I’ve always loved new years. I love the fresh start, new beginning, and seeing the 12 months before us. Over the past few weeks I’ve taken some time to work on an end of year clean out. One of my goals for this past year, well past few years really, has been to declutter and minimize.
This year I worked really hard to clean out and clean up. Obviously being home almost 10 months has given me the time and space to work on projects, but some planned home renovations mid-year really kicked my clean out into high gear.
While I still have things to clean out and go through around the house next year, I wanted to use these last few weeks to clean out things I don’t want to carry into 2021.
Unfollow, defriend, and leave groups on social media. I did this intentionally for the first time last December, but I went through all of my social media accounts and removed any profiles, people, or groups that don’t bring me joy, don’t benefit my life in a positive way, or make me feel bad about myself.
Unsubscribe from e-mail blasts. Over the past two weeks instead of just deleting e-mails, I’ve unsubscribed from them. One of my goals in 2021 is to reduce my spending and unsubscribing from my favorite stores was a good first step! I honestly couldn’t believe how many e-mails I receive from a large spectrum of stores and business, likely thanks to those 20% off first purchase deals. Either way, I am now moving into 2021 with FAR less e-mails and clutter in my inbox.
Go through my clothes. With 10 months of working from home under my belt and at least 4 more on the horizon, I went ahead and cleaned out all of my work clothes… and honestly all clothes I’m not wearing. I couldn’t believe how much I had and it felt good to clean out my closet, dresser, and bins of clothes that were too big or too small. And truthfully, I could probably stand to go through it all one more time. After the clean out, I did one of three things. I either donated, posted on my Poshmark, or threw away.
Go through my kid’s clothes. Even worse were my kids clothes. With a 6 and 3 year old, our bins of outgrown clothes had gotten out of hand. I went through all of their clothes in early December and posted all on my local Buy Nothing Project Facebook page. I highly recommend you look into finding your own Buy Nothing community or starting one. It has been really fulfilling to give away to those in my neighborhood.
Clean and reorganize work space. I’m hoping to finish this tomorrow, but I wanted to clean up my office space at home before the new year. I absolutely love working from home and wanted to use this last week of the year to clean up and declutter. I also plan to hang up a few prints I’ve had and to make the space even more joyful as I start the new year.
Go through all subscriptions and cancel what we’re no longer using. We admittedly have a number of subscriptions: Apple music, Netflix, Prime, etc. I took some time to go through our checking account and to list out all of our subscriptions. I then thought through whether we were actively using the service or if we could go without it. We ended up keeping most, but I did cancel my Audible membership. I love Audible, but as I’m no longer commuting, I just don’t listen to audiobooks. While it may only be $14.95 a month, that’s $179.40 a year we can be saving or using elsewhere.
Clean out closets and cabinets. This has been a SLOW project, but before the new year I wanted to go through our bathroom cabinets and linen closets. So much of this was just organizing what we have, that way I don’t buy unnecessary toiletries. Who knew we had 3 tubes of toothpaste and 10 things of floss! I was also able to post through the Buy Nothing Project unopened make-up and toiletries I wasn’t going to use.
Clean out wallet and purse. It’s a little crazy how much ends up in my purse, but it’s good to clean out and at least reorganize pockets. Who needs 8 pens and 5 chapsticks in their purse (me evidently)? I also reorganized my wallet, which gave me a chance to look through coupons and gift cards I’ve been holding onto.
Go through refrigerator and pantry. This last to do lined up well with our local food pantry’s call for items. Over the year we end up with extra cans and items that were for recipes or were just forgotten. It was good to go through and remove items we weren’t going to eat or that would help others in need. The clean out also gave me a really good understanding of what we do have and enabled me to create an inventory. This goes back to not spending more than we need in 2021, since I’ll now know what we have in our house and what we need to purchase.
I’ve enjoyed these last few days of 2020 and am looking forward to the year ahead! I hope it’s helpful seeing what steps I’ve taken to clean up and clean out.
More to come about my goals for 2021.
