Daily Five Tidy Up(date)

“Hey Hannah, how’d your January Challenge go?”

Meh, thanks for asking.

If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, see my previous post on my January Challenge: Daily Five Tidy Up.

Here’s the honest truth: I started out strong. My first few days went great, but once I had all the Christmas decorations put away and I had found a home for my Christmas gifts, I really lost the motivation to continue. Also the month got busy, the weather got strange, and I didn’t really know where to start.

Here’s a few end of the month pictures so you get an idea of what I accomplished.

Entryway

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This area was a MESS after Christmas. But just a few quick minutes of deciding which boxes to keep and which to recycle, I had this area looking spick and span. I also cleaned out that drawer, which was FULL of plastic bags. I got rid of at least two dozen bags, organized the rest, and then used the newly opened space in the drawer to hold the cat’s food and treats. I am now on the hunt for a really cute basket to hold my winter stuff. This ledge is the perfect place to throw gloves and hats when I come into the house, but I need something to throw them into. You know?

Kitchen

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Kitchens should be called Catchalls, because that’s what they seem to do. I spend so much time in my kitchen, yet it is always a mess. As you can see I was able to clean up the crazy amount of stuff on the floor, but the table has once again turned into a landing place for random junk like cereal boxes and a puzzle that was finished weeks ago. And though I took out the recycling not once, but TWICE this month, there always seems to be more cardboard accumulating in that corner. HOW????

Living Room

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Now my Living Room looks pretty tidy, and I’ve been able to keep it this way for the most part. I’m often found moving the pillows around, folding blankets, and picking up cat toys, but that’s okay. This space has remained clutter free, yet not quite as festive as it did at the beginning of January. Do you ever miss your Christmas tree? Its one of my favorite little charms of Christmas. Man, I wish it was acceptable to have a year-round Christmas tree.

Desk

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I spent the good chunk of a Saturday afternoon working in this corner; organizing, tidying, and finding new places for my craft supplies. It’s looking a lot better and I feel much more organized, but I could stand to spend another afternoon working here.

Dresser/Closet

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Here is one area I really did make progress in: my clothes! I used the KonMari folding technique to get my dresser in order and boy is it looking nice (ignore the empty spot in that one drawer, that’s where my leggings go, but I wear leggings so often, they don’t spend much time in the actual drawer). I forgot to take a before picture of my closet, but just take my word for it, it wasn’t pretty. Now everything is actually on a hanger, dresses are with dresses, sweaters are with sweaters, and everything is right in the world again. But the biggest accomplishment: I got rid of a whole ThirtyOne Medium Utility Tote worth of clothes! (Silly me forgot to count how many items it was, even though that was the whole point of this challenge.)

Learned Lessons

This is totally something I would challenge myself to do again. At the beginning the “five things” were not hard to find. But as I continued, I kinda forgot about the five things and was just focused on getting spaces tidier. If I had stuck to the mindset of “I am cleaning up the area so I can find five things to get rid of,” I think the whole challenge would have been much more successful. And so, maybe I will try it again under the guise of “spring cleaning” in like April…or May… or whenever Spring finally comes. Once I get motivated, cleaning can become a real charm. What’s your view of cleaning? Is it a little charm, or a huge chore? Tell me about it in the comments below.