A new year is just around the corner, and with a new year comes comes RESOLUTIONS big plans for doing everything better.

I don’t dare use the ‘r’-word because my friend Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents says that those never work… and there’s darn good reason for that. And yes, I can call her my friend, because we’ve commented at each other on Instagram a time or two, and I KNOW her. I mean, not as well as Ree, you know, my BFF, but still…

So here is my list of things I want to do better in 2014 (that are NOT resolutions): 

1. I’m painting my entire house, inside and out, this year. We’ve been in this house, um, half a year or so, and I really thought it would be done by now, but, well, we ran out of energy, ideas, and possibly money, and here we are.

After many weeks of doing nothing to the house, I’M READY (well, my Pinterest boards are ready…) and by gosh, it’s getting done. Come along on this fabulous remodeling adventure and follow me on Pinterest! How’s that for specific, attainable, and measurable, Stacy? 🙂

AWW! There is NOTHING cuter than moss growing on 40-year-old chipping paint on the outside of a house! Go ahead, pin it on Pinterest for inspiration.

Along these lines, I am ALSO hanging things on all the walls. Art. Pictures. Whatever. I have been paralyzed in a state of indecision, but no more. We have too many blank walls, people, and I don’t DO blank walls. Gah.

2. I’m going to get organized. I know that sounds vague and non-measurable, except it sort of is measurable, Stacy, because there are a finite number of Rubbermaid tubs-o-crap in my dining room that must be dealt with, distributed, and beaten into submission. Am I the ONLY one who has tubs-o-crap that keep getting moved from house to house, because it’s easier to stash it all in the attic until later, and later never comes?

Yet-to-be unpacked boxes and tubs of critically important stuff. I WILL organize this. I WILL.

Please make me feel better about myself and tell me I’m not the only one who does that. 

Like, since college. 

Like, since I graduated from college in 1996. 

Like, since EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO.

Me, graduating in college in 1996 and TAKING ALL MY NOTES WITH ME.

I’m kidding! Gosh! Since college. Pshaw. Really? You believed that?

 OK YES, all right?! I had ALLLL my class notes from 1991-1996 until I moved into my apartment in 2010, but then I filled up the dumpter at my apartment complex with it so get off my back GOSH! 

In my defense, I might have NEEDED those notes…. and now they’re gone. And yet I still have OTHER crap in tubs that I need to organize and sort, and I REFUSE to put it all into ONE MORE ATTIC until it’s organized.

And it’s not just the crap in the tubs. I sometimes feel like I’m drowning in mail. 

And beyond all that… I just need a system and a routine…. for everything. Laundry. Kids’ homework. I’m easily overwhelmed with all there is to do, and get behind easily. I need help.

I just ordered Organize Now! from Amazon, because really, how can you EVER do anything until you read a book about it first? Am I right?

 

And then Sink Reflections from FlyLady, with whom, like Dave Ramsey, I have a love/hate relationship. 

I’ll let you know how they work for me. But I’ll at least be EDUCATED about being organized, if nothing else, after I read all these books about organizing.

Which brings me to my third, um, goal (and not resolution)…

3. I’m going to read lots of books.  And yes, that’s vague, because I can’t commit to a number. I’d love to say I will read a book a week, but I have three kids and will soon be working part-time (WOOHOO!), plus I have painting and decorating to do (see #1) and I’m trying to keep it realistic.

But I AM committing to Jon Acuff’s Empty Shelf Challenge because it sounds like fun, and because I miss books made of real pages. And because I have this stack of books on my nightstand and spilling under my bed that I have started and not finished. And it’s time. Who wants to commit to this with me? 

The stack of books on my nightstand. Remember when I used to love to start books and not finish them? Until 2014, that is…

So the shelf is cleared, and I think I’m gonna clear one for the rest of the fam and invite them to participate. 

Because people who read are smarter. And more interesting. And rich. And rich is important because heaven knows we have some expensive remodeling to do… 

And because a book in my hand is better than a cell phone. Which brings me to…

4. I want to use my phone less. And by ‘less,’ I mean, NEVER when I”m driving and NEVER when my kids are around. 

Have you noticed that everywhere you go, EVERYBODY is hunched over a cell phone, paying zero attention to those around them? At every single red light? At every restaurant? At CHURCH even? 

I don’t want to be that person (and I admit, I’ve been a big fat failure in that department in the past). I don’t want all my kids’ memories of me to be hunched over a phone, not paying attention to them. I don’t want to wreck and put a kid at Truman Smith (sickening how many kids have been hospitalized there with brain damage because of texting and driving…) I don’t want to miss out on any more of this life because of a stupid phone. 

I’ve tried to get in the habit of keeping the phone plugged in on my nightstand and checking it a couple of times a day, instead of being glued to it. 

And it’s been so freeing…. when I can do it.

So that’s pretty much it…

Oh, I have other goals too; financial goals that I don’t want to share on the blog, goals for my business that are interesting to no one but me, stuff like that. 

But these are the big four: my plan to make our home more homey and our lives less chaotic and frazzled, and enjoy my kids more and get smarter and rich by reading more books. That about sums it up.

SO… what are YOUR goals? I’d love to hear! 

If you liked this post PLEASE share it with your friends! ~ Melissa Beene Taylor *OH… and those links above to the books I mentioned? Those are affiliate links, FYI. 😉