House Cleanout - End of January Update

Every year in January, I start the process of cleaning out our entire house from top to bottom with the hope of having the whole house done by the end of March or so.  Since I’ve been doing this every year since 2018, the process has gotten easier and easier and taken less and less time each year, and each year, we get rid of less and less since we’ve gotten better at keeping the clutter at bay.

I haven’t been as great at documenting the process on Instagram this year as I had wanted to, so I thought I’d do a full blog update instead.

Each year, at the end of December, I print my list of things to clean out (you can see this post here for all of the details) and then January 1, I get started cleaning things out and crossing off the list.  In addition to cleaning out the house, I also try to use January to tackle minor house projects like refreshing areas and replacing broken/damaged things, etc., so I’ve been doing a bit of that, too. 

This is what I’ve done so far in January…

Front Room

Accomplishments:

-       Cleaned out the games cabinet

-       Cleaned out the side table

-       Hung up the new wall art that I got for Christmas

 

Said Goodbye To:

-       1 game

-       3 puzzles

-       5 decks of cards

Stuff we got rid of from the games cabinet

Living Room

Accomplishments:

-       Cleaned out the entertainment center

-       Cleaned out the DVD chest

-       Cleaned out the coffee table

-       Cleaned out the side tables

-       Moved the diffuser from my office in there since I got a new one for my office

 

Said Goodbye To:

-       Nothing.  Haha.  We keep minimal stuff in our living room so there was nothing to get rid of, but I still go through each area every year to see if there’s anything that needs to go.

 

Kitchen

Accomplishments:

-       Cleaned out all cabinets and drawers

-       Cleaned out the pantry

-       Cleaned out the refrigerator/freezer

-       Cleaned out the bar cart

-       Cleaned out the buffet table AKA the kids’ art table

-       Replaced the soap dish in our kitchen.  The one we had was rusting, so there was no saving it.

-       Replaced the oven mitts.  Ours were 15 years old (wedding gifts, I believe) so the silicone had worn off of the tips and I was always burning myself.

-       Replaced the kitchen faucet.  Ours was 13 years old and it had been leaking for years and years so this was huge.  It’s so nice to not have to slam it down three times to get it to shut off.  Haha.

-       Replaced the garbage disposal.  Ours exploded last week so we had no choice.  Haha.

 

Said Goodbye To:

-       Skillet that we never use

-       2 old lunch containers that were missing lids

-       2 old oven mitts

-       2 dish towels

-       15 glasses/mugs/thermoses

-       Various kitchen tools

-       Lots of old food boxes

-       All expired food (which wasn’t much as I try my best not to waste)

-       A bag of candy that was excess that the kiddos didn’t need.  We gave it to Jacob’s piano teacher so he can put it in his treasure box.  ;o)

-       A ton of trash found in the cabinet where the kids keep their candy buckets

-       A GIANT pile of old papers and trash that were in Olivia’s art basket

 

Stuff we got rid of from the pantry

Stuff we got rid of from the kids' cabinet

Stuff we got rid of from the kitchen cabinets

Stuff we got rid of from Olivia's art basket

Olivia's art basket all cleaned out and organized

Downstairs Bathroom

Accomplishments:

-       Replaced the hand towels.  Our kiddos completely ruin hand towels and ours were disgusting.  They looked disgusting even when they were fresh out of the washing machine.  Therefore, we have to replace them every couple of years and that’s why I buy cheap ones.  #ThisIsWhyWeCantHaveNiceThings

 

Said Goodbye To:

-       3 old hand towels

 

Master Bedroom

Accomplishments:

-       Cleaned out my dresser

-       Cleaned out the reading nook

-       Cleaned out my nightstand

 

Said Goodbye To:

-       9 pairs of socks

-       Several pairs of undies (not pictured – haha)

-       1 pair of gloves

-       4 books

-       11 old prescription bottles

-       Some trash

Stuff we got rid of from my dresser and nightstand

 

Master Bathroom

Accomplishments:

-       Cleaned out my master closet

-       Freed up 22 shirt hangers and 4 pants hangers (which is good because I was completely out of shirt hangers!)

 

Said Goodbye To:

-       18 shirts

-       4 dresses

-       6 pairs of pants

-       2 pairs of shorts

-       2 PJ sets

-       8 pairs of shoes/boots

-       2 bags

Freed up tons of hangers

Stuff I got rid of from my closet

 

My Office

Accomplishments:

-       Cleaned out the desk

-       Cleaned out the storage cubes to the left of my desk

-       Cleaned out the reading nook

-       Cleaned off the bookcases

-       Cleaned out the closet

-       Cleaned out the craft table

-       Added a new plastic bin for papers and finally caught up on filing

-       Refreshed my desk area with some colorful books

-       Organized all of my books that still need to be read

-       Added a new diffuser that sprays mist out into the room instead of straight up in the air (my old one was spraying the mist directly up into my lamp.  Haha.)

-       Grouped some like items together on my bookshelves to improve functionality

 

Said Goodbye To:

-       4 books

-       A big pile of old papers and receipts

-       1 candle

-       Some other random trash

Stuff I got rid of from my office

New pretty book stack on my desk

 

Playroom

Accomplishments:

-       Cleaned out all bins

-       Cleaned out all shelves

-       Got everything organized and back in its place (we’ll see how long that lasts)

 

Said Goodbye To:

-       Olivia’s old Beauty and the Beast tea cart

-       A pile of toys

-       Half a bag of trash

-       A big pile of old boxes/papers for recycling

Playroom before

Playroom after

 

Stuff that we got rid of from the playroom - recycle pile, bag of trash, donations

Outside

Accomplishments:

-       Cleaned out my vehicle

-       B cleaned out his vehicle

-       Got all the kids toys out of my car and back in the house where they belong

 

Said Goodbye To:

-       A ton of trash

-       A ton of papers to recycle

 

Miscellaneous

-       Sold the kids’ old highchair.  It was pretty large, so it freed up a significant amount of space in our storage closet and I am super excited to have the extra space.

-       Sold 2 of the kids’ old booster seats to free up space in our vehicles since the kids no longer need them.

 

And that’s it for January, y’all!  I’m hoping to wrap up by the end of February or early March, so hopefully by the time my next update rolls around, I’ll be done with the whole house!

Happy Monday, y’all!