2024 House Cleanout - Mid-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.  I did this massive cleanout for the first time in 2018, and it was life-changing.  I went through literally every single item in our entire house, decided whether to keep it or toss it (and we tossed a LOT – trash, recycling, donating), and then I gave all remaining items a permanent place in our home so there was no excuse for anything to be out of place.  (Everything has a place, and everything in its place.)  It took me the entire year that first time because we had so.much.stuff, but goodness, was it worth it.  Since then, we have done a pretty good job of “maintaining,” so these annual cleanouts are much faster and easier now.    

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…

Master Closet (Mine)

Accomplishments:

-       Cleaned out my master closet

-       Freed up 42 shirt hangers and 4 pants hangers (which is good because I was completely out of shirt hangers!)

Said Goodbye To:

-       35 tops

-       7 dresses

-       7 pairs of leggings

-       3 pairs of pants

-       1 skirt

-       4 pairs of shoes

-       1 bag

-       3 necklaces

-       13 pairs of earrings

-       4 bracelets

-       1 watch band

-       1 old shoebox

Bye bye bye, old stuff!

Jacob’s Bedroom

Accomplishments:

-       Cleaned out dresser

-       Cleaned out desk

-       Cleaned out bookcase (you can see a post about his Lego museum here)

-       Cleaned out closet

-       Cleaned out under bed

-       Created a space for his Pokemon card collection

-       Gave all new gifts a place so they’re no longer piled on the floor

-       Filed old school papers/awards/keepsakes from the second half of 2023

Said Goodbye To:

-       14 tops

-       14 pairs of pants/shorts

-       3 pairs of pajamas

-       2 Halloween costumes

-       Various old books/toys/trinkets/papers

The After

After!  Prior to this, there was a pile of stuff on the floor all along his bookcase.

 

Olivia’s Bedroom

Accomplishments:

-       Cleaned out dresser

-       Cleaned out bookcase

-       Cleaned out nightstand

-       Cleaned out under bed

-       Cleaned out desk

-       Cleaned out closet

-       Cleaned out stuffed animals bin

-       Gave all new gifts a place so they’re no longer piled around the room

-       Filed old school papers/awards/keepsakes from the second half of 2023

Said Goodbye To:

-       4 tops/dresses

-       3 pairs of pants/shorts

-       An entire set of books that she’s outgrown

-       Various old toys/trinkets/papers

-       SO.MUCH.TRASH.

A little snippet of what it looked like before. Cringe.

And all cleaned up!  Prior to this, her entire room was a nightmare.  Haha.

Another view of the finished product (didn't make her bed for the picture, though.)

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)

-       Gave all new gifts a place so the kids know where to put them back

Said Goodbye To:

-       2 bags of toys + some large toys that wouldn’t fit in a bag

-       1 bag of trash

-       1 bag of recycling

The playroom all done

So clean and tidy!

Another view

 

All of the items we got rid of from the playroom, Jacob's room, and Olivia's room

Kitchen

Accomplishments:

-       Cleaned out and wiped down refrigerator

-       Cleaned out and wiped down freezer

-       Cleaned out pantry

-       Moved some things around in the fridge to make it more functional

Said Goodbye To:

-       All expired food (which wasn’t much as we try hard to have little waste)

The cleaned out refrigerator... so much empty space in there now!

 

Miscellaneous

-       Photographed 22 clothing items and listed them on Poshmark.  (Already sold a couple of them, too!)

-       Photographed and listed various other toys/books/home décor items on our local Facebook selling page.  (Already sold one of them, too!)

-       Made “homes” for my Christmas gifts and got them put away

 

And that’s it for now!  I’ll have more updates as I continue the process.  I’m hoping to have the whole house done in February or March, so I’ll do another update as soon as I have enough for another post!

Happy Wednesday, y’all!