Let me just start by saying I hate cleaning. When we moved into our quite small one bedroom apartment which in reality doesn’t take that long to clean, I set up an appointment with Merry Maids to see how much it would cost to have someone do it for us. Turns out our apartment was too small for any of their options, so I would have to pay the minimum. The lady hinted it was kind of a rip off for a space our size. In the end, I decided our apartment would have to continue to be cleaned by us… sigh.
As much as some people hate to acknowledge, the end of the year really is a powerful time to find motivation for the coming new year with its new possibilities. While I don’t do resolutions per se, I did feel there were things I wanted to accomplish and changes I wanted to make. I sat down at the end of the year and wrote down specific January goals, and the thing that kept coming back to me was how good it would feel to have a fresh, organized space in 2019. So thank you “New Years motivation” for giving me the energy to tackle the overdue deep clean of our apartment.
On the surface our apartment didn’t look so bad. Yes there were sometimes piles of paper and closets stuffed to the brim, but we did regular wipe downs and tried to keep everything in its place. We were definitely lazy, though… always taking the easiest route to “clean”. I’m not exactly sure when, but I started to feel like just because something has “a place” doesn’t mean we should hold onto it. I’d go to put something away and wonder why we needed it or needed any of the other stuff close by. Then I started to think about everything we had that I couldn’t even see because it was hidden away behind other stuff.
Why do we keep so many things we don’t use? I noticed that all these items were no longer just taking up physical space in our apartment; they were starting to take up mental space in my mind, or maybe they had for a long time already. Either way it was time to address it. It was time to clean.
I set specific goals to accomplish this deep clean over the whole month of January. I knew trying to tackle too much at once wouldn’t work out. The first weekend of the month, I set out to clean our kitchen and bathroom. The following weekend I would do the dining room and living room. I would save the biggest job for last–our bedroom and walk in closet (the room with the most piles and the room we cleaned the least). The ground rule was: if we haven’t used it in 6 months it goes.
Weekend 1: I couldn’t believe some of the stuff we had shoved to the back of cabinets and drawers. The bathroom alone had 3 full bags of garbage, and the kitchen had at least 7. I thought that finding cough drops with a Sept 2013 expiration date was really bad until I found Neosporin that expired in 2011. Mind you, we moved from Indiana to San Diego in 2015, which means we brought that with us–just pure and total laziness on our part not being mindful of what we were bringing here. All that’s left now are toiletries we use almost everyday. I also updated our first aid supplies and replaced our rusty shower caddy. In terms of the kitchen, I scrubbed as much as I could and got rid of more old food than I’d care to admit. Most of our spice cabinet was expired! Now, we have a squeaky clean fridge/freezer and a new dish rack, garbage can, floor mat and updated cutlery.
Weekend 2: It was time to go through the living room and dining room. The dining room was relatively quick, but I made sure to wash the ceiling fan and floors really well. The table and chairs got extra attention too. The real project of the weekend was the living room–the place we spend the most time in. We were holding onto so many DVDs and books and empty boxes from electronics (why?!). It wasn’t easy to get rid of things (even though those things were never used), but I reminded myself that we would feel better donating and having more space/less clutter. I also finished a project I had wanted to do for years: update all our picture frames and photo albums.
Weekend 3: When I started this whole project at the beginning of the month, I had no idea who Marie Kondo was. Then her series on Netflix “Tidying Up” became super popular, and I decided to watch in hopes of finding motivation and inspiration to finish my cleaning. I definitely didn’t follow all of her methods, but when it came to clothing I did. Ollie and I made huge piles of all our clothes, held each piece one-by-one, and decided if we wanted it going forward in life. Did it spark joy? I personally asked myself if it would help me be the person I want to be in the future. I won’t explain it all, but you’ll understand if you’ve seen her show or read her book. I also used her folding methods which I feel like has been life changing haha. I’m grateful I decided to watch “Tidying Up” before cleaning our bedroom because I feel like it would have been a lot harder to get through otherwise. In the end, I donated 6 garbage bags full of clothing–I feel so much lighter (and much more grown up without my clothes from college everywhere). Decluttering the rest of the room felt just as amazing. We downsized and reorganized. We found old letters & postcards & photos and had so much fun going through all our memories. The whole process of cleaning that room may have taken 14 hours, but it was beyond worth it.
I’m so glad to be here writing this at the end of the month knowing that everything is done. I DID IT! It feels so good to spend time in a clean, clutter-free space. It also feels nice knowing I donated my things to others that will appreciate them more than me. And keeping up with the cleaning hasn’t been hard at all–it is way less daunting now. Going forward, I know I’m going to be more mindful of what I buy. Turns out I don’t need to own a lot of things to feel joy. I’m way happier with less, and I’m reminded that I’d take memories and experiences over material possessions 9 times out of 10. If tidying has been on your list of things to do, I highly recommend starting! It will be a lot of work but it changes everything for the better 🙂
A bit of photo evidence: on the left is what our drawers look like now, and on the right is what my pile of clothing looked like before I went through it all!
Have you set out to accomplish any goals in 2019? I would love to hear what everyone’s motivated to do this year!
Woohoo! Congrats girl that’s one huge feat!!