If you’re new to this blog then you may not know that last year, 2015 was one of the hardest years of my life. I had a great spouse, awesome kids and lucky enough to maintain a work-from-home status, but there was no daily joy, just a lot of stress and small windows of fun. This year I decided to make a change and have embarked on what I’m calling my 2016 Happiness Project, inspired by the book by Gretchen Rubin. I hope you’ll join me and follow along each month as I work through different focus areas of both home and life.
“I craved an existence of order and serenity…. Apparently other people, like me believe their psychical surrounding influences spiritual happiness. ” ~The Happiness Project
As I sit here on the very last day of January I have to admit, I’ve never had a cleaner home in my life! And I didn’t even have cleaning people come scrub, I did it myself. For the first month of the year during this 2016 Happiness Project I chose to focus on organization.
A clean slate.
A clear mind.
Order.
Most of my goals and intentions revolved around the home- clearing the clutter and making things sparkle. So, starting with the first weekend of the year I made a list of areas in our home that needed serious attention and got right down to work. Next, I got out on paper the areas of my life that needed some cleaning up. This I’m calling my Master TO DO List (so original) and I plan to slowly cross items off throughout the year.
Here is what happened
January Goals
At the beginning of the month I made a plan:
- Clean, Toss, Donate
- Make a plan for our home
- Create a Master TO DO List
- Secure the perfect planner and calendar
What Did I Do?
- Divided the house into Zones: Hallway, Kitchen, Living area, Bedroom, Master Bathroom, Walk-in Closet, Laundry Room, Kids Room. Then I planned to address two areas each month, until every area was organized and clean.
(Hooray for Pinterest is all I have to say!) - Started at the beginning. The hallway is the first thing you see when you enter our home. Naturally there were piles and clutter everywhere. I felt if this project was going to be successful I had to start somewhere and this was the best place, literally right at the very beginning.
- Every single weekend this month we stayed at home and cleaned, instead of spending lots of money going out, getting drinks or food. It feels really good to know we not only saved money, but made our home into a calmer, more inviting place.
- Arranged furniture in new ways, organized two hallway closets and designated a new show drop area. I finally got around to making a collage of our wedding photos too that now hangs on the wall near our front door. On that same note, we also installed a new personalized door-knocker (which is such a cool wedding gift by the way!)
- Donated 10+ bags of unnecessary stuff. I took old kids books to my sisters preschool class, adult books to the local woman’s shelter, magazines to the library, baby blankets are on the way to the Children’s Hospital, I scored some cute new clothes at a clothing swap party, earned money by selling unused baby items to a consignment shop and donated some kitchenwares to the Goodwill down the street.
- Put together cleaning schedules: A Daily, Weekly and Monthly. These included smaller tasks like sweeping the floor to bigger tasks such as scrubbing the oven.
- Moved the baby to her own room. This is essentially my old walk-in closet (its ventilated don’t worry!) But we haven’t finished this yet. I feel bad I never made her custom bedding so next month its on my list to give her some pretty crib sheets and blankets.
- The kitchen still needs to be completed, but it’s off to a good start. The biggest thing was just putting things away in a proper place and getting useless “stuff” off counters and tables. Every night now I make sure both are clear. It makes for a much nicer morning for everyone when surfaces are clear! I’ve put out a call for small baby food jars to help organize our spices,
- Created a short list of rules. These included: mail, laundry, putting clothing away, sweeping kitchen floors etc. For example I’ll be honest, I hate opening mail. I’m happy to let it pile up for weeks. But then it takes up so much space! So, a new rule was made: Open Mail As It Comes In.
- For my business I met with a friend to go over 2015 and plan our goals for 2016. We decided to make this a reoccurring formal meeting and will add another member to the Business Strategy Group.
What I Learned
This blog is keeping me accountable. I know it’s only been a month, but it’s working. I wake up everyday and just want to share my story and write! I’ve created a hashtag #2016HappinessProject and hope you’ll follow along on Instagram and Facebook.
I also learned I LOVE having a clean floor. A lot.
I will sweep 2357438573043 times day now just so I don’t have to step on anything.
My pain points are around laundry and clothing. I have to force myself to put things away!
Finally I learned that when I slow down and attend to things as they come, it makes me less frantic and stressed.
Future Plans
- Maintain! If I can keep this up another month I will be so proud.
- Settle on a planner. I love them all!
- Continue to document my journey with the hashtag on Instagram.
- Write more. Shorter posts, more often.
- Create a cute cleaning caddy with a supply of sponges, hand soap refill and stocked toilet paper on hand at all times.
Next month I plan to tackle Parenthood! For February I hope to spend more time with my kids, which means tons of cute kiddo photos. Here’s to fun times ahead!
