The new year is a great chance for a fresh start – a time to reflect and move forward. It’s a great opportunity to set new resolutions and goals for ourselves. And it is a wonderful time to declutter!
January is an ideal time to cleanse from the holiday season and dive into our new year’s resolutions, so it is important to recognize the value of prioritizing, refreshing, and streamlining our spaces during this time. An organized and decluttered home can greatly impact your well-being and motivation.
1.) STRAIGHTEN UP AND RESET YOUR CLOSETS
Sort through your closet and dresser drawers and get rid of anything you really aren’t going to wear again. Nicky likes to work in three piles when discarding items – Keep, Donate, or Throw Away (only throwaway if it cannot be salvaged for any good purpose). Consider how often you wear each item in your closet. Are they adding value to your wardrobe? If not, they’re just getting in the way, or even worse making you feel bad about yourself, and should probably be rehomed. Another rule of thumb for Nicky is that if you haven’t worn it the prior season then it should be donated. Start with your tops. Go through every piece in each category. Bring out every top that you own and separate them. Make sure you’ve got everything and check the spare room closets and the laundry room. Then, put all tops you want to keep back on hangers or folded on shelves in your closet or drawers. Then start with the next category and repeat the process above. When it comes to your shoes, if you have shoes you never wear, shoes that are falling apart, or shoes that hurt your feet, do yourself a favor and start the year off by decluttering them. Improperly fitting shoes can cause problems and pain in your feet. No matter how cute the shoe is, it’s not worth it. Clear that space up in your closet. Your feet will thank you. The key here is to remember that the less you have, the easier it is to function in spaces and the easier it is to maintain its neatness. If it is not serving you right now, remove it.
2.) DEEP DIVE INTO THE KITCHEN
The kitchen is always a good place to tackle when decluttering. Things get shuffled around, shoved to the back, and pushed out of sight and out of mind that need to be dusted off and brought forward. Check your expiration dates and get rid of anything past its prime – FYI spices, soups, and canned goods do eventually expire. We all have a junk drawer in our kitchen overflowing with “junk”. Keep it simple, and only keep the essentials. Nicky recommends adding a simple system like drawer dividers to designate spaces for certain categories, this will decrease the likelihood of the drawer being a “junk” draw again. Common items in an essentials drawer can include tape, scissors, a flashlight, loose change and gift or membership cards, the extra garage clicker or keys, pens, sticky notes, and coupons. Next should be the refrigerator. Declutter anything that is past its date or smells or looks bad. Once you have gotten the gross stuff out, wipe down the shelves with a cleaner. Then you can happily open your fridge without cringing. Counters are often a magnet for random household junk. They attract the items waiting to be put away and dealt with. All those dumped items take away from your counter space making it more difficult to cook. It doesn’t take too much time and greatly impacts the look, feel, and function of your space. Another area that needs to declutter is the glass/cup cabinet. We have all collected different cups and glasses throughout the year, along with those endless tchotchkes of water bottles – only to find ourselves with a too-full cupboard and nowhere to store the overflow. Don’t just throw away the ones you don’t need – you can donate any unwanted glasses, cups, or bottles to a local organization in need.
3.) STRAIGHTEN UP AROUND AND UNDER YOUR BATHROOM SINK
Like spices, prescriptions don’t last forever. Every medicine out there has an expiration date, even the over-the-counter stuff you keep around to fight off a cold. It’s a good idea to declutter your medicine cabinet and check those expiration dates a few times a year, but if you haven’t done it in a while, it’s a good spot to declutter for the new year (make sure to check for appropriate ways to
dispose of expired medicine). And yes, even makeup and toiletries, such as lotion, have a shelf life. Next, sort through your duplicates – Do you really need four tubes of lip balm or six bottles of eyedrops? Just asking. Toss any that are old and gunky. Once you’ve gotten rid of all the expired and ‘won’t use’ items, see if there is anything left that doesn’t belong in the medicine cabinet. If those extra items actually belong in the bathroom, put them in the appropriate pile or place. For items that don’t belong in the bathroom, place them in the storage basket to be moved when you’re finished with the bathroom. Combine any partially empty products that you still use. Next, If you’re lucky enough to have a linen closet in your bathroom it probably holds a lot more than just linens. They often act as more of a storage closet than a linen closet which means they accumulate a lot of stuff. Go through your actual linens first. Throw out any tattered or stained washcloths, hand towels, and towels. Go through your bed linens and get rid of any sheets that are tattered, torn, or stained. Even if items are not spoiled, you are likely to find products that you bought that you never use and probably need to just donate to a friend or neighborhood shelter. And also donate that stash of
toothbrushes from the dentist that you’ve been collecting for the last several years.
