A new year brings a new start. Normally, we have our list of resolutions: our promises to get to the gym, not to procrastinate on our projects, and spend more quality time with friends and family. Unfortunately, studies show most of us will have abandoned our resolutions by mid-month. Yikes! This year, let’s try a different approach. Instead of a making new resolutions, let’s resolve to set up our home in a way that helps us reach our goals.
Our homes continue to be our everything space—workplace, school, gym, restaurant, and more. So, it’s important to create mindful areas to achieve our goals.
Take a good look at your list of intentions and compare it to how your home is actually being used. Perhaps your work has swallowed up the dining room table. Sit-down meals with the family have turned into eating in front of our individual devices. Or, your kids are taking Zoom schooling on their bedroom floor and on the kitchen counter. Set them up for success by carving out a quiet, distraction-free study nook.
To lead a more organized and inspired life, the space around you must function to meet your new needs. It’s empowering. If your home is organized, your mindset will be, too.
Here are some simple steps to help transform your home into a more comfortable and functional space:
Set Goals
Sit down with each family member to determine their 2024 at-home needs. What type of spaces will support their daily goals? If you want a fit and healthy life, do you actually have a place set up in your home or garage to work out? Is your kitchen stocked with what you need for healthy meals?
Make a Plan
Determine what room or space fits each family member best, based on their daily goals. You can either restructure a portion of a room, or you can actually swap!
For instance, does your child need better study habits? Have them swap rooms with a sibling for a new fresh space with a new desk to inspire focus. Also, take a look at shared spaces. Is the living room unused for most of the day? Change a portion of it into an office or workout space. Make a detailed plan of how and when you’ll use each room.
Arrange the new layout to actually function for your new goals and inspire work, study, and workout habits. If a space has multiple functions, be sure you’ve arranged ways to quickly transform the space from one use to another. Think trays and baskets to whisk the old use out and the new use in.
Measure
Save yourself major headaches by using a measuring tape. Make sure all the furniture will actually fit in the new layout. You can make drawings of each room to scale and use scale cut-outs of each piece of furniture—à la paper dolls. Move your new design layout around with your fingertips a few times before you actually do the heavy lifting.
Design
Here comes the fun part! Each person gets to design their new space. The designs can be full-room swaps or just moving specific furniture pieces from one room to another. Or, perhaps it’s as simple as adding functional accessories. The “game show” challenge is to design the space with the furniture and accessories that you already own. Maybe Jack’s desk is really the right size for Bella’s homeschooling now? She can make it her own by sanding it down and painting it her favorite color. Has mom’s work taken over the dining room table? Place trays on the table for mom to keep her work items. That way, she can easily remove it at the end of the day. Voila! There’s actually a clear table when it’s time for dinner.
Swap, Move, & Clean
This is a big job but it will be so much better on the other side of the transformation. Move everything out of the chosen room. Clean each room until it sparkles.
Decorate & Move In
Once clean, it’s time to add all of the chosen design elements, decorate, and rearrange the furniture from the full-room swaps to adding functional accessories and furniture to portions of rooms. Don’t forget to hang wall art. Handle every detail down to hanging the new occupant’s name on the door. You’ll all fall in love with your home all over again. That night, your child gets to sleep in the new room that they helped design! Or, you get to read a book in your new, QUIET office. Each new space is now clean and organized, and its new design will inspire you to turn your resolutions into habits.
Your freshly transformed and functional home will give you the gift of peace of mind. You’ll emerge satisfied that you and your family were able to stay on track and make those resolutions realities. When your space functions as you need it, you feel more organized and supported.
(Images: NorthStar Moving)