New Year’s Resolution Check-In – How I’m Doing So Far…

If you read my New Year's Resolution post back in December then you know that this is a big year for me.  I’m currently in the process of purging and simplifying my life so I can get rid of all of the clutter (mental and physical) that hinders me from enjoying the better things in life.  My word for 2016 is LESS. 

I thought that I would do a couple of updates throughout the year to hold myself accountable, because as always, I was gung-ho at the beginning of the year, but things have sort of tapered off here lately.  So let’s see how I’m doing…

Purging and Simplifying

1. Living Spaces: Purge and simplify our entire house, my car, and my cube at work and donate everything that we don’t need or want, and also start putting things back where they belong immediately after use. 

Progress: So far I have cleaned out and simplified our master bedroom, master closet, master bath, Jacob’s room, Olivia’s room, linen closet, pantry, playroom, and I’ve just started working on my office.  I also cleaned out my entire cube at work top to bottom and I cleaned out my car as well.  Both are junk free and nice and tidy.

The thing that has made the biggest difference to me so far is my closet.  I got rid of a heap of old shoe boxes and five trash bags full of clothes from my closet.  Five.  I feel so much lighter!!  The purge included 26 dresses, 58 shirts, 17 pairs of pants, 13 scarves, 11 pairs of shoes, 13 purses/bags, and various other shorts, skirts, and jewelry.  

In addition to purging, I also arranged my clothes by category, and then I put everything in ROYGBIV order within the categories.  If you don’t know what ROYGBIV is, then we can’t be friends.  Anyway, all tops are now arranged by sleeve length – strapless, spaghetti straps, sleeveless, short sleeves, cardigans, sweaters, etc.  Then each category is arranged by color.  This is fantastic!  It makes it so easy to see what I can wear based on the weather any given day, and the color arrangement makes it easy to see what pairs with all of my different bottoms.

The second thing that made a huge difference was cleaning out our bathroom.  We have a cabinet that holds all of our toiletries and it was stuffed to the gills with old shampoos, medicine, and lotion.  Y’all, I still had an old bottle of Cool Water perfume from high school in there.  What?!  Needless to say it’s gone, along with a huge pile of other crap, and now I can finally find what I’m looking for in my cabinets.  I even got this nail polish organizer to organize my polishes and I am L-O-V-I-N-G being able to see all of my shades at a glance!

#ByeFelicia

You will not be missed.

Nice and organized.  :o)

Aaaand my heart just skipped a beat!  ;o)

As far as putting stuff away after using it goes, I have been doing way better with this.  I’m happy to say that our kitchen island has had many junk free days since the beginning of the year. 

I still have some purging to do in the kitchen and a couple of closets downstairs, but I feel good about the progress I’ve made so far!  My biggest challenge is going to be my office because I have soooo much stuff in it, most of which is sentimental.

2. Computer: Delete programs that I no longer use and clean out old files.

Progress: Big fat nothing.  I haven’t even started this yet.  <Cringe>

3. Phone: Delete apps and contacts that I no longer need.

Progress: I deleted a handful of apps that I don’t use anymore and I put up a simpler wallpaper so the phone doesn’t look cluttered every time I look at it.  I still need to go through and clean out my contacts, though, because if I’ve ever had your phone number during the last 20 years, chances are, you’re still in my cell phone.  Ex boyfriends, friends I haven’t talked to in 15 years, a couple of people who are no longer with us… yeah, really weird.  Time to purge.

4. Photos: Take fewer pictures, delete the ones I don’t need, and implement a new way of organizing and backing them up. 

Progress: I am taking fewer pictures for sure, and I have implemented my new way of backing them up which is working out beautifully!  However, I have not been deleting the blurry big foot pictures that I don’t need… I need to work on this.  I hope to get a post up about backing up photos in the future.

5. Emails: Unsubscribe to all emails that are no longer relevant. 

Progress: This is done and, man, have I noticed a difference in the quantity of emails that I get every day.  I used to go to sleep at night with a completely cleaned out inbox, only to wake up to 40-50 new emails in the morning.  Now I wake up to less than 10 emails most mornings.  It’s glorious!

6. Social Media: Unfollow accounts that no longer pique my interest so I don’t waste time scrolling through photos that I’m not interested in. 

Progress: Done.  I unfollowed over 100 accounts on Instagram a couple of months ago.  However, I am constantly meeting new amazing ladies with whom I love networking, so I’ve probably followed 30-40 new accounts in recent weeks as well.   

7. Keepsakes: Be ruthless, clean out everything we don’t need, and organize everything that I do decide to keep.

Progress: Whew, this one is hard, but I’m very proud to announce that I cleaned out the kids’ artwork and I have gotten rid of most of it.  I photographed each piece before purging, and my file cabinet is looking great!  I have about 2 extra feet in the top drawer now.  However, I haven’t started on keepsake items like old clothes and toys yet so I still have a very long way to go!

