Resolutions That Make You Feel Better, Not Worse

New Year, New You

It’s that time of year again, where I make promises and call them resolutions. Knowing the likelihood of keeping these commitments to myself with no one else holding me accountable remains minuscule, yet somehow I still do it every year.

Some of my attempts have had more success than others. I still use Lush products religiously in my zeal to buy personal care items with less packaging and less filler. I love my men’s razor that I have to refill much less often than the disposable women’s types. And I use my refillable deodorant from Myro daily, if not more often. I can’t get enough of the clothes at Universal Standard, where they celebrate women of all sizes, ages, and skin types.  

While it’s not all doom and gloom when it comes to my resolutions, I wanted to focus on achievements rather than failures. So this year, I’m keeping it simple and light. Instead of falling short and feeling bad I couldn’t stick to it for an entire year, I have two resolutions I can keep. I made both of them simple and easy to implement, with plenty of room for success. Instead of feeling bad when I fall short, I look forward to patting myself on the back with each small step completed.

My first goal is to buy less. My theory is that buying less means less to clean. Instead of going to the pet store, where I get tempted by all the super cute things for our pets, I have started an autoship order online for necessities. Not only does buying online save me actual money thanks to the discounted prices, but I don’t end up buying toys, treats, and heaven forbid, more actual pets. I have less trouble sticking to my shopping list at the grocery store, but if the pet store approach goes well, I might extend this effort to those shopping tasks as well. Less stuff means less pick up each and every day. And it saves me time, because I don’t have to drive and wait to check out. So if this resolution pans out, I’ll save myself time on mundane tasks, money, and time cleaning up. And who wants to clean more? 

Which brings me to my second goal: tidying up. I want to tackle some long-standing problem areas in the house to reduce the clutter and make it easier to find what we need. Currently, everyone in the house comes to me when they need to find something. (See above where things go missing in all the clutter constantly.) I’d like to retire from that job. I’m tackling little tasks one at a time to simplify locating items. Even better, I already got a jump on this one. I cleaned out several overflowing kitchen cabinets.

Now instead of wincing in anticipation of something falling when I open the cabinet above the stove, I get a strong sense of satisfaction at the order I’ve imposed. I can easily grab what I need and put it away when I finish. More importantly, so can everyone else in the house. Next, I plan to clear out our overburdened electrical chargers and cords drawer. I’ve given myself the entire month to get to this task, which I have put off for three and a half years, ever since we moved. Instead of dreading the process, I look forward to opening and closing the drawer with ease and making it easy for anyone to find what they want.

With these simple goals in mind, I’m ready to start this year with a clean slate. How about you? What New Year’s resolutions have you made? Share your own thoughts in the comments.