- Jackie O
- Feb 18, 2023
- 12 min read
Happy New Year! 2023 is here along with all the goals and excitement a new year brings for a fresh start. I made a promise to myself to start this year with a clean and decluttered home. I made a second promise to spend more time on a Wild Moss Home.
To tackle my goals I shared a 31 day organizing challenge on @wildmosshome. Below is a roundup of those 31 ideas to help you declutter and reset your home.
Day ONE | Wallet
Clean out your wallet from old receipts to membership cards you probably don't need - your wallet is a quick item to declutter today. If you have extra time, cancel any memberships that won't support your goals in the new year.
Day TWO | Your Bags
Most of us have a bag we grab when we leave the house - a purse, briefcase, gym bag, diaper bag, etc. Whatever your go-to bags are, let's tackle them today. Personally, I have a purse, diaper bag, and swim bag. How many bags are in your rotation?
Cleaning out your go-to bags and totes is easy and sets you up for success all week. Empty out all the contents, sort by what you need in your bag, what needs to be put away in your home, and trash. Restock missing items and wipe down any wipeable contents for a clean feel. Be sure to immediately put away any items you pull out of your bags.
Day THREE | Silverware Drawer
Mornings can be busy, especially if you have more than yourself to account for when getting ready. While my kiddos eat breakfast I like to unload the dishwasher and meal prep. Does anyone else tackle kitchen chores in the morning? Of course, this is only possible with coffee!
Take a few minutes today to sort through and declutter your silverware drawer. I've found large silverware drawers can easily become a kitchen utensil junk drawer and miscellaneous kitchen items collect in this space. This week, I downsized my silverware drawer to the essentials and moved my forks, knives, and spoons to a drawer closer to the dishwasher. Simple and minimal is best.
Day FOUR | Glassware
How many cups, wine glasses, mugs, etc. do you own? If your cabinets are overflowing or your glasses are collecting dust, it might be time to purge a few glasses.
To take inventory of what you really own, pull all your glassware out of the cabinet and group items with like glasses. Seeing your entire inventory in one place will help you understand how much you have and you can evaluate what you really need based on the number of people in your home and how often you entertain.
Day FIVE | Open Shelves
How quickly do the open shelves or surface spaces in your home become cluttered? Visual clutter is taxing on our mental energy without even knowing the toll it takes on our minds and bodies. Clearing open shelves and your surface spaces will bring new energy to your home and elevate stress.
Clear off your open shelves, wipe them down, and add back the basics. If you don't have open shelving in your home, tackle your counter spaces. The excess items should be moved to a new location in your home or donated. Keep only what you need or enjoy seeing on your shelves and countertops.
Day SIX | Spices
Keeping your kitchen clean and organized makes all the difference when it's time to cook a meal. The same goes for your spices. Organizing your spices is a quick task. Empty your drawer or rack, toss expired spices, and wipe down your drawer or rack before you put your spice jars back in alphabetical order. Your jars do not have to match to have an organized system.
Day SEVEN | Medicine & First Aid
Keeping your medicine cabinet and first aid supplies stocked and up-to-date with relevant and age appropriate items helps you stay prepared when you need to be. With two little ones in my house, I like to keep medicine for under two years, toddlers, and adults separate.
The medicine cabinet can quickly become a hodgepodge of leftover medicines from past colds, old prescriptions, and miscellaneous first aid supplies. Clear out your cabinet or shelves and dispose of expired medicines and old prescriptions. Make a list of any items you may need to replace or restock soon for your shopping list. For information about how to properly dispose of medicine, visit FDA.gov.
Day EIGHT | Hanging Clothes
Tackling a closet can be an overwhelming and time consuming task. Where do you even begin? I don't believe it has to happen all in one day. Pick a focus in your closet and start there. Today I am working on hanging clothes.
Pull out and group any miscellaneous hangers, hanging them to one end of your closet so they are easy to access when you need them. Next take out all the clothes in your closet grouping them into categories that work for you (clothing type, color, work, casual, etc.). The best system is the system that works for you!
Donate or sell clothes you no longer wear, may not fit well, or you have never worn. You don't need the perfect occasion to wear the clothes you own, so if you're waiting for that moment, either make it happen or move on from those clothes because they are taking up space in your home. Lastly, consider matching hangers if you don't already have them - a cohesive look makes all the difference!
Give order to your hanging clothes
Day NINE | Accessories
Moving on through the closet today with an easy task for your Monday - accessories. Hats, gloves, and scarves are wonderful if you need and use them, but if they are collecting dust and taking up space in your closet or drawers, consider moving on from those pieces.
Gather all of your hats, scarves, and gloves and sort them by season. If you live somewhere with seasons, or own winter accessories for traveling to the snow, consider creating a winter storage bin you can store in another area of your home or under your bed. If you love, but don't wear a few pieces, try incorporating them into your wardrobe this week - if you don't wear your hats, gloves, or scarves why are they taking up space in your home?
