House Cleanout and Projects - Mid-January Update

Hey, y’all!  At the beginning of each new year, I clean out our entire house top to bottom, and I thought that I’d document it on the blog this year.  I’ve also been documenting it on Instagram stories if you’d like to follow along in real-time, and I also created a highlight for it if you want to check out the older posts.

Each year before I clean out, I always print off a sheet with every single thing that I need to clean out divided up by room (see this post here if you want to know more), and then I tackle each item.  I typically start with the absolute worst areas – the ones that need attention the most – and then I work my way through the areas that don’t need much attention. 

So far, this is what I’ve done in the first two weeks of January…

Master Bathroom

Accomplishments:

Cleaned out my master closet

Freed up 28 hangers so I can finally hang up all of my tops

Said Goodbye To:

28 tops

14 bottoms

4 pairs of shoes

2 purses

Lots of jewelry

2 old shoe boxes + some other trash

Before:

After:

Playroom

Accomplishments:

Cleaned out and organized all bins and shelves

B put away the Nintendo Wii to free up more space for the Nintendo Switch

We were able to center the couch in front of the TV since we got rid of the tent

We found the perfect place to set up Olivia’s new Barbie Dreamhouse

Said Goodbye To:

1 bag of toys + 2 large toys

The old tent that took up too much room (not pictured)

½ bag of trash

Large pile of recycling

Before:

After:

Olivia’s Bedroom

Accomplishments:

Cleaned out and organized closet, bookcase, nightstand, dresser, dress-up bin, bed

Whittled her pile of dress-up clothes down by 50%

Bought 2 new underbed boxes to store the dress-up clothes

Turned her old dress-up clothes bin into her stuffed animal bin

Moved the stuffed animal bin by the door to free up space to put a desk

Said Goodbye To:

2 bags of clothes/toys

Another tent that the kids haven’t used in years

A stepstool that she no longer needs

40 books

An old broken basket

A large pile of trash

A large pile of recycling

Before:

After:

Front Sitting Room

Accomplishments:

Moved my parents’ grey couch in and we now have nice furniture in there!!

Said Goodbye To:

Our old red couch (even though we still haven’t sold it yet)

Before:

After:

Miscellaneous:

Accomplishments:

Cleaned out my phone apps

Organized all of my phone apps

Said Goodbye To:

5 phone apps

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a before picture, so I don’t have that, but using my phone has never been easier!

Here's a picture of everything I donated Tuesday... feels so much lighter already!

Not too shabby for two weeks in.  I’d actually hoped to have a lot more done because I’d originally planned to clean out Jacob’s room as well as a few other areas during the long weekend, but we decided to go to Athens for the UGA National Championship celebration, so that took up a lot of the weekend… NO REGRETS!! 

Fun > cleaning

I’m hoping to tackle a few more areas this week, so be sure to follow along here if you want to see updates in real time.

Happy Wednesday, y’all!