January | Start the year with a clean slate.
Each month I’ll have a new challenge for you (and me!) to participate in. The goal for these challenges is to knock out some simple, straightforward tasks. Ideally, they’ll only take ONE day out of the month to complete. Ready to get started?
January is all about starting the year with a clean slate. This month, we’re going to knock out 5 things that will help us pave the way for a tidier, more minimal YOU in the coming year.
Watch the video first, or scroll down to read about each part of this month’s challenge.
PART 1
MESSY MINIMALIST JANUARY CHALLENGE
REVERSE YOUR HANGERS
Alright, first things first! We’re going to start out easy. Go into you’re closet and reverse ALL of your hangers so they hook on the opposite way. Each time you use an item, replace it back in the closet with the hanger facing the correct way. The idea here: After 6 months, we’ll know what clothes you didn’t wear! If you haven’t had the guts to let them go before, this should be the kick we need to let go of anything we don’t wear.
PART 2
MESSY MINIMALIST JANUARY CHALLENGE
TOSS "SOLO SOCKS"
“Solo Socks” are the socks that have been floating around your house without a mate. If you’re the type of person to wear mismatched socks, (I admit, I do this on occasion if I’m in a pinch!), then you can skip this step. But for me, having a drawer or container filled with mateless socks is just another thing to worry about!
So cycle your laundry a few times and match up ALL of your socks as best as you can. ANY socks that are left without a mate should be TOSSED! You might be surprised how many you find…I counted over 30 mismatched socks in our house. Yikes!
PART 3
MESSY MINIMALIST JANUARY CHALLENGE
WHAT'S THAT IN YOUR TUB?
As motel owners, you’d think we’d be really picky about the cleanliness of our own bathroom, but the truth is, we don’t clean out our own tub/shower nearly as often as we should! Yet, we notice the dirt and grime building up in it. Isn’t a shower supposed to make you feel CLEAN?!
So for this part of the challenge, get in the tub or shower and really scrub those corners. Do you see any spots that are black or brown where they should be white? Target those! If necessary, caulk the sides to prevent further water damage. Then take a good look at your soaps and shampoos (or anything else that might be hanging out in there). If you have anything in there that you don’t use, pitch it!
PART 4
MESSY MINIMALIST JANUARY CHALLENGE
STASH HOLIDAY DECOR
Hopefully by now, you’ve already put away your holiday decor, BUT if you’re like me, you might still have a few pieces lingering. Some holiday cards here, a string of lights there… or maybe you have everything put away in boxes, but those boxes are sitting in your hallway?
If you have anything left out from the holidays, pack those puppies up! Before you store them away, I recommend looking at any other holiday decorations you didn’t put out this year. If any decorations didn’t make the cut this year, do you really think they will be more appealing NEXT year? Probably not. Best to donate them now so you don’t have to store them for a whole year. 😉
PART 5
MESSY MINIMALIST JANUARY CHALLENGE
YOUR LINEN CLOSET
I just did a blog post on this topic, but sheets (and towels) seem to have accumulated in a big way in our house! Over the years we’d get a set or two as a gift, then we might buy one because it was on sale, and don’t forget about the ones that were just “too cute to pass up”. Before we knew it, we had more than 10 sets clogging up our linen closet.
So for this final part of our challenge, I’m asking you all to dig through your linen closet and really ask yourself, “How many sheets do we need?”. For us, the answer was simple – two sets. One on the bed, one off. Your number might be different, and that’s OKAY! But unless you have gigantic closets to store extra sheets, less is probably the way to go.
The same goes for towels! We have found that between having kids, dogs, and a messy aquarium, we go through towels quite often. So our number of towels on hand is a little higher. We’ve got 8. But the real task here isn’t just to reduce the number of towels on hand, it’s to find the ones that are fraying or stained and either cleaning those up, or literally RIPPING them apart. The ripped towels are PERFECT to use for rags.
(And if you want to do these a little out of order, you can use your new rags for when you tackle your shower/tub clean out!).