Declutter & Organize | New Year, New You
January is a month which lends itself to hibernation and setting goals for the new year. The winter months are also my favorite time to spend doing a sweep throughout our home to identify spaces I need to declutter and organize. Today I am going to share a few quick organizing projects I did around the house during our winter holiday break.
I think many of us are often intimidated with organizing a space due to concern for how much time it takes or barriers to letting go of things which no longer serve a purpose. Rather than tackling an entire room in one afternoon, I prefer to do small projects, more often, which leads to quick wins and motivation to keep up the work! None of these projects exceeded more than 30 minutes and all of them were satisfying changes which have improved daily efficiencies.
Bathroom Drawers
In my experience bathroom drawers can get messy (and fast!) if you don’t have a system to organize all the little items used on a daily basis. A bathroom drawer is also one of the easiest spaces you can organize and takes less than five minutes! I love the storage trays from Target and have these in all different sizes around the house.
Bathroom Drawers | Time Spent: 5 minutes
Little Stuff
The small storage trays are great for little items like chapsticks, hair ties or other small accessories. Our daughter has quite the collection of chapsticks and these are great to keep them tidy. I also use several of these in her hair drawer and it makes it easy to store those smaller items.
Daily Essentials
The medium storage trays work really well for makeup and everyday essentials. Two, side by side, fills the width of the drawer and keeps small items from shifting around. The trays clean up well and I wipe these out every few months to keep them looking fresh and new.
Beauty Tools
The long storage trays are great to store longer items such as makeup brushes. The length of these pair well with the large storage trays or two medium storage trays. In the bathroom I like to use the large size for keeping back stock items such as toothpaste or floss picks.
Coat Closet
The coat closet is right off of our front door and gets the most traffic during the winter. Taking a few minutes to refresh this space is a good investment of time. Living in the midwest, we experience all four seasons and having a variety of coats is essential to staying comfortable in all kinds of different weather.
Coat Closet | Time Spent: 15 Minutes
Coats
I like to organize coats by season and by warmth within the season to make it easy to find the right item. I group coats by member of the family so we can each easily find our own items. This process takes less than five minutes and improves efficiency during the winter months.
Winter Accessories
We keep our favorite winter gear in the mudroom. I use these two bins with handles on a shelf above the coats to hold our extra winter accessories such as extra gloves, hats and scarves which makes it easy to switch out as needed or when an item goes missing.
Extra Bags
I store our extra paper and recyclable bags in this closet. After the holidays I like to purge any extra paper bags brought home during the holiday shopping and limit storing extra bags to one large bag. I fold up and store various sizes within this bag, then I get rid of the rest!
Laundry Room Cabinet
This area works hard for us throughout the year and holds a variety of items. I recently refreshed the under the sink cabinet in this space with more functional storage and it has been a game changer. Since doing this quick update, each time I get in and out of this cabinet I thank myself for taking the time to do this quick project!
Laundry Room Cabinet | Time Spent: 30 minutes
Under the Sink Cabinet
A refresh in this space has been on my list for some time. I knew I needed storage to allow for height and when I was offered these drawers from a family member who no longer needed them, I quickly said yes! These were the perfect fit for the space and helped me maximize function in an important area of our home. I shared in this bathroom organization post another option for how to use storage bins to help increase efficiency and function in your daily routine. Under the sink cabinets can be tricky and finding the right item makes a big difference!
These stackable drawers worked great for storing a variety of miscellaneous items I had in this cabinet. The dividers makes it easy to create sections within the long drawer to maximize the space. On the left, the top drawer holds supplies I use weekly when watering my plants and the bottom drawer holds a back stock of kitchen trash bags and dust cloths. The middle section is shortened by the plumbing so I opted to store a roll of
paper towels and Clorox wipes to fill the space with an every day item. The storage drawers on the right hold a few of the cleaning items we use most often. I used the bottom drawer to store several longer cleaning tools which are awkward to store. Then I placed the divider in the front section to hold several magic erasers. Storing these out of the container makes it easier to access and takes up less space.
Final Thoughts
It’s a new year and a great opportunity to tackle a few house projects to encourage the new you which comes from a more relaxed and organized space. I find organizing most spaces around our house are low budget, quick projects which allows me to complete a refresh with a small investment of time.
If your goals for this year include organizing more spaces around your home, I encourage you to break this down into small steps and manageable projects. The power of taking less than 30 minutes and tackling a drawer or small closet can greatly improve your efficiency throughout the day.
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