Five New Year's resolutions for your home

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By Elisa Krovblit

Ringing in a new year doesn’t change who you are, unless you let it. It’s a marker in time, a point from which you can decide to make a change. A fresh year can bring fresh perspective and so many people use January 1st to make resolutions – leave the old bad habits behind with the old year and step into the new year full of good intentions for a better you. New Year’s resolutions can be anything from bettering your health to changing your attitude. How about bettering your home!

Here are five great New Year’s resolutions for your home

Clean

Maybe you don’t clean enough – or maybe you don’t get into the details. It’s easy to get into a rut with your cleaning. You do the same tasks and take care of the same things in your regular routine. But what about the details? Try adding a few new elements to your clean routine to get the best results. Whether it’s the appliances, the baseboards or the overflowing junk drawer, take a look around and see what really needs attention and then make it your resolution to add that to the cleaning routine.

Streamline

You can’t bear to toss it. It may be getting old, it may be damaged, it may just not fit with your decor, but you can’t make yourself throw it away. Get over it. If it’s got a chip, a scratch, a dent or a damage that renders it unsightly and unusable, it’s time to repair it or toss it. If you just don’t like it, toss it. Do it now. Either it’s important enough and valuable enough to deserve your attention within the week or it’s just going to clutter up your life until you get to it some day. Let me tell you, “some day” never comes. It’s now or never. You don’t have enough room in your home – or your headspace – for that kind of clutter. (If it’s useful to someone else, make sure to donate or sell it – but get it gone!)

Organize

Have you lost track of the bills, the school memos, the doctor and dentist appointments? Are there piles on various surfaces? Are there toys in the den, socks under the couch, books on your dresser and an array of madness attached to the fridge with magnets? Your system isn’t working. Get organized. Take it day by day, room by room, surface by surface. Pick one item to organize and get it done. Find a place for everything, and if it has no place, maybe it just doesn’t belong in your home. Magnet by magnet, remove it all from the fridge. Page by page, book by book, that clutter will get organized. I don’t know what to say about the socks under the sofa, but get them to the hamper, stat.

Rearrange

You get used to your home a certain way and just don’t think to try new arrangements. Maybe you can improve the flow in your home, make it function better by doing a little bit of rearranging. Move the seating around, lay the rug in a different direction, change up the pictures on the walls – even if you’re just swapping them between rooms. See if your kitchen countertops could use a little bit of rearranging so that you have more room for food prep. Get containers that hold your utensils so that they’re at hand for cooking and baking. See if the bedrooms work with beds in a different orientation. A bit of Feng Shui – or just a bit of change – may bring you sweeter dreams.

Update

Are there a few things that need updating? A bit of paint to clean up a wall or refresh a room; a dark corner that’s been begging for a new lamp for way too long; a piece of furniture that’s old and worn and just not working for you? Get to painting. It’s a cheap and easy way to revitalize your home. Get yourself a lamp and reclaim that dark corner. Decide whether it’s worth recovering that old chair or whether you need something new, but don’t suffer through another year of unsightly discomfort. There’s no reason for that!
See if these New Year’s resolutions for your home help make it an even better place to live.
Original source: YP Next Home
Read original article here.