Implementing New Year’s Resolutions the Whole Year as you declutter your home, enhance your LIFE and make room for change.
New Year’s resolutions are about choosing to change
“At the start of this New Year, we can choose: choose a new way of being and choose to not allow outworn habits to control our lives.”
Elizabeth J. Tokatly, M.A., L.M.F.T.
“Whatever you focus on will grow”
I love the New Year with a focus on new beginnings and changing my habits into better tomorrows. Writing my New Year’s Resolutions is a ritual I love. The time I take to write my resolutions is a time dedicated to evaluating the changes I need to make. I continually work at changing ineffective habits and Developing new skillsets for growth.
I love having beautiful things around me. I enjoy “the things” that give life to my home. Managing “things” so they do not consume requires constant decluttering and organization. Clutter only weighs you down, steals your joy and positive energy. Take a look at what your home says about your life. Does your home remind you of who you love, who has loved you, where you have been or where you want to go?
A well-organized space gives us a sense of peace and calm. Staying organized is like gardening: we are constantly weeding as part of our routine. We often don’t have a lot of control in our life, but we do have control of the objects we put in our home and the organization to enjoy your treasures.
I have a system that helps me stay focused on both the routine of decluttering and implementing my New Year’s resolutions all year long.
At the beginning of the year, I make a list of all the changes I need to address. Wow, this list is always long! In the past, I would find that because there were so many changes that need to be made, I would overwhelm myself trying to get everything accomplished at the turn of January One.
In order to not become overwhelmed, I built a system that addresses all the changes I would like to make and making it easier for me to accomplish them successfully.
Here’s what I do: I work on a yearly calendar with my resolutions, focusing on a few items that need to change each month. This keeps me focused and I have a better chance of being successful with the changes I am attempting. If one of my resolutions takes a bit longer to “stick,” I carry a given resolution over to a second month until it becomes ingrained as a habit. Approaching my resolutions this way helps me to create change in my habits, skills, values, home projects and be more successful with the completion of each resolution.
You can do this too. Make your list of the changes you desire in your life and then initiate them one month at a time. I find that after I focus my attention on specific items for an entire month, I found I REALLY BECAME successful with the things I was trying to accomplish. This is the constantly weeding routine.
Ok…since I am being vulnerable about this, I will share my set-up of News Year’s resolutions and how I organize myself for change monthly.
I start New Year’s resolutions early with December resolutions. Admittedly, this is only because I may have completed my previous year’s goals so I work my twelve months early in December of the current year.
There are four categories that I use:
- Personal Enrichment Resolutions
- Career Improvements
- Home Maintenance Projects
- Home Improvement Projects
These four categories allow me to sort the things that need to be done, develop a budget and understand the time allotment that is needed to complete each task. Let’s get to it:
Your 2020 New Year’s Resolutions
December 2019: Kick off to prepare for the New Year:
- Declutter Organization plan: analyze your things
- Research donation centers and recycling organizations
- Arrange for weekly pick-up at your house, I like Thursday
- Inventory cleaning supplies and disposal boxes or bags
- Develop a yearly cleaning notebook and computer calendar for accountability and note-taking for the next year.
- Celebrate the gifts of family, friendship and God’s Love
- (For how-to details, see Ruth’s”2020 Decluttering” blog article which will post January 5.)
January 2020 and following months: Celebrate new beginnings and new tomorrows:
Personal Enrichment:
Life is an effort but the rewards are well worth it.
This is self-evaluation for new growth and personal habits.
Home Maintenance Projects:
Declutter and organize the whole house, clean out and shape up all corners of the house.
I break my house down into a room a week. This means that my project of decluttering will run into February. I’ll leave the garage until the last month. When the weather is warmer I can focus my attention on the garage.
Home Improvement Projects
These will take a bit more money and planning.
Here are some simple rules that I keep in mind when I am developing my goals and resolutions for the year.
Hints for success
- Be goal specific
- Write them down, and then organize them
- Be realistic
- Get rid of all broken things in your home and life
- Make room for new beginnings with your resolutions
- Know your habits
- Measure your progress and celebrate as you go
- Be mindful that you might not complete all as planned; Life sometimes steps in the way.
- Brag and share your success and efforts. This keeps you committed when you have let others know and they ask about your success
- Visualize it completed and the joy you will have with your success
- Reward yourself for the baby steps completed. We all need to be our cheerleaders and Santa Claus.
Throughout the year:
Appreciate and track your progress.
Post your resolutions each month in the bathroom as a daily reminder of the changes you are focusing on for that specific month.
If they don’t all get accomplished or completed, just roll the unfinished list to the next month and adjust. Flexibility is necessary.
My closing thoughts:
2020 is ready for change. Change in the nation, change in the economy, change in life. Get ready for the changes that are coming! This system helps prepare for change and keeps life with some sense of order and accomplishment.
Good luck, I hope you are also looking forward to the changes that may be coming in
2020, THE YEAR TO CHANGE FOR THE BEST OF YOUR LIFE TO COME.
Whatever system you create for yourself to tackle the changes needed in your life, make it happen. Tomorrow never comes until after today and today is the day for making change. To New Tomorrows,
Ruth Chafin
Send your interior design questions to “Contact Us” below.
Ruth Ann Chafin has over 30 years of experience as an interior designer in the Inland Empire region. You may contact her at (909) 796-9422 the office or 909-856-3696 her cell or at “Contact Us” below if you have any questions or would like to schedule an in-home appointment.
Contractor’s License #799580