Refresh Your Space in the New Year
Refresh 2020 – 5 Day Challenge
Don’t let another year go by wishing you were organized or you just had your papers under control or living with a terrible closet. Start out the new year feeling like you can conquer the world!
Need a jump start? Join our bite-size 5 day challenge and refresh your space for 2020!
Day 1 of our 2020, 5 Day Challenge: Holiday decor
We’re starting with….Holiday Decor!
Now that the holidays are over – take some time to lay it all out and decide what worked this year and what didn’t! You may be over the red & gold theme or realize that half your lights don’t work.
Before just packing it all away – edit out things you know you don’t want or won’t use next year and let them go.
To really make it fabulous – get coordinating bins and label everything properly. This way when the next holiday season rolls around – you’ll be good to go! (Holiday organization boxes and bags are on sale at many stores now, btw.)
Some things to think about:
- If it didn’t get used this year – why not?
- Is anything damaged or just tired?
- Has your style, home or available time changed?
- Does it matter how much you have or is your storage space limited?
Really evaluating your needs, your style and your space can help you make the decisions about what stays and what goes.
Once you’ve edited your items, consider if you tend to style things the same each year or if you like to mix things up. If it’s all the same, then storing based on location/color makes sense. If you like to mix it up-then consider organizing by items such as all ornaments together and all garland together.
We had a client once who just wrapped her tree in plastic wrap and shoved it in a closet to pull out the next year!!
Once everything is edited, sorted & binned-don’t forget to clearly label each container so you know exactly what is where next year! Check out some refresh inspiration below!
Click below for some of our favorite resources for holiday storage:
The Container Store – Holiday Storage
Day 2 of our 2020, 5 Day Challenge: coat closet
Today we’re tackling that jam-packed coat closet!
The coat closet is often a repository for anything people stick in there! In prep for spring (which will hopefully be here soon!), editing out the closet to only hold coats and related items is a quick, high impact project.
Take everything out and make everyone try everything on! Let go of coats no one wears as well as hats or gloves or scarves that are just taking up space.
We like to organize accessories either by person or by type meaning each person has a bin or basket that holds just their items, or if many are interchangeable (if you have a bunch of kids that all wear the same stuff!) then just have a hat bin and a glove bin and a scarf bin!
Things that don’t need to be in the space should be relocated elsewhere. Matching hangers makes a huge difference as well. We often use a heavy black matte wood hanger – these are sturdy enough for even the heaviest of coats and give a nice consistent visual look to the hanging items in the closet.
If more than just coats need to live here-use labeled baskets to corral these items-and don’t jumble too many categories into one bin because that is just asking for trouble! Find coat closet refresh inspo below!
Click below for some of our favorite resources for Closet and/or Mudroom organization to use during the Refresh 2020 5 Day Challenge:
The Container Store – Decorative Bins
The Container Store – Soft Black Hangers
Day 3 of our 2020, 5 Day Challenge: fridge CLEAN OUT
Let’s ditch the junk left in the fridge!
The new year just calls out for a fridge reboot – especially if you are thinking about eating healthier. It’s hard to do that if your fridge is clogged up with holiday leftovers and half eaten frozen dinners.
The only real way to do this is to pull everything out and be ruthless. We recommend bringing in folding tables and grouping everything together that goes together. Using shoe boxes or cardboard boxes helps corral everything.
Leftovers need their own attention – sometimes it’s hard to know how long something has been in there but if you can’t remember – my rule of thumb is to just toss it!
Using bins to corral items in the fridge is a winning strategy. I’ve got bins for yogurts/dairy, lunch making, and protein drinks because these are things that we use daily and that I don’t want strewn all over the fridge!
Before placing anything back, take some time to wash down the shelves and sides of the fridge. Remove the drawers and scrub them down. Starting with a sparkling clean fridge is an awesome way to kick of a new year of healthy eating! Check out a little fridge refresh inspiration below.
Click below for some of our favorite resources for Fridge organization:
The Container Store – Fridge Bins
Day 4 of our 2020, 5 Day Challenge: tame the Junk drawer
Where do all the random things live? The Junk Drawer!
I love a good junk drawer, but it needs to be an organized junk drawer! Junk drawers are not inherently bad – they just become challenging when they don’t have any rhyme or reason for what’s going on in there.
This is also a fabulous project that doesn’t take that much time at all.
You know the drill – pull everything out and group like with like. Then decide what deserves a place in the drawer.
Typically we’ll have things like notepads, pens, stamps, chargers, scissors, etc. If it doesn’t get used in the kitchen (or wherever your junk drawer is) then it doesn’t need to be there!
Then bring in bamboo or acrylic drawer organizers and play a game of tetris til you find the right configuration to hold what you want to keep.
If you want to get really wild – label the bottom or back side of each bin so it is SUPER clear what goes there. See below for some junk drawer refresh inspo!
Click below for some of our favorite resources for Junk Drawer organization during our Refresh 2020 5 Day Challenge:
The Container Store – Shallow Drawer Organizers
The Container Store – Stackable Drawer Organizers
Day 5 of our 2020, 5 Day Challenge: CLeaning Supplies
On the final day of our challenge we’re tackling cleaning supplies.
Do you REALLY need 5 half-full counter sprays and 3 old mops? When was the last time you polished silver? Or conditioned your leather purse? How many bottles of stainless steel cleaner do you have in the back of the cabinet under the sink?
Cleaning supplies are one of those things that people rarely go through until we show up and it’s amazing how many are either not good any more, are one of many duplicates or have literally never been opened!
This is another great kick off the new year project because spring cleaning is right around the corner!
- Gather up all of your cleaning supplies – not just the products but the brooms, mops, dustpans, etc. – from under the sinks, the laundry room, garage.
- Group like products.
- Toss what you don’t like or use.
- Condense products so you don’t have multiples of the same thing in the same location
- Create a list of anything you need to restock.
- Determine which supplies go in which location – then bin & label them appropriately.
Click below for some of our favorite resources for organizing your Cleaning Supplies and Tools:
The Container Store – White Plastic Storage Bins
The Container Store – Cabinet Organizer
