10 Things To Do At Home To Make This Your Best Year Yet

Our home is where we spend a majority of our time, we eat there, we sleep there, its where we love, laugh and hope. It is the one place where all of our hopes and dreams are safe from this crazy world we live in, so it should be no surprise that having your best year yet starts at HOME.

We are creatures of habit by nature and if we’re not careful we can easily become stuck in the day in day out life that we’ve created. For some, this is great because they have somehow managed to figure life out. Basically, they have their shit together and honestly make life look easy. But for others, juggling everything can really be a struggle.

I use the word they because I have never been one of those people, in fact, I have struggled more than most people know with procrastination, fear of change, and just plain old laziness.

You see I have spent countless hours making lists, then procrastinating about my list only to end up feeling guilty that I never actually did a thing I promised myself that I would. I was stuck in a never-ending vicious cycle!

The longer I thought about what it would take for me to truly be doing life and doing it well the more I realized that it all starts at home!

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So today I am going to let you in on my little secret, the 10 Things To Do At Home To Make This Your Best Year Yet!

Declutter: This is the one we usually dread hearing the most, especially when you have spent the past year allowing things to pile up until all of the sudden its completely out of control. The simple fact is clutter weighs us down, slows us down and keeps us from living a life that runs smoothly, the life we actually want.

Imagine the extra time you would have if throughout the day you didn’t spend that extra 10 minutes here and another 10 there searching for what you need? If everything was in its designated space and we weren’t wasting time sifting through the junk that clogs up our lives we would all be better off.

Taking the time to declutter and clean up the space you live in is the number one thing you can do to set yourself up for your best year yet!

Let go of all of the junk we as a society have convinced ourselves we need and pare things down to something much more manageable. Be honest, what home do you know of that looks amazing with piles of junk everywhere? We are inspired by things we want, and I can guarantee that you don’t want a house full of clutter so get it done already!

Paper Systems: One of the worst culprits of clutter in our home is paper! Wheather it’s in the form of mail, school papers, or work papers, it somehow seems to end up all over the place! So after years of dealing with it, we have finally found a solution to rid our home of the paper clutter and also make managing it very easy.

Start by first signing up for paperless statements on anything that will allow you to. This will slow the amount of mail coming into the home but still allow you to access the things you need. This system will also require you to invest in a decent scanner, we use this one here but there are much better options out there if you’re willing to spend the money. You could also use one like this if you have less paper coming in.

Once you have the scanner, designate a drop zone in the form of a paper tray like this one, any important papers that come into the home should be placed inside the tray, anything else should be opened and thrown away immediately.

When that’s finished you can easily spend a few minutes once a month scanning important documents, you can then use online storage managers such as Dropbox or Evernote to organize those scans.

Suddenly your home is free of all of that useless paper that was once taking up valuable space in your home and you also save time because you no longer have to search endlessly for important things such as an old bill or statement.

Purge Closets: Nothing is more annoying than knowing exactly what you want to wear but being unable to find it, or if you’re like me walking into the closet is like walking into a minefield.  Somehow over the years, I have accumulated so many clothes that they are now spewing onto my husband’s side, which is not okay with him..

Purging your closets should happen once every six months or so. Be 100% honest with yourself when answering these three questions. Does it fit? Has it been worn in the past six months? and Do I still love it?

If you answer no to any of those questions it is a good contender for the donate pile. If it happens to be a more expensive item that you just cannot bare donating then think of a fair price and list the item on eBay or craigslist.

Reselling old name brand clothing and jackets is actually one of my favorite ways to get some extra cash for things like school clothes or new coats for the kids. Try it out, you may be surprised how much you get! Always practice safety when using sites like craigslist, they actually have a safety page here with several tips.

Laundry Boss: Around our house, the laundry seems to pile up faster than I can wash it. Things like the holidays, the dreaded wintertime colds, and vacations tend to mess up my typical laundry flow. So every once and a while we go through and do as many loads as it takes to get the laundry completely done!

Yes I know it sounds like cruel and unusual punishment but be sure to enlist your families help, one person starts the laundry and one person folds and hangs up the laundry.

