So, are you DYING to know how my January purging went? January is my month to deep clean our Main Living Areas. With my new-found knowledge of only keeping things I love, this deep clean was much more thorough than usual. My main living areas for this month included: the entry way, the Music Room (which doubles as the home office), and the Family Room. Let’s review those areas in that order:
(I’m doing a PS before I write this, because I want to say that these are pictures of the way I WISH my house was decorated. I’m pretty sure everyone has a Pinterest board of their Dream House, so click on the images to find out who these amazingly decorated houses actually belong to! I have a great house, I just lack decision making skills to follow through on any type of decorating. So, we have an extremely clean and functional house that just needs the beautification process to take place. Someday…)
Entry Way:
Nothing really of note here since we don’t store much in the entry way. I just followed the checklist, rotated some plants since this area doesn’t get too much light. Nothing too exciting.
Music Room:
- Sorted through all piano books. We had some that were not super great, many duplicates in a level that we didn’t need. Whatever wasn’t needed was donated.
- Recycled sheet music. I majored in piano for awhile in college so I had duplicate copies of pieces that I worked on. Kept the originals, and got rid of the copies.
- Sorted through and purged all my old piano teaching supplies. Teaching piano to the general public again isn’t anywhere in the near future, so I kept games and supplies that I use the most while teaching my own kids.
Total: Recycled nearly 1 paper bag full of sheet music, game sheets, and other music papers I didn’t need as well as donated many music books we weren’t currently using.
Home Office:
(I figured I’d better make this a separate category since this is where the majority of my time was spent organizing this month. See how I tackled the paper clutter here.)
- Got all paperwork ready for taxes.
- Shredded all older documents.
- Shredded or recycled all unnecessary papers that we had been storing for no apparent reason.
- Revamped my filing system for bills.
- Revisited our budget and made new budget sheets.
- Updated kid files. Took pictures to document their latest artwork.
- Reorganized my desk to eliminate a paper clutter pile.
Total: Shredded 3 boxes worth of papers and still have an enormous stack that I am slowly working through. I recycled 2 other boxes full of papers as well.
Family Room:
- Donated all DVDs that we have not watched in forever, or that were never really favorites
- Donated all family games and puzzles that we have not played with in a long time or is not a favorite.
- Created designated spots for different areas of books: scriptures, library books, school library books.
The biggest change I have made this month is the decision to get rid of furniture that I don’t love. We have been so fortunate to be the recipients of many hand-me-down pieces of furniture over the years. These were great to serve a need in their time, but with this new perspective, I am ready to part with them. I have put these furniture items online to sell and then be able to purchase pieces that I truly love with the money that I make. I have sold enough things online to know that it is not a quick process. We will continue to use those items until they do sell, whether it be a few weeks or a few months. It has been really fun to look at and talk over plans for those replacement pieces with my husband.
Total: 1 bag of dvds and games donated. 2 pieces of furniture listed to sell online.
How Did I Do?
I would consider this month a great success! The KonMari method has totally changed the way that I deep cleaned this month. As the month progressed, I took special note of the items I was cleaning. In addition to asking myself if that item sparked joy, I simply thought: “If I had to box up my house and move, is this item put away correctly? Would I want to go through the effort of packing and unpacking this item?” Basically the same question as “Does this spark joy”, just worded differently.
Still need the printable checklist for January? Get the specific list here!
or the general list here:
I’m actually excited for next month already! We’ll be deep cleaning the Kitchen!
How did your cleaning/purging this month go?
