My First Unflattering Task of The Year
If you have been here awhile, you know I’m always decluttering and reorganizing. First, I’d like to make it clear that in no way is my home perfectly organized and pristine all the time. Let’s be real here, I am a working mom of 3 young kids who loves to drag their tiny pieces of Legos all over the house. And no matter how many times I remind them to eat over the plate, it NEVER sticks!
I’ve always been that person who is easily impacted by clutter. Visual clutter often results in mental clutter for me. I find myself easily feeling overwhelmed and not as productive when things are out of order, so it’s important to me that everything has a place.
Decluttering Your Email Inbox
However, the first thing I decluttered in 2022, was actually NOT a space in my home but my email inbox. Digital clutter has definitely been adding stress to my life, from the photos on my phone to documents on my laptop. My personal inbox was a hot mess! I was getting so many retail and spam emails that I was losing track of emails from the kids’ teachers and other parents.
So, on January 2, I set my phone alarm to 30 minutes, got comfortable on my parent’s couch and went through my inbox. Any email that I no longer wanted to receive, I would scroll to the bottom of that email and looked for the unsubscribe button and follow the steps required. Honestly, within 20 minutes, I started coming across the same brands over and over so I just deleted the emails. You only have to unsubscribe once. Most companies specify that it will take a few days for your unsubscription to be finalized. It’s been a few days now and OMG, my inbox is so much more manageable now. I also make a point to unsubscribe to any new email coming from brands I don’t recall seeing on the 2nd. I am no longer sifting through email after email trying to decipher whether it is important or not. So, if you are like me and find that you’re struggling to stay on top of your inbox, I would highly suggest you set that timer, put your head down and go at it with the unsubscribe button. Just make sure you’re not unsubcribing to me 😉 cuz you know, I bring tons of value to the table. Besides I rarely send out any emails, LOL. I also need to sort through tens of thousands of photos I have on my phone, and all the documents I have on my computer. I’ll address that soon so stay tuned. If you are looking for ways to stay on top of your schedule and tasks, I absolutely love this planner. I have used this planner for a few years now. I just get a new one each year. This year it sold out so fast but I kept checking until it finally came back in stock. I find that For tips and ideas on how to organize your home, check out this kitchen organization post.
Empty, Clean, Sort & Discard and Reorganize.
It always feels good to start the year fresh. So for today’s reorganization task, we’ll focus on a physical space so let’s start with the kitchen. When cleaning and reorganizing, I always follow these steps: Empty; Clean; Sort and Discard; Reorganize
1. Refrigerator:
- Empty the contents of your fridge,
- Clean: Wash all the drawers and wipe down all the surfaces.
- Sort through all the items and check the expiry dates. If it’s expired, toss it! If you haven’t used it in 3 months, it’s time to say goodbye. If it looks or smells funny, probably NOT a good idea to consume.
- Reorganize: I like to use organizing bins to organize the content before I return it to the fridge. This way, there is a place for everything and helps keep your fridge looking organized throughout the year.
2. Pantry:
- Follow the same steps as cleaning your refrigerator.
- For the pantry, I find food storage containers so useful for several reasons. It keeps your food fresh longer. It allows you to easily identify where everything is. It also makes it easier for you to determine when you are running low on certain items rather than keeping it in the bag or box. Now I know a lot of you worry about not knowing when something expires when you empty it from the bag/box. I have a label for each of my containers and I use chalk to label it with the name of the content and expiry date. Problem solved. For items that I cannot empty into a container, I group using baskets. Canned foods all go in one basket, Kids apple sauces in another.
3. Drawers and Cabinets:
- Empty, Clean, Sort & Discard and Reorganize. Any pots and pans you haven’t used in a while, perhaps pass it on to someone that might get better use of it. And if you’re like me and keep your toaster in the drawers, then vacuuming and a good wipe will set the year off right.
- I like to use this lid organizer for my Tupperware. It keeps all the lids together and allows me to stack the Tupperware making more space in my drawers. The same thing applies to the lids for my pots and pans.
- One of my favorite purchases last year is a bottle organizer. We have many water bottles in the house between the five of us and those take up a lot of space. This bottle organizer neatly fits into my cabinet and allows me to stack my bottles keeping them organized and accessible.
4. Junk Drawer:
- We all have one of these in our kitchen. In my case I have almost 2. Again, Empty, Clean, Sort & Discard and Reorganize. Time to get rid of those loose hand-written notes, random business cards that you never called and old birthday candles that you never reused.
- When it comes to organization, I like to group everything. I use drawer organizers to do so. This way, there is a place for everything. If there is not a place for it, then it either does not belong here and you need to find a home for it somewhere else, or you no longer need it so bid it adieu.
I hope you found that helpful. If you