Happy New Year friends!! Can you believe it’s here already? I’m definitely welcoming in this new year and setting some reasonable, attainable goals. What about you?! #bye2021
You know organization and keeping my home and family spaces tidy, but there are certain areas that have kind of just left sitting. Things would pile and it just seemed easier to close the door and look away, lol. We’ve all been there, right?
I wanted to give a few ideas in this post more focused on areas that can be easily neglected. This won’t be a ‘wash behind your washing machine!’ post, but more of things we touch daily that we can do things with each week/month in order to maintain and NOT let the build up happen. Some of these are just things I know I have left sitting and I know I’m not using, so donating or disposing of it will help clear some space for the new year.
- 1. Stock up on Folex. I swear by this stuff! I’ve been using for the last 2 years on our carpeted spaces and our laundry (yes, I use it on our laundry! I have not had any issues at all!) For deep/stubborn stains, I will spray a little on, let it set, then scrub. I will spray on a little more and then throw it in the wash as normal.
- 2. I have purchased a handful of these inexpensive bins from Target. Not only do I love that they come in a few styles (and are pretty to look at!) but they helped me declutter our holiday decor this year as well as some things in our downstairs linen closet. I chose what I wanted to put in them and only kept the things that I know we will use in 2022.
- 3. Clean out your kids backpacks or better yet, have them help you do this. It’s a great time to do this since it’s still holiday break. Cole keeps his backpack pretty tidy, but Conner is my kid I have to keep an eye on with this. The smaller zipper pouch tends to be where they store a lot of things over the school semester along with the occasional dirt, etc. I make them clear out whatever is trash/unimportant and then throw them in the gentle wash cycle. I also bought the boys each these wallets where they can store their school IDs, money they take for sno cone days, etc. and it helps declutter this pouch as well.
- 4. Time to clean your linen closets going into 2022. Donate/dispose of any linen (beach towels, shower towels, blankets, sheets etc) that may have seen their last day or that no one has touched in over 6-12 months. I know sometimes some of these things can hold sentimental value, and if that’s the case maybe store it away elsewhere or in another bin that you’re going to keep in storage. I now only keep blankets/towels that we regularly use as a family and it is so much less overwhelming. I can also see what we have and therefore it gets used so much more!
- 5. Another thing I took care of going into this new year is something you might not really think about, but if you have school aged kids like I do, it’s probably something they’re often touching. In my kids’ school/homework desk we have a bunch of used pencils with erasers broken off, pencils sharpened down past the point of barely being able to even hold it, and lots of mechanical pencils with no lead. I tossed all of them and replaced them with every teacher’s favorite pencils and best part: no lead to refill!
- 6. In my kitchen, I went thru all of our large utensils (spatulas, serving spoons, tongs, wooden stirrers, etc) that we haven’t used and donated them. It truly was not necessary to have as many as we had and I kept the ones we use weekly for meals.
- 7. This is something I started doing in 2021, but I get my car washed the first of every month (If I can’t go on the 1st, then sometime before the 5th). I make it a priority to do this, because as a mom of 4, my car can become pretty overrun with kids crumbs, shoe tracking, and other fun things 😉 I found an inexpensive way to do this is by going to the semi-self service car washes (usually around $7 for exterior) and then I use their free vacuums and the kids help me suck up all of the stuff on the floors and seats. I plan to continue doing this into 2022 – it’s a game changer and my car has benefited from it so much. I know by the end of the month (when it’s starting to show gross-ness again ;)) that the car wash is right around the corner and it helps me not feel overwhelmed.
- 8. There are several different bins, baskets, and containers I love for our closets, and I’ve linked a few of them on this post. The wooden ones are really sturdy and actually pretty deep – I picked up a few more of them plus the plastic kind with the drawers for our master closet clean out I’m determined to finish working on before January is over!
- 9. I plan to do a blog on my pantry sometime this year (I know, long overdue!!) but if you’re needing some help on where to start, I have all of my favorite products I use to organize my pantry linked in this post, BUT one way I keep things that aren’t in containers still staying fresh and looking uniform are with these cute chip clips. I just bought another pack because the ones I’ve had over the years were dwindling down and some had cracked (they’ve gotten so much use over the last 4 years though!). Highly recommend them!
- 10. This is another thing I do all year long but I thought it would be helpful to close out my tips with it. Every Monday, I wipe down and disinfect all of our electronics. It’s a really good habit to get into and bring along with you in the new year! Definitely one of those ‘it’s a new week!!!’ things for me.
I hope this helps motivate and inspire you while you’re doing some NY decluttering!! I’ve already implemented a few of these before today and my house feels so much better and the kids have more room too. I know it can sometimes be hard to start these things with life going at such a fast paced all the time, but I promise you once you start, you’ll find a good groove and you won’t want to start! Progress is always so motivating for me. Happy cleaning!
