, then cross it off on a bingo board (I have one for each room of the house). If I get a bingo, I get a latte.
Post by coconutbacon on Jan 2, 2024 10:54:10 GMT -6
I've now deChristmased and found places for new kitchen items I received. The first big thing I want to do is get DD's room decluttered and organized. I had been using a cheap IKEA drawer chest to hold art supplies and art. I went through it and cleared out all of the drawers, made some decisions about artwork to keep, etc and it's going out for trash collection on Friday. (It's 8 years old, falling apart and not worth a Buy Nothing post.) Once it's out, I have nice shelves to put up, and I want to get bins to put on the shelves for the art supplies and some other toys.
Then next up (maybe in February), we have a little side room that needs to be decluttered/ organized. A bunch of the stuff in there are DD's books and boardgames that should hopefully be able to go on her shelves once they're up though.
And then I'd really like to have some artwork framed and put it up.
I paid DS1 yesterday to do the deChristmasing things I hate doinv (putting away the ornaments, taking the garlands off the banisters and vacuuming the stairs). We keep our tree up with white lights and no ornaments until after DS2's birthday.
Post by Bookshelves on Jan 2, 2024 11:23:42 GMT -6
After a month of shittiness (death of a close extended family member and COVID and flu sweeping through our house), I emerged from Christmas feeling ready to tackle some things.
My big challenge is letting overthinking take the place of just DOING (in organization and life in general, lol), so I am proud that I have been tackling that tendency head-on. Even when a project fails, I feel like, “at least I tried!”
Some recent wins: finding a more practical/efficient shelving solution in our basement storage area and rehoming the shelving that was there to a nonprofit in need; this project began around Christmas and is already finished, which is a big win for me. Need to finish organizing contents of the shelving with the hopes evening of creating some crafting space for my craft-obsessed offspring.
Finally got my nightstand organized. Has been helpful to just open a tidy drawer and find the journal where I’m trying to write one thing nightly that I’m grateful for. I had avoided opening the drawer for literal years because the clutter overwhelmed me. It was definitely one of those projects that was years in the overthinking and mere minutes in the execution.
I did a tidy/reset of my home office last week. Took a couple hours. I am proud that I did not let it get to a place where that was overwhelming to me. The rest of our home stays pretty tidy, but that is one room that I sometimes let spiral out of control and just shut the door on it.
Some things that need tackled: creating a space for art/painting in our home that is just for *me*; purge drawers and closets (everyone’s, yikes); a few cabinets. Always the laundry room! (The donation pile is huge already, so that’s on the list to take care of this month.)
When my ILs visited over Xmas and we ate in the dining room, I mentioned off-hand that the china cabinet lacks organization and needs deep cleaned. (We have a formal dining room and dining set that was MH’s grandma’s. Not a full set of china but Christmas dishes and lots of odds and ends from grandparents.) My MIL said that is the sort of thing she loves to do, so I told her I would be happy to have her help with it sometime. This was personal growth for me, because I have had a tendency to take any acknowledgment of faults in my housekeeping really personally (and especially from her because she does have a tendency to be passive-aggressive). I think because I was the one who brought it up, and she seemed to respond from a place of genuine joy of playing with china (I can’t relate 😂), I was able to accept that offer of help without projecting self-criticism on it. It will be great to cross it off the spring cleaning list with assistance.
Post by Bookshelves on Jan 2, 2024 11:25:33 GMT -6
Geez, that was long.
I also need to take down Christmas. Luckily I’m Catholic enough that I feel justified leaving it up through this Sunday, so I’ll take it down Monday when the kids are back in school.
I’ve been working part time, and I was worried home stuff would suffer, but I think I’ve actually been more efficient with my time knowing I have less of it.
I'm supposed to have a plan already? The month just started. It feels a very Monday like Tuesday
Let's see of course christmas take down is on deck. Before new years day most red things are down except ornaments and I forgot the red bows I put up on each side of front windows. White lights stay up til Jan 6th ish including the icicle lights on the house. The white lights that go across the 3 windows in the great room they died and I took them Down already. Makes house darker
I decluttered a lot of decorations as I decorated but anything that looks sad will go as I pack away. Dh wants Xmas decos in garage but that's a whole ordeal.
I am at a loss of what to declutter next. Youngest son is here for another week so maybe he will help me decide. His left behind things might be something doable. Although keeping 2 or 3 outfits of his here has proven useful when his checked luggage went on walkabout.
I am gamifying cleaning and organizing because I am finally starting to understand how my brain works.
I made a list of mini cleaning and organizing tasks I can do in 10-30 minutes. I numbered them and will draw a number at random each morning, complete the task, then cross it off on a bingo board (I have one for each room of the house). If I get a bingo, I get a latte.
I don't have a bingo chart But my list of things to do I find/break down things into the easy no brainers and will list 10 of them out for my day and challenge myself to get then all done. Even if I only get a couple a day the week ends up better.
Although that procrastination thing on my NY resolutions will often grab ahold of me
What are you working on this month? -The boys’ room. The toys were out of control and the storage we were using I hated (cube things). I got one of those open bin type things and it’s working much better. There’s still stuff that needs a home and I’m trying to find solutions other than bookshelves/furniture on the floor because we have limited floor space due to all his stuff (train table, nugget couch, kitchen). I am currently painting some hanging bookshelves that will only hold books, and need to maybe find some floating shelves for other random things. -our small storage room where we throw random stuff. It’s crazy in there. - kitchen
Biggest challenge? Getting this done with a clingy 8 month old and 3 year old 🙃
Recent win/success to share?
