I know, I know… I vanished for 3 months. I took a break to focus on Gerrit’s 8th birthday and Halloween, then Andrew had a 5 week TDY plus the hustle and bustle of December and Christmas… I meant to get back into blogging as we rolled into 2023, and then I got hit with a cold bug that took me out for over 2 weeks. Now that I’m finally feeling better, I thought I would get back into blogging with my first resolution:
Blog weekly
Since this definitely didn’t stick last year, I figured I would work on it again this year! While I had thought Wednesdays would be the best day for me to work on blog posts, it has turned out that Wednesdays are often my busiest days that both boys are in school. So now I’m shooting for Mondays — wish me luck!
Make my bed every day
I have never been someone who makes their bed every morning. Andrew actually usually straightens things and makes the bed right before he goes to bed for the night, but the days I remember to make the bed, he tells me how much he likes having it made. So I’m definitely trying to make this a new habit not only for Andrew, but also because I really like how it looks too!
Do a load of laundry every day
This one is kind of a cheat resolution… I actually started trying to do this before the new year began. It’s been a really good habit for me though. I usually start a load in the washer when I’m starting dinner, then I switch it to the dryer after the kids go to bed. Sometimes I even fold that load of laundry before I go to bed while watching TV! Then it’s ready to go upstairs and be put away right away the next morning. One thing that held me up in the past was not bringing the dirty laundry downstairs daily. Andrew and I would just let it pile up in the basket until one of us grudgingly brought it down to the laundry room. But now, if Andrew doesn’t beat me to it, I bring it down after getting the kids to bed. The other thing that I would let get in the way of being on top of laundry was waiting until a basket was full in the laundry room. Yes, I still sort my laundry… it’s a habit I can’t seem to let go of. I mostly like to sort because I like to wash socks, underwear, and towels/washcloths on a quick cold cycle followed by a hot cycle, but I wash all of our clothes in cold water. Anyways… now that I’m washing a load daily, I just wash whatever basket is the most full, even if it’s not all the way full. Because honestly, a smaller load is going to wash and dry better than an overfilled load anyway.
Figure out a deep clean schedule
I know I’ve said that I’d prefer to do a hardcore 2-week deep clean of the house in the spring and fall than tackle it slowly all year round… but I think I’m changing my mind. I balked at the thought of fall cleaning this past September, and I think I only ended up getting a few things done in the kitchen. I totally lost steam, got overwhelmed, and ignored my to-do lists. So this year I’m going to try it the other way: tackle one small thing each day focusing on the downstairs in the spring and fall and the upstairs in the summer and winter. This will include decluttering, deep-cleaning, and any projects I want to get done in the house. Let me know if you’re interested in doing this with me, because I plan to start in March!
Start walking daily
This may have been one of my resolutions last year, or it was something I told myself I would do on the days both boys were in school this past fall. Either way… it hasn’t happened. Ideally, this is something I will do right after school drop off in the morning. So for now, I’m just going to shoot for 3 days a week. And I’ve realized that the reasons I don’t currently walk in the morning? 1. I’m self-conscious about walking by myself, and 2. I think it’s boring. So I think I’m going to start listening to a book or podcast while I walk to take care of both issues!
Do you come up with New Year’s resolutions for yourself? Do you usually find that you’re successful with them or not so much? I think all of my research into productivity and motivation has given me a lot of great ideas for being more successful with creating new habits, but we’ll see if 2023 is really my year!
On An Even Kiel 