Adios!  You will probably be missed.  :o(

8. Paperwork: Clean out file cabinet, unsubscribe to catalogs I’m no longer interested in, put a stop to junk mail, and file only the things that we need right when I get them so they don’t pile up.

Progress:  As I just mentioned above, I have cleaned out all of the kids’ old artwork, and I have also cleaned out a bunch of other old files as well – medical bills, old pager bills from 1998 (why for heaven’s sake do I still have those?!), old paystubs, etc.  I still have a couple more drawers to go, so this isn’t quite done yet either.  I also haven’t put a stop to the junk mail.

9. To Do List: I have a “Master To Do List” and I would like to accomplish as many of these things as I can this year so I can cross them right off!

Progress: Yes, several things have been crossed off, but let’s be realistic folks, the list is like 5 pages long, so this is going to take forever.

Personal Resolutions

1. Be the best wife and mommy that I can be. 

Progress: I’m definitely yelling less than I used to (at the kids, not Brian… I’ve never had to yell at him.  Hehe.)  I’ve been acutely aware of this since I set my goals for the year and I’ve been practicing some serious patience with the babies.  I still slip every now and then, but I’m only human and I have bad days just like everyone else once in a while.

2. Be positive.

Progress: Nope, still worrying a lot about things I can’t control and still seeing the negative in a lot of circumstances.  It’s a constant struggle.  Why can’t I just train myself to see the positive in things?!  Man, it’s hard!

3. Complain less.

Progress: I think I’m doing slightly better with this.  I do know that I am very aware when I’m doing it now, and the first step to correcting it is knowing when you’re doing it, right?

4. Be more spontaneous.

Progress: I honestly don’t think I’ve had many opportunities to be spontaneous, so I can’t really answer this one.

5. Make bed.

Progress: My goal was to just make the bed on the weekends and I’m so happy to say that this has happened almost every single day that we’ve been off!  Woo hoo! 

Health

1. Improve water intake. 

Progress: During the winter months I was only drinking about 4-5 servings of water/day and since it has gotten warmer I have increased to about 6-7 most days.  I still want to get back up to the 8-10 that I used to do, though.

2. Tone up.

Progress: Yes!  I have been working out every single evening while watching TV… I still haven’t started my Jillian Michael’s DVDs but I can definitely tell a difference in muscle tone in my legs and butt.

3. Vitamins – find a good daily vitamin. 

Progress: Nope.  At the beginning of the year I was at least still taking prenatal vitamins, but I ran out and am now taking no vitamins.  #Fail.

For Fun

1. One date night sans kids each month.

Progress: We are going above and beyond with this one, friends!  Above and beyond!  In January we attended a ball, in March we went to see Elton John, and so far this month we have gone on a dinner date alone, a dinner date with our couple friends, and we are heading to a fundraiser this coming Saturday night.  So even though we missed February, we more than made up for it in April.  We also have some exciting dates coming up this summer as well – a Dave Matthews Band concert, a 311 concert, and hopefully a few more dinners out, just the two of us!

2. Find a white wine that I like.

Progress: Haven’t even started on this one.  I’ve been too busy drinking Moscow Mules, Vodka Strawberry Lemonade, and Best Damn Cherry Cola.

3. Try out new outfit combos and try to wear a different combo every day.

Progress: So far, so good.  I haven’t repeated an entire outfit all year.  Craziness!  It’s taking some serious creativity and a really good memory to pull it off, though!  You can see my recaps here, here, and here.

4. Try something new as often as possible.

Progress: We have tried a couple of new restaurants (and loved them) and we have taken a couple of day trips with the kiddos to see and do new things.  Check!

Goals for the Kids

1. Get the kids to clean up after themselves daily.

Progress: Nope.  Not happening daily.  More like once a week, if that.  Something to work on…

2. Help Jacob become more independent.

Progress: Yes!  He’s doing much better about getting dressed on his own for school and after his bath, he’s bathing himself pretty well (although he still struggles with his hair washing), he's carrying his own book bag and lunch box into school (he used to always want me to carry them for him), and he’s learning how to help me cook some, even though it will be a long time before he can do it on his own.

3. Get Jacob to poop on the toilet.

Progress:  Cue the music – can I get a hallelujah, can I get an amen!  Yessss, he’s finally doing it all the time now.  Thank the good Lord above.

4. Give Jacob a “big boy” room.

Progress: Haven’t started on the actual room itself yet, but we have made the first steps to getting there… we purchased a new comforter for his bed as well as some décor for the walls.  Now I’m just trying to decide what color to paint the walls so we can put it altogether, get a new mattress, and convert the bed!

Overall not too shabby if I do say so myself.  There's still a lot of work to be done, but I'm getting there!

Whew, this was wordy.  Are you still here?  

*Linking up with Home of Malones for Thoughts for Thursday.