January Purging Update

I can't believe the first month of 2015 has already come and gone! Where does the time go? The holidays are long passed, our baby is 7 weeks old, and things are settling into a new normal around here.

Remember my Word of the Year? I thought it would be good to post an update at the end of every month. It will help me to stay accountable and maybe motivate some of you to purge your possessions, too. Also, my friend Michele from Family, Faith, & Fridays is hosting a 34 weeks of clean challenge this year. I was excited when she announced the series. It perfectly compliments my goal of purging this year, I love cleaning challenges, and it's always fun to see how others organize. Plus, cleaning is more fun with someone else, even if that someone else is cheering you on through a screen, haha. We're currently on week 5, so come join us!

January was very profitable for us. Of course, I kept up with the normal chores like laundry and cleaning, but I also greatly enjoying taking care of some things that get overlooked or were just needing some extra attention.

• cleaned under the boys beds, removing and putting away all toys/clothes/garbage, & vacuumed
• emptied & washed the freezer, threw away expired food, and organized (we also have a deep freezer, but that was already organized)
• cleaned the microwave (a splattered microwave is a pet peeve of mine!)
• cleaned under the kitchen sink
• took our "learning" DVDs out of their cases and put them in a binder (all our other movies have been organized in a binder for years) and threw away the cases 
• reorganized the kitchen cabinets and donated extra dishes and such
• emptied the coat closet, put the spring/fall coats in the basement making much more room
• spent many hours working in the basement
• quickly purged some clothes from my closet and drawers
• emptied my purse
• mopped the floors and wiped down all the kitchen walls
• gathered all my maternity clothes to drop off at the consignment store 
• and cleaned and organized many other small projects
• purged some of the boys clothes as I was moving them up a size and packing away the smaller ones

I've gotten into the habit of grabbing a few things here and there to throw away or donate as I see them. Some things, like my clothes, I'm sure will take a few times before I've gotten rid of enough to appease me. I have clothes from high school 15 years ago because they still fit! And I know that the basement will take me all year to get how I want it. It's become a catch-all for everything that doesn't fit upstairs.

Yes, we have too much.

  

 

 

Obviously, some of the pictures show the work in progress and others are the final product. I don't have any before pictures because I didn't feel they were really that big of a difference. Because organization is a love of mine and something that I make sure to keep up,  you wouldn't notice much difference with the befores and afters. Pretty boring.

Besides, it's much more fun to see all my messes, right? 

I'm so excited! I've been wanting my boring white pantry painted for quite a while. I even bought shelf liner last May. Eight months ago! I asked Leighton last week if he'd do it over the weekend, you know, so I could help him with his Word of the Year, haha. And he lovingly finished it late Sunday night. It makes me happy every time I open the door. 

Ok, so are you ready to see how much stuff we donated the month of January???

Not bad for month 1! Two large garbage bags missed out on the picture and there are some boxes under the bags here that are hard to see. Also, we threw away quite a bit of stuff. All in all, I'm very pleased with the work that was accomplished the past four weeks.

Do you have any goals for 2015? Are you working to keep them, too? 

Also, don't forget to join the cleaning challenge with Family, Faith, and Fridays and have fun getting your house in order, too!