After Christmas Reset: 10 Realistic January Organization Tips

If you are like me you are familiar with the day after Christmas “overwhelm”. You look around at your home with all the new “stuff”, remnants of wrapping paper, and the filth of your kitchen floor that you have been ignoring due to the fast pace. It was not pretty at our house post-Christmas this year! All I want is a reset button. How do you like to start the fresh new year? Here are a few things I’ve implemented for January organization. Please know that you aren’t alone – I am writing this as a little pep talk for myself as much as encouragement for you. We are in this together!

I am so thankful that I was a little ahead of the game. December turned into a crazier month than I had anticipated. I had to have my gallbladder removed and the recovery from that while adjusting to a new baby with an extremely busy toddler and two not-quite-babysitting-age children was a humbling setback. I’ll be real, everything feels a little out of whack right now. We have new things that don’t have a home. We have messes that were overlooked last month. There is the reality of baby weight that I need to address. I need to find a homeschool routine that works with our newest family member who eats every three hours. I am short on sleep and short on time. Where to start?

Tip 1: Be Realistic!

New Year’s Resolutions seem to only serve the purpose of revealing more of our failures. While I believe strongly in setting high standards, sometimes they can be a little unrealistic. First, make sure your New Year goals and ideals are, indeed, achievable. Consider the season of life you are currently in. You are not going to work out for an hour each day when you never have in the past. The kids are not going to be fine with simply eliminating sweets. You can not get your entire home decluttered by February first. And you most definitely will not be patient all the time with your children! Bad habits take time to undo. Sin will be just as present this year as it was in the past. Don’t be delusional. Be realistic!

Tip 2: Take Before Pictures of your January Organization

I can’t remember exactly what prompted me to do this the first time. For the past several years I always walk around my house and take pictures and video of the post-Christmas messes. I didn’t pose them at all: just raw “this is our current reality” shots. Then, I look back through previous years and I feel encouraged! It feels like “I’ll never change” and “Our house will always be a disaster”. But, I have actually made progress. I can see it when I “step back” and browse through those pictures. We’ve decluttered a lot! So many things have been improved! All while adding baby after baby to the mix! I highly recommend this ritual – seeing progress is so encouraging and inspiring.

Tip 3: Rearrange a Room or Two

Yesterday, we swapped our daughters’ rooms around. There was an astounding degree of clutter – so many drawings! I couldn’t believe how many socks I found behind my daughter’s nightstand. Why were there socks there? Rearranging forced us to go through EVERYTHING. When you’ve got to relocate and find homes for things the trash can becomes more enticing. Even my 5 year old filled about half a trash can with her “special things”. Their rooms feel exciting and fresh now – not to mention clean! I recommend drawing a sketch of the rooms to start with and thinking through where everything will go. Then, begin knowing that it will get even more messy as you move everything. Finally, enjoy putting everything in new homes and getting it all clean again!

Tip 4: Consider God’s Goals

I often want to sent goals for my self. Things I want to achieve, sins I want to mortify, and habits I want to begin. My plans are not always the Lord’s plans though! Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. (Psalm 127:1) It is wise to spend more time seeking the Lord in prayer than you spend writing out your own goals. Be in the Word daily.

If you do choose to write out goals, write ones that are for sure in line with His! For example, it may not be His will that you read two books each month but it is for sure His will that you grow in some Fruits of the Spirit! For your January organization think beyond decluttering your possessions and weight loss. Start with a heart that is ordered according to God’s Word. From that will flow a joyful home that is ordered as well as it needs to be.

Tip 5: Avoid Comparisons

Since I started writing this blog there is a huge temptation to present my life as though I have my ducks in a row. I don’t. I’d like to be able to tell you that I do – maybe more people would read my blog! Areas if my home are ordered and some areas are a disaster. I’ve been able to make our 1980s home look cute in some places, but we aren’t made of money and there haven’t been any trendy remodels here. I have a newborn baby sleeping in the laundry room right now! My kids are sinners and I loose my grip often enough to know I am dependent on Jesus every minute of the day.

Here is the point – all those “perfect” Pinterest posts and mom blogs are an illusion. Some of them have more of their ducks lined up than others, but none of them have all the ducks in a neat row. EVERY mom blogger out there has areas of life that you don’t get to see! Plus we are all in different seasons of life. So, don’t waste your energy trying to live up to them! Compare yourself to God’s expectations. After that, ask your husband what his expectations are and there you have it! That is what you need to aim for. Nothing more.

