December 29, 2020

3 Things I Did to Get Organized for the New Year

We all know that resolutions fall by the wayside – some more quickly than others. Instead of focusing on resolutions I always focus on Systems and Rituals instead. These are things that connect to each other and propel me toward my goals. I pair Systems and Rituals up all year long and have been for as long as I can remember.

Want to make some forward progress? Take smaller steps.

I love the week between Christmas and the New Year. It’s calm, the kids are playing with toys and new things and we have a quiet schedule. I like to take this time to prepare a couple areas of the home for the New Year. Last year I focused on a decluttering a couple areas of the home and reorganizing holiday decorations.

This year I set up a new organizational system in the office, I set up my Homekeeping Planner and went through 2020 paperwork (this is also part of the Monthly Focus for December – you can find the Monthly Focus in the Homekeeping Planner and the Homekeeping Society subscription), and we purged about 1/3 of the things in our basement (and scheduled a donation pick up the same day). The basement purge was something that my husband and I had talked about for a couple months – we spent about an hour and a half and went through items, moved boxes, and the all of us (kids included) hauled stuff up to the garage. Sorry I don’t have any before pictures – it was a flurry of activity, ha! The moral of this story?  We put this off for months and it took an hour and a half. I should know this, nothing takes as long as we think it does. Take some time and do something you’ve been putting off.

Here’s the new organizational system in the office – it’s super simple, but I’m loving it!  I bought this file folder rack for my Homekeeping Planner and Homekeeping Binder, notepads and notebooks. Instead of having these things propped up on my desk or in a drawer, this system keeps them where I use them and keeps them at the ready. You can find all of the pictured paper goods here in my shop.

These three things will set me and the rest of the family up for success as we move into 2021. You don’t need to do these 3 things but they were nagging at me for awhile and I decided to just take care of it before the new year so they don’t have to be my goals again 🙂

Want to change what you’re doing? Look for problems and find simple ways to fix them.

My challenge for you is to choose one thing that you meant to do this year and just take care of it. Get it done and off your list for the new year. It’ll feel good and you’ll be giving yourself the free gift of organization and if you do a little decluttering, you’ll free up mental space and stress as well. Then choose something that will help you feel more organized and ready for the new year – planning and dealing with paperwork always helps me with that.

How about you – what 3 things can you do between now and January 1st to set yourself up for success?