New Year, New You: Organizing Your Life

This is the third installment of our January blog series ‘New Year, New You.’ You’ll find a new article relating to resolutions, goals and tips on how to get your year started off right in January! 

January is always a time for reflection and growth, as evidenced by so many people’s eagerness to make New Year’s Resolutions. I’m not a big believer in resolutions, mostly because they’re often vague and have a tendency to fail, but I’m still a believer in goals. This year I’m focused on becoming more organized in every aspect of my life. Part of this is out of necessity – I’ve just moved into a new apartment and unpacking is more productive when it’s organized – but I also find I’m much happier when my things and thoughts are organized. I’m generally a well-kept person who loves calendars and to-do lists, but there’s always room for improvement! So here a few goals of mine this year, and how I’ve kept up with them (or not) in January. Maybe you can learn from my methods or from my mistakes.

2018 Goal: Take part in more activities, exploring both Austin and Texas as a whole

How is it going? My boyfriend and I each separately made lists of things we would love to do in 2018, from visiting museums to attending festivals to eating at new restaurants. Once we had our initial lists, we split them into categories and posted them on a cork board to keep track of what we accomplish throughout the year. It’s organized, but there’s also room for flexibility, and we don’t have to sit around for hours at a time trying to remember what we wanted to do or thinking of new activities; they’re available to look over on our wall. While we haven’t crossed anything off the list just yet, our February is packed with activity, so it’s looking good so far.

2018 Goal: Unpack moving boxes in an organized fashion & decorate the new apartment

How is it going? The decorating part has moved along swimmingly, with our common areas and guest room decked out with wall art, furniture and figurines. The master bedroom is a work in progress, but it’s getting there. The biggest issue is unpacking and finding room for everything. Most of the necessities have been taken care of, but there are still a handful of boxes sitting around, waiting to be unpacked. We have bought organizational tools with differing levels of success:

• Blu-ray/DVD shelves: built and packed with movies
• Plastic drawers: holding bathroom essentials and accessories so the counter isn’t cluttered
• Label maker: excited to use, but it’s still in its packaging
• Storage containers: filled with holiday decorations and stored in the outdoor closet, since they’re seasonal items

2018 Goal: Make sure chores around the house are being shared

How is it going? We created a simple chart of the chores we do most often, switching off tasks every Sunday evening. That results in two weeks at a time of taking out the trash or recycling, loading or unloading the dishwasher and cleaning the bathroom or kitchen. Other household chores are still more casual, like taking the dog out or doing laundry, but this helps lighten the load and ensure no one is doing far more work.

There are plenty of smaller ways I’m trying to be organized too, like keeping track of when I wear glasses or contacts so I can make sure I’m only wearing my contacts for their 2-week lifespan.

It doesn’t feel like a whole lot of work to get started on any of these projects, and it will be the keeping up with tasks that is more of a challenge, but it’s an exciting one. Here’s to accomplishing goals in 2018!

Make sure you check out our other New Year, New You articles including ‘5 Ways to Get Out of Your Comfort Zone‘ and ‘Don’t Make Resolutions, Make Commitments.‘ Let us know how your New Year goals are going in the comments below!