At the start of every year I like to hit reset. I like to step into the new year with a clear mind, a tidy home and laser-focused on my goals.

I split my life reset into 3 sections: home, digital and life admin. This does not include mental wellbeing and planning for the year ahead, that will be coming in a post later this week.

Today’s post is focused on resetting your living and digital space and as well as a spot of life admin.

You may find some of the suggestions don’t apply to you and that’s fine. It’s important to create your own yearly life reset and include all the things that are going to help to give you a fresh start to the new year.

Home

Deep clean

Give your home a deep clean. Get all the pots and pans out of the cupboards and wipe down the shelves. Focus on moving furniture and getting to those hard to reach spots that are often forgotten about through the year.

Clear out and organise 

You could pick one part of your home that you’ve been itching to sort for a while or take stock of everything and try to tackle it all. Only do as much as you have the time for. There’s no point in pushing yourself and leaving tasks half finished.

I recommend using the KonMari method. Her book is excellent and details everything about cutting down on what you own and getting rid of the things that don’t spark joy.  

Food overview

Go through your cupboards and check if there are any out of dates products. It’s also a good way of taking stock of what needs using up before they go out of date.

Ebay and charity

Collect together those charity and Ebay bags and get everything sorted. It’s all too easy to have bags and boxes of things to donate hanging around the house for months on end. Set them free and let someone else enjoy them.

Digital

Back up photos, videos etc

Make sure you have a hard drive with lots of space on. Then back up the photos from your phone and laptop. I’d also recommend taking some time to put everything into easy to locate folders. Use the correct dates and names to describe what’s in each folder.

Clear out laptop

Get rid of anything you don’t need. Old photos that have already been backed up, downloaded files you no longer need and make sure you’re starting the year with a clear desktop.

Update software

Stop hitting ‘remind me later’ and instead opt for ‘install now’ – any little bugs will be fixed. 

Inbox 0 

Get through your emails, that includes any ‘starred’ emails you’ve saved to go back to later. 

Clear out negativity 

Remove people from your social channels and phone that bring too much negativity into your life. Your timeline on each social platform can be curated so make sure you’re seeing the content you want and need. 

Delete old messages and unused apps which in-turn will free up space on your phone.

Life admin

Book appointments 

Book appointments you’ve been putting off. It’s not fun but important to get things like the dentist, a smear test and much more booked in and completed as early as you can in the year. 

File away paperwork

Many of us have that one draw or box filled with paperwork that we plan to file away at some point. You really have to set aside time to do this otherwise it never gets done.

Stick a YouTube video or podcast on and spend an evening creating a folder for your banking, home and any other important paperwork you need to keep track of. 

What have you been putting off?

This could be anything from setting up a standing order for your savings, changing to a new electricity supplier, painting a wall or anything in-between. 

For me the one thing I’ve put off is setting up my internet banking. I’ve had it before but lost track of all the passwords for one specific account. So, it’s firmly on my list of things to sort this week.

Do you like to have a life reset at the start of the year?