Once it is all complete, every morning before you start your day throw a load into the washer when you come home from work, throw it into the dryer, then after dinner, you can fold and put away the load.

Doing it this way ensures nothing piles up to the point that it gets overwhelming and it frees up the weekends so you can spend it doing the things you love!

Pantry and Fridge: All those holiday leftovers aren’t going to throw themselves away! Once all of the holiday dust settles is the perfect time to go through and clean out the fridge and pantry from top to bottom. Toss out any expired food or things you know you won’t finish before they expire. Make a list of everything you need to replace and be sure to wipe down the inside. Keeping the fridge and pantry cleaned out will help you with the next step.

Create A Meal Plan: For years I spent at least three out of five days a week going to the grocery store! It was really ridiculous I know… This is one of the biggest time-suckers on the planet and time is the one thing we all want more of.

Once a month or every Sunday sit down and create a meal plan for the month/week. Once you’ve decided on the meals you will then write down everything you will need to prepare the meals.

After you’ve finished, create a shopping list of all of the items you will need for the week in the following order, produce, dairy, meats, dry goods, canned goods, once you’ve completed your list its time to shop.

Be sure to complete your shopping the same day instead of putting it off. This ensures you are prepared for the week ahead and won’t have to spend valuable time shopping after work.

Book Your Calendar: Each year I always end up with at least three surprise birthdays, then I am left scrambling trying to drum up a card somewhere or left feeling super guilty because I forgot the birthday of someone special.

To keep this from happening, go through and write down every single birthday of the important people in your life on a planner or binder like this one. You can even list reminders the week before to ensure you don’t come up short in the gift department.

I also like to go buy several birthday cards to keep on hand for the times that I do forget. This has saved my butt more times than I can count and I love picking out funny cards so it doesn’t seem like a chore!

You will also want to write down any important dates such as anniversaries, planned vacations, weddings or any dates you know you won’t be available.

Get Your Digital Act Together: In my world, nothing can get out of control faster than my inbox! Take the time and trash any unimportant emails and organize the ones you need to keep by creating folders with detailed names, you will be so grateful you did.

Plus having thousands of emails can quickly clog up your phone storage. Once you’ve cleaned everything, be sure to delete any useless emails as they come in so you can stay on top of things easily.

Deep Clean: Now that you have gotten rid of all of the clutter and there are no longer useless objects clogging up your home its time to deep clean! I’m talking scrubbing baseboards type of deep clean.

If you did a thorough and honest job on the steps above you won’t have to spend time organizing or moving things around that you really don’t need which should cut down on the time it takes to do this.

Start at the top and work your way down, dust everything especially fans, clean baseboards, pull out furniture and vacuum underneath. Yes, this may take a little while but it will take much less time than if you had just started cleaning and not decluttered.

As you’re going through each room take note of anything that is broken or needs to be replaced such as light bulbs, towel bars, leaky faucets, old caulking, chipped paint, etc. This will help you on the next step.

Goals: In the same binder/planner you wrote the birthdays, sit down and write down your yearly goals. Do this with intent and purpose, really dig deep and write down things that will lead you to what you really want in life.

Maybe you’ve struggled with something for the past year, write down steps to help you turn that around. After you’ve listed your personal goals, start a new list and write down your home goals.

Home goals can be anything from completing a room makeover to changing a faucet or adding landscaping to your front yard, whatever it is, make sure you write it down. Next, take your list and your calendar and in the order of importance start adding a project a month to your calendar.

For smaller projects, you can do more than one in a month but the point is to get it written down and acknowledge it is now a part of your schedule. Carving out specific time to do projects has really helped our family to get more accomplished throughout the year.

As the year goes on the importance of a project may change but overall this should make remembering what needs to be done and completing those tasks much easier!

When you’ve completed all of the tasks grab yourself a glass of wine, you deserve it! You have set yourself up to have your best year yet with a little work and soul searching you can make such a difference in the direction and quality of your life and always remember no matter what, it all starts at home!

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