Day TEN | 5 Items to Declutter
Five easy items to declutter from your home. If these things are in your home, chances are they are taking up space and can be tossed out or donated:
Old catalogs or magazines
Extra water bottles
Books you've read or don't plan to read
Old or extra cell phones
Pens that no longer work
How many of these items are in your home? I found 1, 3 & 5!
Day ELEVEN | Wine
Combining two of my favorite things - wine and organizing! Last month, I collaborated with my dear friend @ali_q_anderson from Scout & Cellar to share a Q&A about wine and information about organizing wine items on the blog, you can read the post here.
Day TWELVE | Towels
There are certain items that seem to add up in the house and for me, it's towels, specifically beach, and hand towels.
Auditing and organizing the towels in your home should be a quick and simple task. If you have more than you need, tossing old or worn out towels will give you more space in your cabinet or closet. When organizing a specific item, it's always best to pull out all of your inventory to sort through and see what you're working with and how much you really own. You may be surprised by how many towels you have in your house when you see them all together. If you have more towels than you need, connect with the local animal shelter to see if they need towels.
Day THIRTEEN | Nightstand
Before you go to sleep tonight, take a moment to clear off your nightstand, organize your drawers and if you have time, set your intentions/create a to-do list. Your bedroom and the space around your bed can impact how you feel when you go to sleep and wake up. Keep this minimal and remove anything that could contribute to your stress like bills.
Day FOURTEEN | Pantry
Whether your pantry is a large walk-in space, or a few shelves in your kitchen keeping your items organized will help with meal planning and cooking. Keep this project simple, check your items for expired food, and group similar items or products together. Organizing tools like lazy Susans, baskets, or bins can help, but they're not necessary to maintain an organized pantry.
Day FIFTEEN | Refrigerator
Tackle your refrigerator one section or shelf at a time. Empty everything out, sort through your items for expired food, and wipe down your shelves and containers.
Organizing Tip: Designate an area or a bin for food that is ready to eat, so leftovers don't go to waste.
Grocery List Tip: Use an app like Out Of Milk for creating a shopping list for each of your grocery stores (Trader Joe's, Costco, etc.). You can share this list with other people in your family who may help with shipping.
Day SIXTEEN | Paper Clutter
We are moving through this 31 day organizing challenge with an opportunity to set new intentions and purpose for the things we keep in our home. As small and as harmless as it may seem, paper clutter adds up, and typically in more than one place creating multiple clutter zones.
Make note of all the places you may store paper clutter (mail, unpaid bills, cards, etc.). Do you have one location for these items? If you need to do something with these items, do you store them in a place that gives you an opportunity to be successful and complete that next task?
Create one drop zone, go paperless if you can, make time to pay bills, sign up for that class, unsubscribe from that catalog, and clear that paper clutter.
Day SEVENTEEN | Bottoms
Cleaning and organizing your closet can be daunting, even overwhelming. For that reason, I've broken up this project throughout the challenge. Today we are going to focus on bottoms - pants, shorts, skirts, etc.
Pull all of your bottoms out of the closet - pants, shorts, skirts, workout pants, sweatpants, dress pants, etc. Sort your items by type/use and immediately toss any clothes that are damaged or you don't love in a bag to donate or sell.
If you don't love an item consider why - doesn't it fit, is it for a specific occasion, is it out of style? Also consider how many items you have in each category, for example, do you need 12 pairs of sweatpants?
Fold or hang your items to return to your closet or dresser. You're now one step closer to a completely organized closet!
Day EIGHTEEN | Email
How do you honestly feel when you look at your email? Do you have months of emails piling up? Are you receiving more than you want or care to look at in a day? Take the rest of the week to tackle your inbox!
Unsubscribe from any company email that does not serve a purpose or joy. Create folders for bills and bank emails, save photos in the cloud, and delete, delete, delete. Digital clutter can impact you just as much as physical clutter. Do yourself a favor, clean out your inbox and be mindful about who can have access to email you.
Day NINETEEN | Pajamas
Empty your drawer, cubby, or space where you store your pajamas and ask yourself these questions: If you have pajama sets, do you have all the matches? Do you wear them all? Do you have more than you need? Are your pieces in good condition? Do you enjoy wearing or sleeping in them?
I like to bundle my sets so they are easy to grab out of the drawer. I fold my kiddo pajamas so they are harder to make a mess of when they sort through drawers or my piles of folded laundry!
Day TWENTY | Toys or Hobby Projects
Pick a focus that takes up space in your home whether it's toys from kids, craft supplies or camera equipment for photography. It will be up to you to determine what could use the most attention. Sort through what you have and determine what is in good condition and what is actually used in your home. Do you have an opportunity to donate or sell any of these items?
