Making Space in January Results

January sure went by fast even though it ended in a few long days spent trapped at home due to inclement weather. Because a new month has started, I’d better update you on my progress and results from my 30 Day Challenge this month.

My inspiration came from a blog post I was reading by Mliae at Life Experiment Blog where she challenged her readers to get rid of one thing a day which means 31 less things taking up space. I did this challenge back in February 2017. It’s a though one, and one worth repeating.

On top of this, I also binge watched the Netflix series Tidying Up staring Marie Kondo. Some of her methods certainly helped me organize. My take aways were about how to fold clothes and the benefit of using small boxes. As for the purging part of getting rid of one item a day, her method of finding what “sparks joy” worked wonders.

Because my focus was on a more organized, less cluttered home, I approached the month with excitement and started fullsteam ahead in the master closet. After moving this summer, I didn’t realize how much stuff I just shoved in random places.

My areas of focus were goals I made which I broke down into sections. I’ve included my process of what worked for me.

Goal 1 – Clothing

1. I started by lightening the load of clothes and organizing how they are stored. I went section by section of my hanging rack getting rid of clothes that were too worn, outdated, or no longer loved. And continued the same process in my drawers.
2. Then, I grouped like items and colors together.
3. I did the Marie Kondo method of folding. This made it easy for me to see all of my items at once instead of having them piled on top of one another.
4. I donated my discarded items.
5. Last on my list is a few garments I love and need to mend. That I will complete sometime this week.

Tip— Grab shoe bins like these to divide drawer space (ad).

Goal 2 – Toys

1. Tackling the kids toys is tough with the kids around. My oldest wants to keep everything! I started with getting rid of broken, unused, and out grown items. Anything outgrown was donated.
2. We found spaces that gave the items purpose and easy use. Many were grouped together and up into bins that could easily be pulled out and put back.

Tip–Take advantage of under the bed space. We store barbies in long under the bed bins like these or these (ad).

Goal 3 – Miscellaneous/Junk Drawers

1. Clearing out misplaced items, grouping similar items. and throwing out things that were unnecessary was my process for my junk drawers. This process helped me to see how much extra things–like paper clips–I had and didn’t need. I was so proud when I was done; I could actually shut the drawer without it sticking.

Goal 4 – Create space for art supplies

1. Our family values being creative and having multiple avenues for that creativity, but that “stuff” sure does take up space. I started by picking a place I wanted to keep the supplies.
2. I emptied the entire space and found some containers.
3. Again, I grouped items into like categories–paint with paint, markers with markers, paper with paper, etc. Each had its own bin.
4. My final step will be to label each bin to make it easy to find the items at a quick glance.

This space has no purpose before. With the help of some bins I already had in the basement, I made a place for each of our art supplies.

Overall, I was able to get each of these spaces–minus a second overflow drawer, completed in the month. My husband made two car trips to Goodwill for donations. In the end, I’d say it was a super successful month!

To read about why I started the 30 Day Challenges, checkout my original blog post. This post is also a nice one listing all the challenge I attempted and completed thus far.

Thanks for stopping by today to checkout the results of my January Challenge. Did anyone else get into the tidying frenzy this month? I’d love to hear from you especially things that worked well throughout the process.

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Feel free to like, comment, and share. Hooray for a cleaner, more organized, less cluttered new year. -365DaysofNew