With all the Christmas festivities over with this month is about how we can restore order back to the home. Rather than assign a specific task for each day this is set up so that you can schedule these tasks throughout the month to make them convenient for your own schedule. And only do the tasks that make sense for you. We have put a list together for you
- As you put away gifts, declutter a few items from each room.
- Take down the Christmas tree, pack up or haul away.
- Sweep up/vacuum away pine needles.
- Fix or toss broken ornaments and decorations.
- Pack away ornaments and decorations.
- Wash, fold, and put away holiday linens.
- Sort holiday photos on your computer and save to a backup drive.
- Remove the Christmas Tree and either arrange for it to be picked up if it was real or put it up if it was fake. Move all the furniture in the living room (or wherever you have your tree set up) and sweep or vacuum up those thousands of pine needles that are dropped by fresh and fake trees.
- Don’t just pack up your Christmas decorations. Take a little time to fix or toss broken ones. Also, evaluate whether you really use all the decorations you have. If not, set the ones you don’t in a cardboard box to donate.
- Wash, dry, and fold your holiday linens. Treat any stains before you pack the holiday linens away.
- Take Care of Holiday Entertaining Messes Now
- Strip the bedding in the guest room and wash.
- Take down and wash all the curtains throughout the house.
- Spot clean couches.
- Spot clean carpets.
It is tempting to just close the door to the guest room, but if you take the time now to clean the guest room it will make your life easier if you have any guests come on short notice.
The first of the year is a great time to take down all your curtains and launder them as they pick up smells from holiday entertaining.
Give the sofas a good cleaning out, between the wrapping paper, finger foods of the holidays, and well…life your couch probably took a beating the last few months. Remove cushions if you can and vacuum out all the crumbs. If you have any spots use a stain remover to clean them up.
Spot clean any stains on the carpets now so they don’t become permanent.
Deep Clean Your Kitchen After the Holidays
- Clean your stove.
- Remove grease from your kitchen cupboards and backsplash.
- Empty and clean the refrigerator thoroughly.
- Sweep and mop underneath the refrigerator.
- Clean the baseboards in the kitchen.
- Purge expired or empty spice bottles.
- Sort utensils, get rid of any that you don’t use.
- Empty and organize the kitchen junk drawer.
Clean your stove. This is actually a pretty easy task if you have a self-cleaning oven.
Scrub down all the cabinets in your kitchen. Scrub your kitchen cupboards from the top to the bottom, include your range hood and appliances as well. Then scrub your counters well. Trust me all the cooking and baking put a layer of film on your cabinets that you want to remove before it becomes visible.
This is also a good time to deep clean your floors. Between the entertaining and baking, there are probably a few sticky spots. If possible, clean under your appliances, in the corners, and wipe down the baseboards.
Go through your spice rack and cupboards, toss out expired and empty spice bottles. Start a list of ones you need to replace.
Remove everything from the refrigerator and give it a good scrubbing. Check expiration dates, wipe off containers before putting them back in. Pull refrigerator out and clean thoroughly underneath..
Sort through your utensils, pull out anything you haven’t used in the past year and donate it.
Completely clean out the junk drawer. In the busyness of the holidays, we toss miscellaneous things in the junk drawer to quickly clear the counters. Throw away the items that should have been trashed in the first place. Then take each item that belongs somewhere else and put it exactly where it belongs.
General January Tasks
- Turn all clothes hangers backward.
- Change the heater/air conditioner filters.
- Clean and service your car inside and out.
- Take the items you decluttered to a thrift store.
Go ahead and get rid of the clothing that you know you won’t wear again. If you aren’t sure, use the backward hanger trick to decide later. Flip all the hangers for your clothes backward in the closet. As you wear them, turn the hanger the right way. Come June, if you haven’t flipped the hanger it’s time to get rid of it! Be sure to do this in all the family closets.
Give your car a good cleaning out from the front bumper to the back and the undercarriage if the roads you have driven on have been salted. Check the fluids, clean out the trunk, and check the tire pressure.
As you declutter, fill up some of those used boxes from Christmas. Then you can drop off the boxes at the thrift store without having to worry about transferring the items to a different container first.
Complete January Cleaning Checklist
- As you put away gifts, declutter a few items from each room.
- Put away presents
- Take down the Christmas tree, pack up or haul away.
- Sweep up/vacuum away pine needles.
- Fix or toss broken ornaments and decorations.
- Pack away ornaments and decorations.
- Wash, fold, and put away holiday linens.
- Strip the bedding in the guest room and wash.
- Turn all clothes hangers backward.
- Sort holiday photos on your computer and save to a backup drive.
- Take down and wash all the curtains throughout the house.
- Spot clean couches.
- Spot clean carpets.
- Change heater/air conditioner filters
- Clean your stove.
- Remove grease from your kitchen cupboards and backsplash.
- Empty and clean the refrigerator thoroughly.
- Sweep and mop underneath the refrigerator.
- Clean the baseboards in the kitchen.
- Purge expired or empty spice bottles.
- Sort utensils, get rid of any that you don’t use.
- Empty and organize the junk drawer.
- Clean and service your car inside and out.
- Take the items you decluttered to a charity shop.
And there you have it…..ready and waiting for next year 🙂
