Four New Home NYE Resolutions You Can Make to Live your Best Life

You’ve got a lot to look forward to once the clock strikes midnight on NYE. With a new home comes new projects, adventures, memories, inevitable challenges and… resolutions.

Is it even a new year without an unrealistic pledge you’re not going to keep? Asking for a friend.

If you’ve ever had a lofty NYE promise slip through your fingers before you’ve even mastered jotting the new year down correctly, you’re in good company.

According to U.S. News, 80 percent of resolutions fail by February. Why? Because they’re so far out of reach they’re begging to be self-sabotaged. Ring a bell? Let’s try a different approach.

You and your new home are in this together. With a few housekeeping habits, you can benefit your living space while improving yourself as a person—without giving up that Nutella addiction.

1. De-Clutter Your Home And Mind

Were you hoping it’d be anything but this? There’s a reason you keep hearing that a clear home can lead to a clear mind, and it’s because science says so. Several studies have revealed a negative link between clutter and stress, including difficulty focusing and processing information, as well as increased risk of depression and anxiety.

The solution is simple, but you’re not alone if you still haven’t de-cluttered, according to this survey by the National Association of Professional Organizers. Out of the 54 percent of Americans who admitted to clutter overwhelm, 78 percent confessed they still hadn’t done anything about it.

This calls for a resolution, because being part of the status quo is so last year. Agree that your new home is the perfect place to start anew by purging what you don’t need. Here’s the kicker: keep it that way. This room-by-room de-cluttering guide can help you get started.

2. Make Your Bed—Every Single Day

This one requires a daily commitment. However, if you reframe it as one of the easiest ways to contribute to your overall happiness and success, the minute it takes will seem well worth it.

Aside from starting the day with an accomplishment, making your bed can change your life—and maybe even the world, said Navy SEAL Admiral William McRaven in a famous speech. His philosophy, which runs so deep he wrote a book about it, is this: the small task, performed daily, can help prepare you for bigger tasks. If you can’t do small things, you’re not ready for big ones.

If all else fails, at least you come home to a neat bed, he argues. He has a point. Would you rather walk into a hotel with the bed made or unmade? That’s what we thought. Commit to daily bed making as soon as you wake up—even if just to reap the benefits it can have on your day.

3. Embrace The Environment

You don’t have to dump all your cleaning products down the sink in exchange for strictly organic ones to embrace the environment. There are a few resolutions you can make—or modifications to chores you’re already doing—that’ll up your green game.

If you aren’t recycling your waste, start there. You’ll have to dispose of it either way—so why not help increase the national recycling rate (currently reported by EPA to be stuck at only 34 percent) in the meantime? Familiarize yourself with what you can and can’t place in your bin, starting with these 10 items you can recycle and 19 recyclable things that’ll surprise you.

If you feel bombarded by the buzzword “energy efficiency” but don’t know where to start, have an energy auditor conduct an assessment on your home. That is, after you replace all lightbulbs with ENERGY STAR certified ones. You’ll use about 70-90 percent less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs that’ll last 15 times longer. A win for your utility bill and the environment.

4. Invest In Decor That’s Good For Your Health

Ask not what you can do for your interiors, but what your interiors can do for you. Is that not at all how the quote goes?

Either way, a good mindset to adopt for future home splurges is to dig deeper than what meets the eye. Beyond being aesthetically pleasing, does that comforter do anything for you—or should you consider one that helps cool you and, in turn, fall asleep faster? Would an essential oil diffuser in lieu of a candle give you the fragrant feels while simultaneously reducing anxiety?

Decorative items that boast health benefits are a lot easier to find than daily motivation for those gym workouts we all committed to (and forgot about) last NYE.