2023 Goals: Home Improvement
A new year means new beginnings, new hopes and new goals. Goals give meaning to life. They are meant to continually challenge you to put your talent, skills, creativity, time, resources, and opportunities towards achieving some tangible results for yourself, family, work, and your immediate environment. As we move forward into 2023 you may have spent some time thinking about your intentions for the year, whether for personal or professional growth, health and fitness, or family goals. Many people look to each new year to freshen up their lives and make a list of goals in order to do so. I wanted to share with you some of my goals for 2023.
“You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.”
One thing that is just as important as setting intentions for your behaviors or habits is creating a peaceful and joyful place in which to practice your intentions. If you, like most Americans, spent a record amount of time inside your home during the pandemic, you may have accumulated more stuff than you have in previous years. Many people acquired new hobbies to pass the time at home, started – and maybe even finished – home improvement projects (Goal 1), or simply went a little overboard with boredom-induced online shopping. If this sounds familiar, it may be time for a decluttering session (Goal 2). Let’s get into these goals.
1. Small Home Projects
I hit the ground running this year with my list of smaller home projects and want to keep up the momentum. Sometimes we get wrapped up in all the big projects and forget about the little ones. Little projects can have huge impacts. One of the first things I did is change all of my recessed lights to LED lights and it made such a difference! Originally I had old recessed lights with flood light bulbs. I also switched the color of the lights from 2700K soft light to 3000K bright white. Color temperature is a way to describe the light appearance provided by a light bulb. It is measured in degrees of Kelvin (K) on a scale from 1,000 to 10,000. Typically, Kelvin temperatures for commercial and residential lighting applications fall somewhere on a scale from 2000K to 6500K (see chart below). The 2700K soft light emits more of a yellow glow while the 3000K emits more of a bright white (see example below). Keep in mind the 3000K is not to be confused with the 5000K “daylight” that you see in the store. It’s all personal preference and there is no right or wrong choice, but I personally find the 5000K daylight colors to emit a blueish tint and I prefer the 3000K to the 5000K. Also see the exact type of recessed light housing I used in case you want to upgrade your own lights!
I also have started updating my first floor powder room. I changed out the vanity, mirror and added wainscoting. Wainscoting (pronounced “wayne’s coating”) is often used to stylishly safeguard walls that tend to take a beating such as kitchens, foyers, mudrooms and bathrooms. It it made from warp resistant wood so it helps protect the drywall underneath from water damage. It also has a warming effect and can transform a boring wall into a work of art. It’s an alternative to tile on the wall. I added wainscoting to an entire wall in my living room to create an accent wall (see below). Also added recessed lighting above the accent wall which really makes it all pop. The bathroom paint color I used is Benjamin Moore Pale Smoke. Light blue is a very popular color for bathrooms, in case you missed it, check out my Color Trends of 2023 blog post for more on paint color trends. I used another popular wall color for living spaces on the new wainscoting, Benjamin Moore White Dove.
Another project checked off my list already this year is painting my family room. A new color can dramatically change a space but so does just a fresh coat of paint. I chose Drift of Mist from Sherwin Williams which is a great neutral that offers a hint of greige. It is lighter than a few of the more popular colors, Revere Pewter by Benjamin Moore or Agreeable Gray by Sherwin Williams.
One last and very exciting project I did was replacing my vents in my home. The old metal vents looked so clunky not to mention a bit of an eye sore considering they were a different color than the wall. Initially I was going to paint them to match but my contractor, Andrew from L3 Synergy, suggested these minimal, frameless wall vents. They make the wall look better, don’t you think?
Always something to keep in mind with small home projects is a home maintenance checklist. Here’s a one you can follow for this winter:
2.Organize Home
Living with too much stuff can cause stress, anxiety, and depression. People with too much clutter in their environment also tend to suffer from relationship issues, sleep problems, and chronic allergies or asthma.
Take some time to clean out your home for the new year. Here are a few strategies recommended by professional organizers.
1. One category at a time: This method is used by Marie Kondo, author of the bestselling book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and TV show, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. She advocates for decluttering items by category: clothes, books, papers, miscellaneous items, and sentimental items, in that order.
2. One room at a time: Another method is to focus on one area at a time. It could be a room, the garage, or the attic. If that amount of space is still overwhelming to you, break it down to one closet, one cabinet, or one drawer at a time.
3. Arrange keep, sell, and donate spaces. As you progress through your decluttering, it will save time and energy if you have already designated areas to accumulate items that are to be kept, sold, or donated. Then you can deal with each group of items once you have everything separated.
Places to donate in DuPage County (Wheaton, IL areas):
A second great resource is The Home Edit: A Guide to Organizing and Realizing Your House Goals by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin, the also have a Netflix show Get Organized with The Home Edit. If you need motivation or inspiration to get started watch a few episodes or binge them all! Here’s Clea and Joanna’s questions to ask yourself when going through your things:
Do I need it?
Do I ever use it?
Do I ever want to use it?
Do I like it?
Is it sentimental?
Once you have cleaned out your home, you might adopt some of these habits for preventing clutter from piling up again:
1. Set a rule where you don’t purchase a new piece of clothing, toy, book, or gadget without getting rid of something you are no longer using.
2. Get into the habit of always putting everything back in its place. This will keep you from purchasing items you already have but can’t find or forgot about.
3. To prevent clothes from piling up, try choosing your outfits for the coming week every Sunday, and don’t let clean laundry sit unfolded.
4. Look through your refrigerator and pantry before shopping and shop with a list of needed items.
5. Live by the rule that if you haven’t used it or worn it in the past year, chances are you don’t need it.
I have been off to a great start and will keep up the good momentum. Hopefully I have inspired you to set some goals whether it be home improvement, organizing or anything that will will improve your quality of life.