New Year, New You

Hello 2018, it is nice to see you.

I have 2 resolutions this year, and (of course) every intention to stick to them.

1. (Mostly) complete 1 room of our home for each month of the year. We just moved in September, and our house is basically a blank canvas with a ton on the to-do list.
        To start, we will be doing our master bedroom closet. We asked our builders not to hang shelves so we could personalize the layout and maximize the space. We currently have little piles of clothes all over the place, and are borrowing a small closet from another room, so having this as our first room will clear up a lot of small areas throughout the house. The closet has stacks of boxes in it at the moment, so we will be starting from the ground up, and we are already a few days in to January so its time to get moving.

1a. In the process of completing a room from top to bottom, I want to declutter/minimalize/minimize the items in the room.
        Decluttering/minimalizing/minimizing (DMM from here on out) means something different for everyone. The purpose is to love what you have, and only have what you love. Purge everything else. By doing this 1 room at a time, perhaps I can reach the goal of 2,018 things by the end of 2018. I purged a lot when we moved, and again when we unpacked, but nothing serious, nothing committed. This time I am doing it with the intention of completing the task - to truly have only things I love left. Because here is where I am currently with most every area of my life:

It doesn't matter what I do, this spot, like many others, never stays clear, and it drives. me. crazy. Even when its clean, it still looks like a cluttered mess. 2018 is the year!

2. Make time to focus on myself. 
        This is partly in conjunction with my 1a. resolution. By being serious about my DMM project(s), I will be eliminating the clutter and noise in my life. But I also want to learn that its OK to say no. We do not have to attend every event, or celebration, or night out, or birthday party, or extra-curricular activity. We over-commit sometimes, finding ourselves with 3 scheduled things on 1 precious Saturday, and I find that leaves little time for things I truly want to be doing.

I want to challenge myself to be more like this woman:

I want to be the person that is bored on Saturday night so we play board games, or work a puzzle. I want to be have time to do things unplanned. I want to feel free to do things I want rather than out of obligation. This is the year.