Went through some of my kitchen stuff and got rid of a bunch of cups/vases/jars that were taking up space. Definitely not done though. Got DS1’s old clothes organized by size for when we pass them on to DS2, since I had kinda just been throwing them in a bin haphazardly.
Today and tomorrow, DH and FIL are installing our new LVP floors. Which means I get to put together DS's art nook upstairs now that the carpet will be out. We will move up the art supplies, play-doh, and kinetic sand for sure. I also need to pull out his sensory bin supplies and go through those to pull out what he has outgrown. They are currently all over the house from the chaotic 24-hour move-in back in August. I think that will be it for my January, but it will probably actually be plenty considering I start classes again in two weeks.
We gave a facelift to our ugly old bathroom the last few days which is giving me motivation to tackle the new year deep clean. The big clutter monster is the kids' bedroom. I've done it myself so many times but at 11 and 15 (and truly it's the 11 year old almost entirely) I'm trying to get them to take ownership and fix it. But we're teetering close the edge of me doing it. I will be ruthless and they know it so hopefully they get their act together this coming weekend.
Post by starrynight on Jan 2, 2024 18:29:42 GMT -6
I'm working on my basement. It is full of moving boxes, so my first goal is to transfer everything out of cardboard and into plastic bins and label/inventory. I'm using it as an opportunity purge, and it feels good! I got rid of so much Christmas stuff. It didn't go with our new decor, so I knew I wouldn't use it going forward. Good riddance!
Target has the Hefty bins I like on sale right now, so that's been helpful! Those add up so fast!
Bookshelves what is your basement shelving solution? I'm in desperate need of a better system.
We have Gladiator shelving in the basement storage for a long time, which I love, because it’s really sturdy and big enough for totes. Expensive but a good investment. I recommend them. We also have the Gladiator slat walls in our garage.
The problem area was a smaller spot where I had stuck a bookshelf (lol Bookshelves) that used to be in our living room in our old house, but no longer had a logical home since moving to this house. It’s been kicked around to many rooms before finally being stuck in storage the last couple years. It was a nicer wooden shelf, wide but only about 4’ tall, so there was a lot of space around and above it being wasted, and it was not deep enough to hold anything I needed it to. So I finally grabbed the first commercial-grade metal shelf at Home Depot that was much taller and deeper, so it basically doubled the storage we have in that spot. It’s not as nice as the Gladiator shelves, but a good solution when I needed instant gratification before I lost my motivation on the day I randomly decided to solve the problem.
It is unlike me to give away a perfectly good bookshelf 😂 so finding a good home made it easier.
My goal for this week is to finish up taking down Christmas decorations/organizing the influx of stuff. I am usually done by New Year’s Day but clearly that didn’t happen in this year.
I am debating what my best strategy is for the year. I tried the adhd cleaning hack where you make a list of what needs to be cleaned and roll a dice to figure out which one you do BUT there’s also a part of me that wants to start in one room and work my way through the house in an orderly fashion. Maybe there’s a solution of some marriage of the two.
Maybe pick the order of rooms by rolling the dice? Or pick the rooms in orderly fashion but pick what you work on in each room first with some random ways that puts your adhd to work.
Like I have the giant lists for each room all in order, pick a couple doable things in each room onto a 2nd list so shorter. Then randomly pick from that list.
Or hope when I go off on a tangent it's something I already wrote down so I still get the success of marking it off the list.
I lost a Christmas present so that was my unplanned opportunity to reorganize some spaces. I touched every single item in my closet and dresser and got rid of sooooo much stuff.
De-Christmasing is the big item; I will get some help from the rest of my family there. I took the stuff out of my office, but that's as far as I made it. Hoping to be done by mid-month.
My pantry is the 2nd item on my list for this month. I just don't think there's an answer that will stick there, but going to try again. I redo the pantry like twice a year and it's still a disaster. I use my office as the "overflow" pantry for events and the holidays. I'm thinking of just getting a cabinet and leaning into that this room will have some pantry like storage? As long as I didn't have to stare at it, I'm not sure I'd care. It would be better than just piling stuff on a chair.
That’s what I would do. We have a pretty small pantry area so we have a hutch with storage in the dining room and we use it for Costco overflow. It’s nice not to see it but have it close by.
I deep cleaned the fridge and freezer today and that led me to a whole thing where I checked on all the dates in the spice cabinet and threw out so many. I thought I had done that fairly recently but I think it might have been in 2020 when I was bored. Then I cleaned the pantry and made a whole empty shelf of space. I was on cloud nine when I was done.
I am really going to work on reducing food waste this year. So I put a couple new systems in place: -sign on the outside of the fridge with perishables that need to go in the next few days -laminated a list of spices I have in my spice drawer with room to write in new ones -set up a meal planning binder system with a list of pantry and freezer items I have on hand. I’m already really good at meal planning but I want to do better at using the same ingredients in subsequent days so perishables don’t get only partially used. I also need to stock up a little more when things are on special because hot damn on the food prices, so this will help me stay organized on that.
I also posted some unneeded wine gift bags and all the Amazon gift bags we got this year on buy nothing. And I purged 5 water bottle/travel coffee mugs and but those on buy nothing. That cabinet was overflowing and difficult to find what you needed in it - but now it’s tamed.
I also need to take down Christmas. Luckily I’m Catholic enough that I feel justified leaving it up through this Sunday, so I’ll take it down Monday when the kids are back in school.
I’ve been working part time, and I was worried home stuff would suffer, but I think I’ve actually been more efficient with my time knowing I have less of it.
Girl your tree can stay up- you don't need a religious excuse!
Mine will be up til mid month, most likely. I know that because I'm not doing it this weekend.