TIME TO REFRESH

After packing away our Christmas decorations I feel like my house is completely bare. Just lacking. But that feeling lasts for about a day and then I feel like I want to organize and refresh everything around me. CLEAN SLATE.

There are lots of projects to decrease the clutter from the previous year. Most importantly, I want to purge the toys and the craft drawer. I want to clean out the refrigerator, refresh the junk drawer and our basement storage room. The garage is another big one.

But what are some of the little things that I can do to make our space feel refreshed and new. I like to swap out things like pillows, wall art, throws, items on the kitchen counter. In my daughters room, I like to organize their closets and swap out the clothes that are too small. I find these things all rather enjoyable actually. Not too chore-like for me, but the accumulation of them can feel like a chore over all.

So I space them out over January before the February decorations come out from the basement. I try to accomplish one item a day.
- Now I can smile when I open the kitchen junk drawer.
- The kitchen feels like I can cook in it.
- The pantry is organized so that the oldest cans are in the front.
- The laundry room is refreshed with the linens pressed and ready for the next dinner.
- The basement is ready for another year of in and out madness.
- Our 72-hour kit is updated.
- I've cleaned out the craft drawer.
- The toys are edited.
- The kids closets are updated so I know what clothes they need and already have.
- The garage... my husband will do that when the weather warms up a bit.

We're feeling pretty good. I'm not sure what your list is like, but I think any home big or small, with kids or without could use a little of this. New Years feels like the natural time for "spring cleaning". And honestly, we need this kind of editing more than once a year.

Here's a FREE FELT HANGER TEMPLATE for your kids closets. I keep these simple and easy to swap out by using key tags and a Sharpie for the sizing. I buy kid-sized hangers here. I sew three of these for the sizing around what my daughter is currently wearing. This project takes about a half hour.

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