Time to make those 2018 New Years Home Organization Resolutions! It’s that time again It’s here. 2018 is here! It’s worth saying again: Time to make those 2018 New Years Home Organization Resolutions. Rather than focus on the usual resolutions, I want to talk about boosting home productivity! How do we boost home productivity to a new level in 2018? I have three words for you-“map them out!”
Here is a recap of the post in episode 4 of my podcast on YouTube:
2018 New Years Home Organization Resolutions
Draw a road map of your home organization intentions
Well, I find that mapping our intentions and then targets are much simpler and more effective than saying “let’s write down our goals and resolutions” for the new year. Just the word “goals” and “resolutions” are vague by design and meaning. And we know they are so easy to forget…..
Yet, our intentions state our specific passions and desires about something we care about and want to change. When we “intend” to do something, it is more intense than being “resolved” to do it. That’s why intentions are more powerful than resolutions!
A Road Map of Our Intentions-
2018 New Years Home Organization Resolutions
So, now that we know we need to define our intentions for 2018, where do we begin? To me the best most effective and simplest way to do this is to follow my simple system:
Intention Planning-
First, we define our intentions, then map them or draw a picture of what we want to do to make the intention a reality, then develop specific routines for these maps, and carve out regular time to follow our routines. Intention planning not only helps our 2018 New Years Home Organization Resolutions succeed, it helps every aspect of our lives. And it does take a bit of practice…
2018 New Years Home Organization Resolutions
There are some things to consider when we start:
1. People’s mindsets usually operate by season. We plan most of our lives around the seasons.
2. Spring means cleaning the home, planning our summer vacations, outings, graduations, and weddings.
3. Summer means being outside and having fun with the family. In the US, we celebrate a lot of holidays in the summer-Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day. We have lots of events to plan for. And then, it’s back to school!!!
4. In the fall, we turn our attention towards getting ready for the winter and the holidays.
Since I have a big garden and yard, I spend a lot of September and October cleaning the beds and preparing things for winter. We have cold winters so I have a lot of clean-up and storage to attend to. Also, we need to take the time to prepare our pantries, kitchen, and home for holiday feasts and parties.
In the winter, we celebrate the holidays and try our best to keep our home productive and organized. This is one of the most challenging times of the year to keep so much moving and have things fall into place and still relax and enjoy the season.
2018 New Years Home Organization Resolutions
The key to successful home productivity starts with the right mindset that knows that if we keep things clutter-free, we are ahead of the game.
Decluttering is the lion’s share of the labor when we organize our homes. It will be the hardest part of keeping your 2018 New Years Home Organization Resolutions. I work the most with clients on this technique. Daily decluttering routines make your life so much more productive throughout the day, week, and month. Here is what I do to keep things clutter-free:
- Now I love to use baskets in each room to put my things or stuff that need sorting for another time. I don’t like piles. I do like baskets and pretty bins.
- So, take time regularly to go through these baskets and put things away. In the meantime, my stuff is safely stored, not piled all around the house, and is waiting to be sorted and put away. If you want more intense information on how to use a basket to organize, hop over to Organize 365 and check out their Sunday Basket Method!
About our 2018 New Years Home Organization Resolutions:
Another Great Story To Tell You
I have an old laptop in my basement and I use it to make cards and scrapbooks and I play my favorite exercise videos with it. I have not thought about cleaning the drives or maintaining that older computer in a year. This morning, just for kicks, I opened the backup drives and found 10 years of digital tax returns. Yikes. And, I thought that I put those in a safe place. Right! I also found some expensive software that I bought and still use that I needed to be backed up.
The form you have selected does not exist.
So, I need an intention for my older laptop. Since it is important to me, I need to:
Keep the drives clean
Not store important digital documents on it
Optimize the drive-The drive was replaced two years ago, but I’m not supposed to forget about it. I want it to last. I love that old laptop.
Run diagnostics on it each month to keep it healthy and running great
Keep the software up to date for security purposes
Now, you see from this example, we need simple, specific intentions for what matters most…our home…our family….and our computers…
Free Goodies!
Here is a fabulous recipe for Mushroom Wellington that I made for Thanksgiving! It was a hit…
Your Challenge to commit to your
2018 New Years Home Organization Resolutions
And you now see, it is easy to map out your 2018 New Years Home Organization Resolutions for the year. Grab a piece of paper, or your journal as you know how I love journals, and assign one intention per page. Write the intention at the top of the page and underneath it, literally, draw boxes and answer:
- What-what is the intention or most important use for each room/space? How urgent and how long has the clutter been going on and what happens if you do nothing. Write out the answers!
- Who-who is involved with the problem (clutter) and who will clear the clutter?
- When-when should each intention begin? How urgent is clearing this clutter in that space? Why is it urgent or not urgent? What happens if you do nothing? You drop your 2018 New Years Home Organization Resolutions. Kind of disappointing…
- Where-what spaces have to be done in what order? This is answered by your explanation of the urgency for clearing the clutter in that room!
- List the benefit or results of clearing the clutter in each room. An example is to clear the clutter in your bedroom. Why, sound sleep. Now that your closet is organized, you will get to work on time and enjoy getting ready with great planned outfits!!! This goes on and on…
Enjoy my latest episode on the podcast-cut your grocery produce bill in half!
Next time, we’ll talk about mapping our intentions by quarter…since we all follow a seasonal organizational flow. We can also chat about breaking these down by month and by week. It is essential to remember that to succeed, we will only focus on one “thing” or “intention at a time. More about that in our next talk.
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