New Year's Resolutions for Your Home
A new year usually means one thing: a list of resolutions. With the 2020 upon us, a lot of us will be making promises to ourselves in the quest to be or do things better.
But according to research, January 12 is the day most resolutions are broken. Sadly, the reason many of us can’t stick to our New Year’s resolutions is because many of them require huge lifestyle changes.
Have you thought about making resolutions for your home instead? We’ve searched the internet and read many articles suggesting what resolutions you can make for your home and have now put together this list for 2020.
We’ve kept them simple and achievable and the beauty is that you don’t have to do them all at once, you can pick and choose what suits you and even plan to do them later in the year when the season or timing is more suitable. You don’t have to make huge lifestyle changes all at once so in theory they should be easier to keep!
Here they are:
Give every new item a home
The festive season particularly often means an accumulation of new things, and it’s easy to let these new items sit where they were put on Christmas Day. Instead of sitting them to the side to gather dust and create clutter, give them a home as soon as you can. If this means a big rearrangement is in order, even better.
Adopt the one in one out rule
A popular rule to follow is out with the old and in with the new. Got a new pair of sneakers for Christmas? Donate your old ones. Scored a new book? Take the old ones down to the library. While you’re doing so, go through the whole house and see what else you can donate or throw out.
Do a deep clean
A new year provides the perfect time to do a deep clean of your home. Take it room by room, making sure to tackle the places that have the highest foot traffic first. Scrub, vacuum, rinse and repeat until your home looks brand new again.
Purge your spaces
Cleaning is always a great place to start but creating real change in your home will require you to take it a step further and purge the things you don’t need. At first, this can seem a little daunting, but be ruthless. Look at it is way: If something hasn’t seen the light of day for an entire year (or more), then you’ve spent an entire year proving to yourself that you don’t really need it.
The important part about this step is to be methodical. Don’t just start ripping open closets and drawers and pulling everything out. You’ll wear yourself out much sooner than you think, and the pile of things that will end up sitting on the floor is more likely to discourage than encourage you. Instead, go one room at a time. The process will take a little longer, but it will be much more manageable and far more likely to reach completion.
Take a look at your weekly systems
Just like a job review, take the time at the start of 2020 to look at how you operate your home: what works and what could be done better. Do you throw out a lot of food? Do you need to create a cleaning roster? It’s a great time to focus on these things. This is an excellent time to look at your budget too. While your wallet might be feeling the pinch, the new year is a perfect time to look at how your budget can go further in 2020.
Enlist the help of every family member to help your house run smoothly. Hold a family meeting before the kids go back to school and agree a range of age-appropriate tasks which can be undertaken at a specific time each day and/or week; remind them that the time they help you save around the house can be spent doing fun things together. Make it routine:
Daily: Dishes go in the dishwasher every night – no excuses! Dirty clothes go in the hamper and jackets or clean clothes are hung in the cupboard. Bring everything back to its assigned place.
Weekly: Clean your entire house, using these tips:
Keep all of your cleaners, as well as rubber gloves and spare cleaning cloths – in a portable carryall that moves with you from room to room.
Stash cleaning implements such as a toothbrush, scraper, sponge, a few cleaning cloths and plastic bags in a builder’s apron that you wear when you clean. Hook your glass cleaner and all-purpose cleaning spray on the loops to keep your hands free as you work around the room clockwise, cleaning from high (cabinets) to low (floors.)
Focus on one type of cleaning at a time. Wipe down fingerprints on all of the cabinets, for instance, before moving on to spraying and wiping counters. Then move on to windows and mirrors and appliances. Once that’s done move on to sweeping and then mopping floors.
For optimum efficiency, divide the jobs among at least three parties: One of you can do the dusting/vacuuming and changing beds, the other can do the bathroom clean up, leaving only the kitchen and garbage emptying for you to handle.
The upside? You can get the whole house done more quickly, leaving more time on the weekends for fun.
Spend time together on DIY projects
This is an effective resolution for those who have bored kids at home. Holidays can be expensive when trying to entertain kids every day, but simple DIY projects such as updating the garden or doing some painting is a great way to start the year off with a bang.
Bring fresh flowers home
This may sound like a little thing, but you’ll be surprised at the impact that a range of fresh flowers can have on each and every room of your home. Compared to some of the other options, florals are among the least expensive makeovers you can bring to a space. Finding the right colours, heights and arrangements can really complement the existing decor in your rooms.
Potted plants can do anything from cleaning the air to providing at-home aromatherapy to lift your mood or help you relax. Faux flowers and plants are very popular at the moment and are readily available in a range of prices. They are a good alternative for longevity or for those with a not very green thumb.
Put your mail in one place
Don’t allow letters, bills and junk mail to accumulate on the kitchen table and worktops. Assign one place for all post and treat this as a ‘holding area’. Set aside some time twice-weekly to go through the pile, dealing immediately with urgent matters, and filing away or recycling the rest.
Find a user-friendly way to file
If paperwork terrifies you, don’t make it too complicated this year. Simply take a pack of document wallets and mark each one with categories, for example ‘gas’, ‘electricity’, ‘broadband’, ‘school’. Pop each letter or bill into the relevant file and find an accessible place to keep them all. Better still, opt for paperless billing whenever possible.
Plan it out
Because some of these resolutions are things you don’t have to do every day -or even every month – one of the best ways to make sure that you’ll come back to them is to plan them out in advance. Decide the order you’ll do things and plan your attack over a couple of months.
So, there they are. Pick and choose any or all of these to your heart’s content and good luck!
