Getting A Jump On The Annual Reset
Every year you get another chance to start again. Well, conceptually at least. Regardless of your will, there’s much in the world over which you can exercise no control.
Accordingly, it makes sense to use the calendar change as a catalyst to fix what you can. An excellent area to start is with home improvement; we’ll cover some ideas to stimulate your imagination here.
1. Eject The Junk Via Deep Clean
Top to bottom, go through your house and get rid of the unnecessary junk. There will likely be a bunch in your garage and basement, but closets tend to accumulate it as well; as do pantries and other areas of storage. Put in your headphones, get a good documentary or podcast or lecture or album going, and get to work.
When you can engage your mind while doing boring work, it ceases to be boring and becomes even a little bit enjoyable. Also, you may find things you thought were lost even as you parse through the junk. It’s amazing what possessions seem worthwhile when we acquire them, and then gradually become garbage.
Even so, some junk can be repurposed in a spring-time garage sale; so you may want to group such items somewhere in the garage once you’re done cleaning so when it becomes time to liquidate these items, you can do so easily as the weather changes.
2. The Deep Freeze: Trashing Old Food
Your freezer probably has some old food in it that’s no longer any good, but which you’ve totally forgotten about. Go through your whole kitchen, including the refrigerator and that cabinet where you hide your sweets, and get rid of things that have gone past their best use date. Don’t be totally uncompromising; there’s a few weeks to a month of “fudge factor”.
That said, some things go off right when it says they will so be discrete. Cereals, chips, canned food—you’ve got a few weeks or months of leeway. Milk? Unless you like sour curds, be careful to use that quick. Also, there are surprising items that can go bad. Here’s a list of 20+ signs varying kinds of food may well have gone bad.
Failing to get rid of such foods can result in things like indigestion, flu-like systems as the body tries to get rid of rotten things, discomfort, malaise, embarrassment, and many avoidable consequences you can get around by simply watching for the signs.
3. Getting Rid Of Kitchen Clutter
While we’re on the subject of foods past their date, another great idea for the new year is decluttering your kitchen through the addition of new kitchen cabinets. There are many different options. Traditional white shaker cabinets tend to go with most kitchens, there are also RTA (Ready To Assemble) cabinets you can order to fit kitchen dimensions and assemble on-site.
4. Clean The Attic
Even if you clean your home floor to ceiling, you might forget that attic. Don’t. Go up there, clean up all the clutter, and throw out the garbage. That which can be sold again you can put in the garage. But once you’re done cleaning the attic, there’s another step: you can make the room “livable”.
Now, this isn’t an option for some attics. But for many, provided structural support is adequate, you can finish the walls, add a coat of paint, put in some carpets, add a lamp, and make a reading room, observatory, or guest bedroom out of the space. It’s worth doing if you haven’t before, and can even be a fun family holiday after Christmas and before New Year’s eve.
Using The Annual Change To Stimulate Home Improvement
There’s a scientific law that’s been understood for a few hundred years as concerns entropy. Over time, things break down. Entropy refers to how that which is orderly eventually breaks down and becomes chaotic. The most well-built structure will fall apart in time. So get ahead of that by using natural changes in the seasons to improve your property.
The years just keep ticking past every 365 days, and entropy won’t stop. While a lot of “New Year’s Resolutions” are essentially psychological confetti, and won’t go anywhere, that doesn’t mean the change is something you can’t use to stimulate improvement. Especially as regards your property, it’s wise to devote yourself to upkeep.