Tip 6: Focus on Trouble Areas for Your January Organization

Stop and think about your home and your daily systems. Are there areas that are absolute time suckers? Here is my current example. I have a drawer with all our bottles and pumping paraphernalia. It is a mess. The bottle nipple sizes are all mixed up. I have some bottles for the toddler and some for the newborn. The result is that every time I need to get a bottle or a I want to pump I have to rummage through that drawer! It wastes maybe 30 seconds and those 30 seconds add up to quite a few minutes each day. Some simple organization there would save me quite a bit of time. Organizing the bottle drawer is also a very attainable and measurable goal.

Another area is my daughters’ shoes. Right now it takes them far too long to find their shoes. The result is mom nagging “Let’s GO! Move!” along with a crying little girl who can’t find her left pink tennis shoe almost every time we need to leave the house. We simply have too many out right now. I need to put away some and make sure all the ones in their closet actually fit them.

Starting with the “Trouble Areas” for January organization will increase your efficiency and create a little more time and energy for other things. These might not be the big and glamorous projects, but they are the ones that will make a difference in your life.

Tip 7: Don’t Change Everything At Once. You aren’t SuperMom

I want to start drinking enough water, exercise 5x each week, actually do my hair and makeup daily, go to bed on time, deal with my paper pile weekly, iron my husband’s work shirts, feed my children more vegetables, and about a dozen other things. But, that would be impossible. At least, all at once. It takes 21 days to form a new habit. It takes an eternity to form 20 new habits! Again, don’t be delusional.

Write your goals down, prioritize them, and tackle one at a time. Once a habit is pretty established start in on the next one. For sure, start with reading your Bible daily if you aren’t already!

Tip 8: Label Everything as your January Organization!

We live in a smallish home (1850 sq feet, no basement or storage area, 3 bedrooms, 6 people and a dog.) As a result I am constantly moving things around to try to make better use of our space. My poor husband can’t keep up with my rearranging! As you move things around and create new systems LABEL!!!! You can make cutesy labels with mini chalk boards and all that. Or you can just use a post-it note, or tape a little paper up. I like post-its for labels because they last just long enough for my husband to figure out where I moved the blender and the tupperware and then they fall off. Post-its are great for anywhere you don’t want permanent labels.

For kids, use pictures! Draw little stick figures of their toys and tape them where they need to go. Or get fancy and google image search their toy and print out little cute labels. Our most recent solution is to label toys with pictures of my children. My toddler is into EVERYTHING. I printed off pictures of each child and taped them on their bins of toys, the play kitchen, drawers, shelves, etc. It makes it real clear to my little one which things are HERS to play with and which things are off limits.

Tip 9: Make Bookends part of your January Organization

By bookends I mean a morning and evening routine. The evening is a little trickier right now because I have a new baby who doesn’t always fall asleep in the evenings exactly when I tell her to! The morning is easier to predict and control, however. Bookends are a great place to start for January Organization.

First, decide what times you can reasonably wake up and go to bed. Aim for the same time every day – even on Saturday! Second, make a short list of 3-5 things that absolutely must happen each day (For example: Read Bible, Shower, Make the Bed, Run the Dishwasher, and Unload the Dishwasher). Third, write down a short morning and evening routine with those must-do tasks. Fourth, make your husband aware of your plans so that he can help you stick to it! Fifth, remember that there are new mercies each day. When you fail, you don’t need to trash the whole plan. Just pick it up again tomorrow and ask the Lord for help.

Tip 10: Get Ahead on Christmas

As my favorite podcaster says, “When you are behind on life, Get ahead on Christmas.” It is never too early! You can get your gift wrap all purchased and tidy right now while it is on sale. Start in on a holiday planner while the “Woes of December” are still fresh in your mind. I think this principle holds true for all the holidays – take some time to think through the coming months. Get ahead on Valentines, plan your kids birthdays in advance, and start a Christmas gift idea list now! You’ll feel on top of things even if you aren’t.

Well, there you have it! If you found this helpful give it a share! Let me know in the comments how you “reset” in January. Or, just let me know if you, like me, have the urge to just burn your whole house down, cash in on the insurance money and start fresh! Just kidding. I would never do that. I promise to instead take baby steps of faithful obedience and follow Christ out of the December chaos.

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