No Spend Month Review

Hello there and welcome to what will be a crazy busy weekend for us! It’s going to be packed but will be a fun one for sure.

As many of you know, last month was a no spend month for me. I usually do this one month out of the year and I think I’ll make every January that month from now on. It was just what I needed after the hustle and bustle and SPENDING during the holidays. During these months I don’t spend on anything DIY or decor and it usually spills over to other things like clothes and other extra stuff too. I do still go out to eat though. :)

My to do list is still very long but did get a lot done! My first big project of the year (I actually think I got it done at the end of last year) was cleaning out the disaster that was our storage room:

I don’t think you can appreciate the after unless you go see the before. ;) It is so nice to have it organized again and to have some empty space on the shelves!

Next up I shared the plan for our long-awaited kitchen redo:

Don’t you love the beautiful island? It’s looked like that since our family room renovation in the summer of last year. :) I’m SO excited about the potential for this space people!! I’ve already made great progress in the past week (I am in beast mode after that no spend month) and you can see our pretty new window seat here.

Most of the projects I completed during the month were those I had laying around or on the list forever. I finally completed our little basement kitchenette by hanging the shelves that I’ve had since last summer:

I didn’t want to do upper cabinets – I knew it would feel too heavy, so the small shelves are perfect. We don’t have a ton of things to store in that area anyway.

I tell you what – you get a LOT done around the house when you’re not spending money. I decluttered like crazy and shared some of my favorite clutter busters in this post:

It seems like I use that little organizer nearly every day – it is awesome!

I got started on the first project in the kitchen by adding new door trim and starting the board and batten around the pantry as well:

It wasn’t completed when I shared it (no baseboards) but I’m always shocked at the power of white paint and a little bit of trim! It made such a difference and really brightened up that spot. It’s almost done now – just have to finish painting the boards I put up this week.

As I was decrapifying the house I realized there are five things we keep around that we had WAY too many of. So many of you agreed but some of you are magical people that don’t have enough cups! ;)

A lot of what I accomplished over the month were little projects that had been bugging me for months. I got a ton done in our master bathroom:

And I actually feel like I accomplish a lot more when I get the smaller stuff knocked out. I shared more of the little stuff like hanging art I’ve had leaning against the wall for a year:

One of the simplest projects I got done was an easy (and free for me) frame I put on the art my son and I made:

It was just a canvas and I knew it needed a little something to set it off and the black frame is perfect!

Have you ever tried a spending freeze like this? I found last month to be incredibly relaxing really. We stayed home a LOT more – running out to run errands actually became a chore because we were home so much and loved it. I used less gas and my car (and house!) stayed a lot cleaner. I may do this more than once a year! ;)