4.) FAMILY ROOM, PLAYROOM, MEDIA, OFFICE, OR WHATEVER YOU CALL THAT NOOK OF A ROOM
The school winter break is a good time to review collected artwork and school papers from the fall (and summer) and choose a small number of special pieces to save in a portfolio or document box. Next are toys, sort through all toys and games, and get rid of those your family no longer enjoys, as well as anything with missing key pieces. Now that the holidays are over, get ready to clear out your crafting and gift-wrapping stash and organize supplies. Clean out gift-wrapping supplies, tossing empty tape dispensers, out-of-ink pens, and shreds of gift wrap and ribbon. Downsize your craft stash by donating spare fabric scraps, yarn,
scrapbooking paper, and other materials — many organizations (schools, retirement centers, and the like) are happy to accept donations of craft supplies. Keep items in progress together in bags, bins, or boxes. This time of the year is also a great time to get a jump-start on tax time by getting your files (paper and digital) and getting your home office in order. Sort through random stacks of paper; file, shred or recycle everything. Switch to paperless bills and statements if possible. Clean out computer files and back up everything, using cloud-based storage and an external drive. One more thing you should declutter for the new year – is your desk drawer! This is especially true if you are working from home. Between all the pens, pencils, binder clips, paper clips, extra staples, rubber bands, thumbtacks, and other random odds and ends that find their way in here, it can be difficult to keep everything organized. Nicky also believes in investing in a desk drawer organizer to keep the stuff you’re going to keep neatly separated and easy to find.
5.) ACCESSORY JEWELRY – SAVING THAT ONE EARRING FOR WHAT?
You know the old adage less is more? That statement has never been more relevant than when talking about your accessories collection. Stocking up on tons of necklaces or earrings may seem like a good idea at first but storing them ultimately results in a tangled mess of necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. Instead of going for the first shiny thing you see, consider selecting a few key pieces to create a small but functional stash. And yes, if you’ve been missing that second earring for three months, you’re probably never going to find it so toss or donate the single earring!
6.) SUBSCRIPTIONS, SAVE SOME MONEY!
One thing you should declutter for the new year that most people don’t consider – is subscriptions! You can subscribe to virtually anything nowadays, from audio and video streaming services to meal delivery programs, and shaving kits, you can get pretty much anything with a recurring payment. And since those recurring payments are out of sight and out of mind, we don’t think about them too often. Take advantage of the new year as a time to review your subscriptions and unsubscribe from any you no longer need. You’ll eliminate clutter and save some money!
7.) THE NEVER-ENDING EMAIL BOX
Digital clutter is absolutely a thing – and it can be harder to manage than physical clutter. If you’re one of those people whose unread emails are in the thousands, you certainly aren’t alone. But you can take some steps to reduce your digital clutter. It will keep things a little more manageable, making it easier to find what you need and skip over the stuff that you don’t. You might be amazed to see just how much of an impact a quick ‘unsubscribe’ session can make. Also, a quick way to declutter your email inbox is to move last year’s messages into a separate folder. Whilst you are doing this, delete any irrelevant or unwanted emails, and archive the ones you may need in the future. Create specific folders for the different categories you need. For example, you can create folders for certain senders or topics. Using labels also helps you to quickly identify messages that are most important or ones you are saving for later. Create a folder for VIP emails. When you are checking your mail, you can sort through this folder first to get it out of the way. Also, you would rather not miss incoming messages from someone or something important. This is a wonderful way to email declutter.
8.) CORDS AND CABLES
Everyone has one: a random spot where miscellaneous cords and cables are hidden. We keep them around – sometimes without even knowing what they’re even for – on the off-chance, something breaks, and you just happen to have the right one to swap it with. That’s a whole lot of stuff to hold on to for a just-in-case scenario that doesn’t play out too often. Sort through all of those cords and cables – and let go of the ones you don’t need to keep.
9.) SCHEDULE AND MAKE TIME FOR WHAT MATTERS
A new year is a great time to re-evaluate your commitments. See where your schedule reflects your values and where it does not and unaccept those that don’t (the scheduler will be ok with you saying unable to attend) Take the opportunity now to declutter your schedule and create boundaries with your time. Time management isn’t just about squeezing in as much work as humanly possible into your schedule or completely clearing it so you can do absolutely nothing. It’s also about making room for the non-work things you love and those that allow you to recharge.
10.) FINALLY, YOUR UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS
Whether the unrealistic expectations you’ve been holding onto have been of yourself or others, the new year is an opportunity to let those go as well. Go easy on yourself and be willing to forgive others. That is not to say allow toxic relationships in your life. However, sometimes our unrealistic expectations of others negatively impact relationships that could otherwise be healthy and good. Remind yourself that no one is perfect and that your best is good enough. It will not always be easy, but it’s a worthwhile pursuit.