Consider how you are storing them now. Does your current system work? Today I'm organizing toys. I like to keep similar items contained like the Legos in this photo. Bins with lids are great for stacking and optimizing your space.
Day TWENTY ONE | Under the Kitchen Sink
Empty out all the items under your kitchen sink. Toss any cleaning supplies, rags, or items you no longer use. Wipe down your cabinet, and group your cleaning supplies by use. Containers with drawers are helpful if you have smaller items to store under your sink.
Day TWENTY TWO | Laundry Room
Take a few minutes today to organize, restock and refresh your laundry room. How much attention do you really give your laundry room? Take today to clear off your shelves, empty your cabinet, wipe things down and make sure your space is stocked with the supplies you need. Fold any laundry that is piling up in this space, and clean out any items that do not belong.
Day TWENTY THREE | Underwear & Socks
When was the last time you cleaned out your shock and underwear drawer? Cleaning out your sock and underwear drawer(s) is a simple and easy task. Empty out your drawers, and discard any damaged pieces or items that never make your rotation. There's no point in storing what you don't wear.
When it comes to kids', items, I don't bother folding underwear or socks because they are often tossed out of the drawer. For adult underwear and socks, my preference is to fold and stack these items in a drawer to maximize my space and easily see my options.
Day TWENTY FOUR | Watches, Glasses & Jewelry
Whether you have your favorite, watch, sunglasses or jewelry, or you mix up what you wear daily, chances are you have a few pieces in your collection that never see the light of day. So unless these items are sentimental, why store watches, sunglasses, or jewelry you never wear?
Focus on one group of items at a time, for example, watches. Gather all of your items to evaluate which pieces you love and wear. If you don't wear a watch and it has no sentimental value, donate or sell the watch. If you have a collection of watches, consider storing them in a watch case. Follow the same practice as above to sort through sunglasses, reading glasses, and jewelry.
Day TWENTY FIVE | Blankets & Linens
Blankets and linens can pile up in your home. To really assess what you own, gather all of your blankets in one location. Determine which blankets are used, loved, and important to you. All other blankets can be donated or dropped off at a shelter. Do the same with your linens. Keep in mind your dedicated storage space for your blankets and linens when assessing what to keep or donate if needed.
Roll or fold your blankets and my personal preference for linens is to fold an entire set (fitted sheet, flat sheet, and pillowcases) in a bundle.
Day TWENTY SIX | Tupperware
Tupperware and storage containers for leftovers can be tricky items to store in a cabinet or a drawer. To organize your Tupperware, pull all the items out to double check you have matching containers and lids. Donate toss any items that do not make a set, or do not serve an additional purpose. I for example do not mind having a few extra lids.
Consider how many containers you own versus how often you use your containers. My organizing preference is to stack containers with similar shapes and sizes and place all lids in a container I can easily pull out of the cabinet.
Day TWENTY SEVEN | Cooking Utensils
Cooking utensils like spatulas, spoons, and tongs can seem to multiply over time. Whether you store your items in a drawer or a container on your counter, it's worth auditing your collection. If you have items you never use or multiples, consider donating those extra items to create a collection of cooking utensils you actually use.
Day TWENTY EIGHT | Baking Dishes
Casserole dishes, pans, pie dishes, and cupcake trays are bulky and sometimes heavy items in your cabinets. To organize these items, first determine how often you use these pieces as they can each have a unique purpose. You may want to consider an adjustable storage container to store your baking dishes and pans. The vertical storage shows you at a glance what you have and makes grabbing a dish out of the cabinet a breeze!
Day TWENTY NINE | Bathroom Drawers
Cleaning out and organizing your bathroom drawers should be a quick and rather easy task. Empty your drawers, wipe them down, sort through the items and products, tossing any expired/old items. Group your items by use and arrange them in your drawers using containers or drawer dividers to keep your items neat and organized.
Day THIRTY | Jackets & Coats
Jackets and coats can take up a good portion of your closet, especially if you have a collection of winter coats. If you're limited on space or prefer a minimal approach, consider having a seasonal rotation available in your closet and storing your remaining jackets. Most people have a limited selection of clothes they actually wear. If you find you're not wearing everything you own, consider donating some coats.
Day THIRTY ONE | Entryway
One of the most important spaces to declutter and organize is your entryway. It's the first space you, your family, and your guests see when they enter your home. Declutter this space, designate drop zones for keys, bags, sunglasses, etc., and remove any items that do not serve you or your guests when entering your home.
CHALLENGE COMPLETE!
31 days and 31 organizing challenges! Whether you completed 1 or 31 projects, I hope the spaces you did tackle feel great and you are maintaining organized spaces. The best solutions are the organizing systems that work best for you, and I always believe less is more. If your home is filled with more than you and your family need, you will be on an endless journey to clean and organize your home.
