One Place You Can Declutter to Reclaim Your Calm Mornings

The January Cure is all about refreshing and organizing your home for 2019. We tackle one assignment each weekday throughout the entire month. It’s not too late to sign up, and you can visit the Cure page to catch up with the assignments so far.

While I subscribe to the notion that some people are “morning people” and others are “night owls,” in my experience, it’s more of a nurture thing than a nature one. Your environment and routine can absolutely prepare you to make the most of any part of your day.

I’ve had jobs that started at 6 a.m., and others that didn’t need me until after noon. I’ve spent alternating years watching the sun rise from both sides of the day. But I can be sharp and energetic in the morning, when I need to be, and it all comes down to two things: Getting to bed early, and making sure my bathroom—where I spend the bulk of my getting-ready time—is a calm and organized place to be.

Today, we’re going to shape up our bathrooms from within…

Clear out and clean up your medicine cabinet or bathroom storage areas.

First, take everything out of the cabinet(s), sorting as you go and keeping like items together. When the cabinet is empty, give the inside a quick wipe-down with wipes or an all-purpose cleaner.

For the next step, you’ll need two things: a trash bag and something to serve as your temporary, traveling outbox (a tote or grocery bag is great for this). Dig in to the items you pulled from the cabinets and try to get rid of as much as you can, remembering that in the bathroom, there’s not a lot of room for “maybes.” Keep what you actively use and let the rest go, using the following guidelines:

• You haven’t used in 12 months
• Is past the expiration date
• Is empty or nearly empty
• You don’t need any longer (because you are being honest with yourself and know you aren’t going to use it)

Once you’ve done the sort, place the items you are keeping back into the cabinets, taking care to give the items you use most often the most visible and most easily accessible spots.

Add anything that needs replacing to your shopping list.

Note: Disposing of bathroom products requires some special care. Know what can and what shouldn’t be donated, and never release medications or other hazardous waste into the water supply. Here’s a post with some tips.

We hit the bathroom twice during the Cure (actually, both bathroom assignments are going to bookend this week) because it’s a really important room. One that deserves a bit of attention and, more importantly, mindfulness. Your bathroom cabinets aren’t a storage warehouse; they’re there to help you find what you need while you’re using the bathroom to groom yourself for the day or unwind at night.

If you have lots to go through in your bathroom cabinets, we are going to come back to clean the bathroom on Friday, so if you need to get some more done this weekend, you’ll get the chance.

Until then, leave a comment and let us all know how the bathroom cabinet cleanout went for you!

Visit the 2019 January Cure Main Page

Download the printable PDF calendar: January Cure 2019

Share your progress on Instagram: #thejanuarycure