New Year’s home resolutions to create a home you love

The beginning of the new year is a great time to check in with your current habits, processes, possessions, etc. to see if they still serve you. Setting resolutions for your career and personal life is the norm, of course. But it’s also a great time to set some new year’s home resolutions.

One of the biggest things I want to stress on this blog is the importance of creating a home you love. And a home that brings out the absolute best of you. If you take the time to set some great New Year’s home resolutions, it will give you that intention to help you create and maintain your dream home.

So here are the New Year’s home resolutions that I think will make all the difference in the comfort, happiness, and inspiration in your home.

1. consider your routines + help out future you

The very best homes are those that complement their inhabitants’ lives functionally. The design is functional as well as beautiful.

This is the perfect time to check in to see if your home could be serving you a purpose anywhere.

For example, I’ve been realizing over the past few months that my purse and work bag always end up on the dining table because they have nowhere else to go. (Or at least nowhere quick and easily accessible). To fix this in the new year, I’m going to make a change as simple as adding in a couple hooks to make my home’s design more fitted to my needs.

This may look different to every single one of you. You may find yourself setting your drink precariously on your couch’s arm because the coffee table is just too far. Get one of those little side drink tables and help yourself out.

Shoes may be piled up by the door because it’s too much of a hassle to bring your everyday gym or dog-walking shoes to the shoe closet. Put a simple little shoe rack by the door to tidy it up and make your life easier.

It’s truly that simple. Just consider your routines and check in if there are any alterations you can make in your house to align with them.

2. make a cleaning schedule

I know, I know. Not the sexiest New Year’s home resolution. But an important one for sure.

Cleaning is one of those things about having a home that you just need to deal with. And it’s something that inevitably feels annoying and overwhelming sometimes. My best advice with anything annoying but necessary is to create a process around it.

If you create a manageable and consistent cleaning schedule, you won’t be faced with a disaster of a home every couple weeks when you finally decide it’s time to get your shit together.

This schedule will have to fit into your life and work schedule, so it may look different for everyone. But here’s an example:

• Everyday: Tidy up any random things laying around, clean as you cook
• Tuesdays and Thursdays: Set out valet trash, sweep living room/hallway, run dishwasher
• Every Sunday: Wipe down surfaces, clean toilet, clean shower, vacuum
• Every other Sunday: Clean mirrors, sweep/mop
• Once a month: Blast some music, have some coffee (or wine) and deep clean the house – we’re talking junking out, scrubbing baseboards, cleaning the fridge, etc.
• Twice a year: Clean all carpets and upholstered surfaces

Once you break it down like this, you hold yourself accountable and also make sure that things don’t pile up and get out of control. For me, I like to break things down in chunks, so that’s why things are so spread apart. But if it makes more sense for your schedule to just dedicate every sunday morning to do all the cleaning, make that your routine.

(Quick note though: no matter your routine, I would always recommend to tidy daily and clean as you cook. It’s a lot easier to do this as one-off spot cleaning moments)

3. redesign a room or area that you never use

Nowww we’re getting to the fun stuff in the New Year’s home resolutions! In almost every home, there’s a space that goes unused or unappreciated. And my philosophy is that we should use every square foot of our homes to its fullest potential. So let’s give them a little revamp.

This space could be a whole room – like a home office, keeping room or basement. Or it could be just a space, like a hall closet, an entryway, a corner of your bedroom, even the bathroom vanity area. Let’s make it one of your New Near’s home resolutions to bring some life to these spaces and get you excited about using them.

This could connect with the first resolution, and you could turn something like an entryway into a functional and aesthetically pleasing drop zone for your keys and purse.

But it could also be as simple as just making it not boring. Your home office or vanity area may be so undesigned – or outdated – that you don’t feel compelled to spend time in that area. Instead, you’re working from the couch or doing your makeup by the floor length mirror in your bedroom. Put your touch on these places – whether it’s with paint, new furniture, or even just a piece of artwork.

As for an area like the corner of your room. If it’s just sitting there empty and uninspiring, bring some inspiration to it! Add in a comfy beanbag to lounge on. Or a cute rug to at least visually fill up the space. Or display your record collection in a cool way. Use this opportunity to create a moment that is you and makes you feel good every time you see it.

4. DIY or touchup old pieces

I mentioned this last year in my easy home improvements for the new year post, but it’s making its ways back here. Because this is a hill that I will die on. Sometimes bringing some new life into your home doesn’t have to mean bringing in new pieces.

If you have some walls or furniture that are looking a little tired, give them a new coat of paint. Get them back to looking brand new.

But you could also go a different route and give these same old pieces a different vibe. If you’re a DIYer, this is a perfect opportunity to flex these creative muscles. You could slap on a different paint color, take off some extra ornamentation on a piece of furniture that you’re just not feelin’ anymore, or rep-upholster something with a fun new fabric.

Frugality and sustainability is the name of the game here. See what you can do with what you have before you go out searching for something new.

5. get rid of what doesn’t serve you and vow not to collect more random shit

There’s little that I love more than a good purge. I find myself going through all my shit at least every couple of months. But I love to use the New Year as a time to really get serious and check in with the stuff I’ve hung onto all year.

Ask yourself: when’s the last time I used this? When’s the next time I’ll use this? Is this going to be annoying to replace down the road? Why tf do I even have this?

Your answers to these questions will lead you to your answer of whether you actually need to keep this in your possession or not.

This can be a pretty good way to make some beginning-of-the-year spending money, too. Or a little help paying off some holiday debt you’ve accrued. One man’s trash truly is another man’s treasure sometimes. So put up some of your stuff on places like OfferUp or Facebook marketplace and free up some space and make some cash.

The most crucial step now: Once you get rid of everything, think about how you’re going to prevent accumulating more useless stuff. To some extent, this is going to happen because you’re human. And that’s okay. But if you can check in with yourself and say, “hey, I just got rid of a ton of X, maybe I shouldn’t buy so much X next year because it’s always too much.”

It also helps to plan out a wishlist for yourself of stuff that you know would bring value. If you have this list, you can prioritize buying meaningful items, leaving less room in your budget (and your house) for things you’ll inevitably get rid of during next year’s purge).

consider these New Year’s home resolutions, and you’re on your way to having a home you love this year and beyond!

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