5 New Year's Resolutions for Your Home and How to Stick to Them

When the family and friends have all gone home and we've managed to not overindulge (too much) - now it's time to start focusing on our New Year's Resolutions!

One of the top New Year's resolutions every year is to get more organized. The key to consistency is to take it in bite-size chunks to keep it manageable and not overwhelming. That is, unless you decide to hire someone, like Ditch the Clutter, who can help you get a fresh start all at once. Here are 5 New Year's Resolutions for your home you can manage in small doses to help you get you organized this year.

1. Packing Away the Decorations - As you begin to pack up all the holiday decorations, keep in mind what you truly love and pack only what matters. Take a few minutes to get more organized by taking pictures and logging details that will help you remember what goes where next year. One quick tip is to add little labels to cords and the bottoms of decorations to tell you where they all go.

2. Paperwork - Ugg! That dreaded task of taxes is approaching faster than we care to even consider. We hear it every year. "I wish I could get all this paperwork organized!" And that makes this a great New Year's Resolution for your home. Start getting a jump on all that paperwork now with a handy scanner like the Neat Scanner. However, if you don't want to make that investment, you can even use the camera on your phone and scan documents in to a free service like Evernote. If you decide to do just 10 or 15 minutes of paperwork organizing every few days, you'll be on top of it before you can say tax collector. 

3. Declutter - Whether it's just one closet or a whole home that needs to be decluttered as part of your New Year's resolutions for your home, pick a day once every couple of weeks to make that space the focus of the declutter. Start with the closets using our 5 Steps to Declutter Your Closet Worksheet and you'll be quickly on your way to a clutter-free home.

4. Go Maintenance Free - A great way to get your home organized AND reduce the amount of ongoing work required to maintain your home is to think about maintenance free options.  As you replace light bulbs, consider switching to LED bulbs that last between 18 to 46 years! There are even smoke detectors with 10 year lithium batteries that do not require getting up in the middle of the night to hunt down and change that chirping low battery alert!

5. One In. One Out. - The best way to maintain a clutter-free home is to never add without subtracting. Decide this year you will practice the rule of one-in/one-out. For everything you bring into your home, something else must be donated, recycled or thrown away. 

Tips to Stick to Your New Year's Resolutions for Your Home

• Create a plan - Whether you struggle with cooking healthy meals, keeping a clean, clutter-free home or taking steps to minimize and downsize, the key to achieving these goals is to create a plan. Use the right tools such as meal planners or calendars to create a detailed plan for how you expect to achieve the results you desire.
• Change your mindset - The best new year's resolutions aren't all or nothing. Instead it is a matter of building on small habits over time. Don't try to do it all, just do enough to make small improvements.
• Minimize the number of goals - If you set too many goals or resolutions, you are less likely to stick to any of them. Choose just one or two goals for every area of your life (not each area) so that you can stay incredibly focused. Once you have achieved those goals, you don't have to wait till next year to set new ones, you can start a new goal or resolution at any time.

Don't let 2017 pass by without setting and achieving some important New Year's resolutions for your home. With this quick list and easy tips, anyone can be well on their way to an organized home.

Happy holidays everyone!