New Year's resolutions... for the home!
As the saying goes, 'new year, new life.' With this idea in mind, we stand every January 1st ready to fulfill our new list of annual resolutions. Most of the time, when thinking about the goals we want to achieve in the next twelve months, a multitude of personal objectives come to mind: going to the gym, starting to take care of our diet, signing up for that English course, or finally getting our driver's license, are some of the most popular examples. However, this year we suggest you harness all that energy and optimism that each new year inherently brings and channel it towards goals that will also allow you to turn your house into a better home. To make it a little easier for you, we have defined some resolutions that you can use as a guide throughout 2021. These are small goals that will help you ensure that your house becomes, as the English poet John Dryden pointed out, 'your sacred refuge from life.' Let's get started!
No excuses, fix all the pending damages in your house! It's very common in every household to keep postponing the small repairs that arise and that, most likely, make our daily life much harder than we think (loose tiles, dripping faucets, squeaky doors, etc.) The beginning of the year is a good time to get to work and go through the entire house, with paper and pencil in hand, noting down each and every damage that needs fixing. To ensure this resolution is not forgotten, it's very important that once the list is made, we organize each task by its priority and set a deadline to take care of it. If we schedule each small repair, the work will be less overwhelming and we will have a better chance of completing it successfully.
Transform your home into a much cozier place. Once we have identified the minor repairs our house needs, it's time to carry out a second 'recognition round' through the different rooms, this time to analyze how we can make each space cozier. Because one thing we are certain of is that feeling good in our own home contributes to our well-being in other areas of our life. To develop this second goal, we suggest making a detailed list of all the things you will need to make your home a more pleasant place and that will help you facilitate your tasks, optimize your rest, or increase your happiness. Perhaps you need some new furniture or appliance, a piece of decoration, or simply fresh flowers, cushions, or scented candles, whatever it takes to make this year everything more comfortable and enjoyable.
Plan the cleaning and organization of your home to avoid chaos. Cleaning and tidying up are often the least appealing tasks at home, yet undoubtedly, they are the most necessary. If you find it hard to keep up with your household chores and tend to accumulate pending tasks, we recommend that you set a goal for this year to create a plan that helps you organize. There are currently many cleaning and organizing methods aimed at optimizing each task, it's just a matter of finding out which one best suits your needs. To get you started, we recommend reading our post with recommendations on how to plan your household chores using the KonMarie methods by Marie Kondo and Flylady by Marla Cilley.
If you haven't started yet, now is the time to start recycling.This resolution involves committing to the benefit of the environment. And although it seems very simple, often the lack of habit leads us to find a thousand excuses not to carry out this task correctly. Therefore, this year, get the appropriate bins, bags, and containers and start separating waste. And if you're up for it, you can also gradually implement the other two “R’s” of ecology: reduce and reuse. The important thing is to adopt small changes that can be easily and naturally incorporated into our routines. Remember, no matter how small your actions may be, the entire planet will thank you.
Reduce your home's energy consumption: Saving energy in our homes not only benefits our wallets, but also helps to reduce the consequences of climate change. That's why it's important to establish small habits that help us avoid the misuse of electricity, such as always turning off the lights when leaving a room, unplugging devices that are not in use and avoiding leaving them on stand-by, making the most of natural light whenever possible, choosing the full load program on the washing machine or dishwasher, etc. If we manage to internalize all these actions, our goal will be a success and we will achieve a reduction in energy consumption at home.
Do you have things you don't need? Get rid of them now! It's time again to go through the house and identify all the things we no longer use, need, or simply don't like. If you open your wardrobe and find clothes you no longer wear, if you store more items in your storage room than you can remember, or if your living room is dominated by a vase you despise, don't think twice, the moment has come to get rid of all that clutter. You can donate or give away anything that is still in good condition and dispose of anything that is too old or broken. When you consider this goal, don't forget: at home, often, less is more.
And if your great goal for this year is, precisely, to find the house or apartment of your dreams, we invite you to discover all the home purchase promotions and rental apartments that we have prepared for you.
