Minimalism Zone 1: The Living Room & Office
Happy January friends! Or - if you are reading this at a later date, Happy Month 1! If you join me on this journey, you will have decluttered your home in it’s entirety in only 6 months. We will add some bonus months at the end. But the inside of your home should be completely minimized if you follow me for the next 6 months.
Month 1 lines up for me with my Deep Cleaning Zones. (Find that blog post and video HERE.) So if this is a zone you have already begun in, go ahead and finish or join me as I maintain my space.
My Zone 1 is my Living Room and my Office Area. The Living Room is a pretty easy one, so I feel adding the office area to it rounds it out nicely.
Let’s start with the Living Room. I have an entire blog post and video on your Living Room HERE. But here are the steps you want to follow:
Clear all your surfaces. Feel free to live with naked spaces for a while! But only put back the things you really love. Be sure to keep the surfaces easy to clean.
If you have storage units in your living room I encourage you to rethink those pieces of furniture. I don’t love to use the living room for storage. However, I understand that some homes require this. If so, take everything out of the unit. Be ruthless about decluttering the things inside it. Ask yourself: 1. Have I used this in the last few months? 2. Is this something I know I need to use in the future? Many times we hold on to old electronics just because we haven’t taken the time to purge them. 3. Is this something I want to keep and use? Do I enjoy it? Remember, the less you have to store, the less you have to maintain.
Look at your seating and pillows. Do they fit the room well? Do you need to rearrange or pull some things out?
Now that you have decluttered, it’s time to deep clean. This is your basic deep clean - vacuum furniture, wipe baseboards, woodwork, blinds, and light fixtures.
The Living Room can make a huge impact in your home. Once it is decluttered, it is so easy to keep picked up each evening during your nightly pick-up! (Check out the Evening Routine HERE.)
Alright - now for our office area!
If you are overwhelmed by paperwork I want to send you to a few different blog posts and videos that are on these subjects:
Going Paperless With Evernote: All The Things
Going Paperless With Evernote: Manuals
Going Paperless: How I Deal With Daily Paper
I do not have a full office. I only have a small desk area that is off the kitchen. But even if you have a full office, you can take these steps.
Go through each section of your office and pull each thing out. Make sure it’s an item you still need and use. I find that in the office area (I share this with my son who goes to a virtual charter school) there are often items I used at one point, but no longer need. Electronics can also really build up in this area if we allow it. You might still have the outdated laptop that died last year or an old printer. Be sure to properly dispose of these items, but get them out of the space if they are no longer in use.
Wipe out the cabinets, drawers, and surfaces before you put everything neatly back. As you are putting things back, be sure that they are items you use. Also be sure the things you use are easily accessible.
For your surfaces, keep them as clear as you possibly can. While you do want things easily accessible, a clear surface is great to help you focus. My son recently took my desk area. We moved a desktop computer there for him to do school. I had to relocate to the table in the next room. What I have found from this is I need very little in my reach. I love the table that has very little on it. I have a cup of pens, my planner, and my laptop. If you are used to working on a cluttered surface, try this method! Take everything off except the things you need at least once every 30 minutes. I have tape and stapler in my desk drawer. I don’t even needs these daily. I have really enjoyed this clear surface.
As I talk about in my Deep Clean video and my Weekly Cleaning Routine video, I typically use Thursday as my deep clean day. Here is how I recommend dividing up these tasks. I would love for you to join along with me:
Week 1: Living Room (this can easily be done in a day - but take your time over the course of the week if you are just getting started.)
Week 2: Office surfaces and storage (move paper to the side to deal with next week.)
Week 3: Paper - I will make sure I am caught up with scanning and also make sure my digital files are properly organized on my hard drive.
Week 4: Catch up - January can be a busy month, so take this week to catch up on anything you didn’t get to do.
Join me on Instagram and let’s do this together!