Chinese New Year-Get Organized!
After the thorough new year cleaning that we have completed and wrote about last week, we intend to maintain through the new year season and year (see, a new year’s resolution!) We move onto some other big tasks in our house.
We Organize. Everything.
I am sure you received your new calendars and planners for the year around the holidays, did you put them up? Are they filled out and ready to go? This is the ideal time to complete that small task. This is also a great time to plan for renovation projects for the year. Many cities have home shows and conventions during this time of the year, to help with this goal. This helps me make the plans, in accordance with the feng shui changes that come in the new year.
I also pencil in plans for upcoming vacations. True story. This way, I have an idea when school is out, how much money I need to save, and what plans we need to make. For example, if I wanted to run a destination marathon, I would need to plan the workouts, the trip, and make it all happen. That stuff takes time and planning. Organizing your planner will give you an idea of what the year looks like (much like those resolutions that we made last month!)
Just writing things down helps my house stay organized. Everyone knows what is coming up and what we are working towards. The refrigerator calendar is up to date, as well as the calendars in the kid’s room and my office.
From paperwork to closets
and the simplest of things around the house. Like the calendar, to going through the closets and purging items that have been outgrown, out of style, or just plain unnecessary. The new year is another great chance to make room for those items received around the holidays by getting rid of items no longer needed. Usually, I use a box for donations or recycling and another for trash. There are great donation centers in my city, so they get boxes of gently used toys and clothes and my house has room for the new items and the new year.
Toys and books are gone through as well. Kids have their favorite books, but we tend to accumulate many early readers. These are great items to donate. In my town, both the school district and public library accepts books, as well as shelters and donation centers.
Other things we organize? Let’s see, the seasoning shelves. The cookbook shelf (another resolution? Using them weekly!) Our collection of luggage (consolidating, getting rid of those extra duffle bags, and identifying those bags that need to be replaced, before we try to use them on our next vacation.) The tool boxes, one in the kitchen for easy use and the more robust one in the garage. The computers. From the desktop, to the overflowing email boxes-even the computer is cleaned and organized. The junk drawer in the kitchen.
The list could go on and on, you know what needs to be done.
This time of the year, our weekends are one cleaning or organizing project after another. Not always fun, but well worth it. The house just feels different once it is clean and organized. Different good. Different exciting. It allows us to have a clean slate, essentially, for the new year and the new energy that always comes along with it. When our environments are cleaned and organized, we are in command of our life and ready to take charge.