State of the House: New Year's Resolution 2011

Happy New Year! Yeah I know January is half way over. But I worked the whole first week of January and then went to KC for ten days since we couldn't go over the holidays. And now its back to real life, a place everyone went sixteen days ago. I will make a big, beautiful post about our wonderful trip but I need to get this in writing before it slips away...

We have had one main fight as a married couple. The state of the house. And the fact that I am messy and my hub is a neat freak. I remember this starting one whole week after we got home from the honeymoon and he asked why all my stuff was not yet put away. Umm, excuse me??  He claims he didn't know I was a messy hoarder. (Really, honey? Really?) I claim I didn't know he was a neat freak. (His house in college was not evident of this.) Over the past year, we have come to some kind of middle ground where I try a little harder and he ignores a little more.

I've been contemplating this New Year's resolution for about a month now. But I decided it needed to happen when I spent an hour on the night before our trip looking for the cd of our wedding pictures to take to my mom. I couldn't find it. Enough is enough. And then we got home and opened the door, it smelled like goldfish food. We don't own a fish. Or fish food. And we actually took out the trash before we left. Gross. So gross.

But no more, people. No more. I want a clean, neat apartment. One that I enjoy coming home to. One that my husband can live with. One that will save my marriage. (It's not really on the rocks, don't you worry. Our fights have decreased dramatically since we've been married.) Declutter-ing my apartment and maintaining an organized haven will not happen in a single day. So I have a plan. A beautiful plan that will revamp my household in one year. This is the part of organization that I love. Lists. Plans. Check off sheets. (That is why I loved planning a wedding. One massive list!) I will tackle different parts of my house monthly and add small maintenance habits monthly as well. I will also do some kind of creative project every month since I have a whole list of projects I've been wanting to do and that part is actually fun to me. (I love the word "Project"!)

My list so far:
January
-main project: Since I only have half the month to go, I need to tackle a smaller project. So project number one will be my bedroom. It is actually not bad so shouldn't take long to organize. I will also tackle the closet, where we both still have clothes from high school. They need to go.
-maintenance project: All dirty clothes go into the hampers at the end of the day instead of on the floor. Find permanent places for clean clothes to go. Not the floor of the closet. Getting rid of old clothes should help clear up more space.
-creative project: order photos for my honeymoon scrapbook.

February
-main project: The guest bedroom and closet. The guest bedroom and closet is our storage area right now. Some of the boxes in the haven't been opened in years. I want to go through all of them, get rid of stuff that needs to go, organize stuff that we need to keep. And make the guest room a place where guests can actually stay. This is important since we will have a guest coming to visit for Caleb's bday.
-maintenance project: Keep the guest room clean by finding homes for things that are less used instead of throwing them in the guest room or on the guest bed. Continue my new habits from January.
-creative project: scrapbook our honeymoon stuff. It needs to happen stat. I want this done by the end of March.

That's all I have so far. My dad, husband, and brother say it can't be done. Bring it on. In case you need to have your own state of the house project, here is where I am getting ideas and inspiration. The awesome Real Simple site...love everything they do. The Fly Lady site...she will break things down for you and give you tons of great ideas to get you started. And of course, Martha Stewart. Because she is the queen of domestication.

I know this post is void of photos and fun, but I need to write this stuff down and make it real. Check back Thursday for the post on our KC visit! Have a great week!