2025 House Cleanout + Projects - Mid-February Update

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Every year in January, I start the process of cleaning out our entire house from top to bottom and I also focus on projects that need to be done around the house, big and small.  I also take some time at the beginning of each year to alleviate any pain points around the house.  Typically, I’m super motivated in January and I get a ton done, but this year I’ve had a slow start, so there’s not as much to report as I’d hoped.  I figured I’d go ahead and share a few things anyway, though!

My Office

Accomplishments:

-       Cleaned off all bookshelves

-       Rearranged a LOT of items on my bookshelves to optimize functionality, create space for new items, and declutter a bit

-       Made space for all of my self-development books and old devotionals… prior to this, they were piled in a corner on the bottom shelf, and they were literally spilling onto the floor

-       Added all of my old palms (from every Palm Sunday for most of my life) to a pretty container and displayed them on the same shelf with my devotionals

-       Found homes for a few other items I’ve been wanting to display

-       Installed acrylic shelves on my “boring” wall AKA the wall that had nothing on it except for my childhood painting.  It’s the wall that I put my Christmas tree on every year and it’s always so plain after I take the Christmas tree down.

-       Styled new acrylic shelves (with things that I already had on hand… eventually down the road I’d like to change a few things and add some more artwork to it)

-       Because of the acrylic shelves, I was able to move all of my guided journals off of my craft table to one of those shelves, which in turn, allowed me to make a permanent space for my pens/markers carousel on my craft table so I don’t have to grab it from the floor every day when I do my Bible study.

-       Since the pens/markers were moved from the floor, I was able to move my school laptop bag to the inside floor of the craft table, and it’s no longer blocking drawers on the backside.  It’s also now (mostly) hidden from sight.

 

Said Goodbye To:

-       Several old knick knacks

-       Pile of recycling

Bookshelf Before

Bookshelf Before - not enough room for all of them

Bookshelf After - I moved magazines to another place which opened up a new shelf for books

Bookshelf Before - too much clutter

Bookshelf After - more organized, less cluttered

"Boring wall" Before

Wall After

Craft Table Before - stuff all over the floor

Craft Table After - I love that my pens/markers are all right there on the table now

Primary Closet (Lindsay)

Accomplishments:

-       Cleaned out my entire closet

-       Freed up 33 hangers

Said Goodbye To:

-       26 tops

-       7 dresses

-       4 pairs of leggings

-       1 pair of shorts

-       1 pajama set

-       5 bags

-       1 pair of shoes

-       2 old shoeboxes

-       1 travel hairdryer (I had two for some reason)

-       Several other random items that I used to use for travel

Bye Bye Bye, old stuff!

 

Primary Bathroom

Accomplishments:

-       Found an affordable solution to store all of my bracelets that Olivia makes for me… before, I had them all piled in a small dish, and I couldn’t see them all.  This new bracelet holder keeps them all organized and in view so it’s easy to see which one I want to wear.

-       Purchased new bath mats after FIFTEEN YEARS of using our old ones.  The old ones were frayed and stained, and the rubber backing was dry-rotted, so it was loooong overdue.

 

Bracelets Before

Bracelets After 

Old Bathmats

New bathmats

Master Bedroom

Accomplishments:

-       Cleaned out my dresser

-       Cleaned out my side table

Said Goodbye To:

-       Several pairs of socks, swimsuits, bras, and old undies

-       Paperwork for some old prescriptions (I keep them in my nightstand)

 

Playroom

Accomplishments:

-       Cleaned out the entire room from top to bottom (all bins, all shelves, all corners, all surfaces, under the couch, etc.)

 

Said Goodbye To:

-       An entire bag of toys that will be donated

-       An entire bag of trash

-       An entire bag of recycling

Playroom Before

Playroom After

Donations/trash/recycling from the playroom and my closet

Kitchen

Accomplishments:

-       Got a new dishwasher after 15 years with our current one.  It had stopped draining properly weeks prior to our purchase of the new one, and poor Brian had to manually suction the water out of the bottom each day.  (There was no permanent fix for it.)  The new one is so sleek, though!  It made the kitchen look great!  And it also has a third level – a shallow tray at the very top for long utensils.  I love it!

-       Installed a new light fixture in the area where we come in from the garage.  We intended to change those factory lights shortly after moving in 15 years ago since they were so ugly, but we never did it.

-       Cleaned out and reorganized the refrigerator

-       Cleaned out and reorganized the freezer

-       Cleaned out and reorganized the pantry

-       Cleaned out and reorganized Maui’s cabinet full of stuff

-       Cleaned out and reorganized the cabinet under the kitchen sink

 

Said Goodbye To:

-       All expired food (which wasn’t much)

-       A couple of old cleaning products that were mostly gone and are ones that I don’t use anymore

-       Restocked the “junk drawer” with brand new Sharpies, pens, and pencils

-       Bought new dry erase pens for our dry erase board that Olivia loves to use since ours were dried out

Old dishwasher

New dishwasher

Old light fixture

New Light Fixture

Pantry Before

Pantry After

Refrigerator Before

Refrigerator After

Under the sink After (forgot to take a Before pic)

And that’s it for now!  I’m hoping to ramp things up after Brian’s and Olivia’s birthdays are over.  February is pretty busy for me since I have to plan so many events.  March *should* be a little more low-key and I *should* have a little more time + a little more motivation, I hope? 

Happy Monday, y’all!