5 Things I Do in the New Year

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5 Things I Do In The New Year | New Year, Now What?

Just a reminder, I have a quick 5 questions survey I would love for you to fill out about the blog. You can find that here. I will be picking someone who filled out in one of the surveys I have done to win a box of my favorite things!

So last year, I did a post about why I don't do New Year's Resolutions. I like to set goals throughout the year so that I can keep up with them rather than make big goals at the beginning of the year that I won't be able to keep up with. Personally I feel like so much changes in a year that the things I might feel like I need to work on in January, may not be something I need to work on in June or October. Things come up. Last year I started exercising every morning and I kept that up for about 5 months. But then Jackie's sleep schedule changed and so did mine. And that impacted my ability to get up at 5 am. Instead of beating myself up over it, I moved on.

There are some things that I like to do to prep for the new year. These are things I actually do when I have more than a week off of work at a time, but since that is usually at the end of the year, this is when it all happens! This year I started most of these things in the week between Christmas and New Years. I haven't finished them all yet but have plans to this weekend!

5 Things I Do In The New Year | Deep Clean

While I do clean throughout the year, I like to do an intense deep clean of our home before the new year. It's easy to get behind on the dusty baseboards and how dirty the fridge is throughout the year. I like to take 1-2 days and really scrub everything. Of course, after I do that clean, I find lots of missed spots and dirt that I didn't even know was there. But that is part of why I do this. This is also a time when go through mail/paperwork and file what needs to be filed and throw out the rest.

5 Things I Do In The New Year | Closet Purge

I purge my closet a few times a year but I like to have some time to do it and really think about what I am getting rid of. I sort everything into 4 piles: keep, donate to friends, donate & sell. The stuff I keep, I like to make sure I have worn it in the last year. If I haven't, I have to have a really good reason why I am keeping it. The items that I donate, I usually don't think I can sell or I know that a friend wants that specific item. Items I am selling are usually designer items or items that have only been worn once or even still have tags on them. I take pictures of these items and list them on Poshmark. You can read more about my tips for selling your stuff online here.

5 Things I Do In The New Year | Organize Closets

I love doing this. Before I had Jackie and when she was tiny, I would go through closets and drawers every 3-6 months. If I tried to do that now, Jackie would be taking and hiding stuff from the closets and drawers a lot more! So now this is something I like to do at the end of the year so I can also find all of the things Jackie has hidden!

I'm not sure about you, but throughout the year I gather beauty products, gifts, decorations and more in closets and drawers and I don't really worry about them until the end of the year. When I do get to organizing, I will go through and get rid of anything I have tried and didn't like, put items I haven't used yet into a basket and other items I want to gift or giveaway into another. This is also when I figure out if I need more baskets or drawer dividers to keep everything more organized.

Since I am already cleaning and putting Christmas decorations away, I like to sort through I have and get rid of anything that is broken or needs to be donated. Then I can store just the things I want to keep, instead of stuff I don't need to be holding on to.

5 Things I Do In The New Year |Laundry

I try to do laundry throughout the week and throughout the year anyway but at the end of the year, I like to make sure everything that hasn't been washed in awhile (blankets, bath mats, etc) is washed and fresh. This year I took the time to wash ALL THE THINGS.

Again this is a great time to figure out what items need to be gotten rid of or replaced. I was washing our duvet cover this year and I decided it was time for a new one. We have had this one for about 4 years and I have to wash it every 2-3 weeks due to my dust mite allergy. Technically I need to do it every week but it takes forever so that doesn't usually happen. But because of the very frequent washing, it was time for a new duvet cover. Our last one was from Pottery Barn and I was looking into getting another one from there this year. I decided to check a few other places and found one I really loved from Target. And that one was much cheaper! We have had it for a few days and I am loving it so far.

5 Things I Do In The New Year | Go Through Toys

I do like to go through Jackie's toys before Christmas, usually early November, so that I know what we need to donate, what is broken and what can be added to what we have for the holidays. But two months later, new things have broken and other toys have fallen out of favor. So I like to go through and sort the toys again. This also allows me to see if any toys need to be put away and help on to for any future kids.

Jackie's birthday is in April so there is plenty of time between Christmas and then but I can also use this time to figure out the best kinds of birthday presents for her. I can't wait for what we have in store for her this year!