Your Habits and Your Home

January is over. How are you doing with your New Year’s resolutions? Goals for 2023? If you’ve delayed or simply given up on doing the things you set out to do in 2023, you aren’t alone. Most New Year’s resolutions fail by February. And, goals don’t fare much better.

If you are struggling to achieve your goals, it is likely because they are too large and too difficult to achieve. Do you know that small, incremental, everyday routines compound into massive, positive change over time? If you want to change and accomplish more in 2023, you need to form new habits. Small habits. When you slightly improve your daily habits, the result can be big. Very big!

According to James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, “Your life today is essentially the sum of your habits.” Think about it. If you’re in good physical shape, it’s probably because you have good exercise habits. Are you generally a happy person? Again, it’s probably a result of your habits. We’ve all heard that we are what we repeatedly do. What you spend time thinking about and doing each day ultimately forms the person you are and the things you believe.

Habits for Your Home

Okay, so what does all of this have to do with your home? Everything. We all have to-do lists and desires when it comes to our homes. Do you have a remodel or maybe a refresh in mind? Is it time to declutter? Purge? Perhaps you just can’t put off cleaning your messy garage any longer. Big tasks can loom large in our minds and prevent us from moving forward. But, if you break things down and start small, you might just accomplish some of those long-deferred projects and you might just realize some of your long-awaited desires and dreams.

To learn the simple and powerful strategy for how to stick to good habits, you may want to read Atomic Habits. But for the sake of simplicity, just know that most of us tend to underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis. When you improve just one percent, the difference that one tiny improvement can make over time can be astonishing.

Start Simple

So, if you want to get your house — and your life — in order, start simple. Do things in a shorter amount of time, but do them more often. Even a few minutes every day spent on a desired outcome will move you forward in the right direction. People naturally gravitate toward options that require the least effort, so starting simpler is better. Maybe it’s as simple as cleaning one drawer a day or filling a trash bag a week with those items you no longer need. Take a look at those countertops. Do you need to spend a few minutes each morning putting a few things away where they belong? When was the last time you cleaned that sock drawer? Your linen closet? You will be surprised what you can accomplish when you break tasks down into small bites.

Improvement not only starts small, it also starts with awareness. According to James Clear, “Your awareness and your habits go hand-in-hand. The simple act of noticing what you do is the first step for improving how you do it. If you recognize how you’re spending your time, then the next step will often reveal itself.”

Take a Good Look

Perhaps you just need to take a good look at things and evaluate what you want to change in your home. And, just maybe, what you want to change in yourself. It’s so easy for us to fall into patterns without even being aware of what is driving our choices. So, look around and look within. And then, begin. But, begin small because starting small builds momentum and leads to visible progress.    

Your habits matter and so does your home. So, if you want to improve your environment, make small improvements daily. Just imagine how making dozens of little changes over time will impact you, your home, and your life!