5 Ways to Start the New Year Fresh

Hello! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season with your loved ones! I took a mini vacation and unplugged while at home in Maine so I could genuinely enjoy time with family and feel refreshed to kick off the New Year! I’ve been taking this time to do some behind the scenes blog things such as schedule out my editorial calendar for the first half of the year, finalize brand contracts and set my 2017 goals. With that, I am so excited for the year to come!

Last year, I had two resolutions – find a better work/life balance and find/commit to a skincare routine. While I’m still working on the work/life balance, I feel like there were many things I learned last year that I can continue to work on. As far as a skin care regimen, you probably already know! Tula is a skin care line I started a few months prior to the New Year last year and used it consistently, only to see a huge change in the overall health of my skin – less dry patches, hardly any breakouts and feeling confident enough to leave the house without any make up. I have an updated skin care post coming soon, but here’s one from last year where I break down everything Tula related!

This coming year, I plan to also have two resolutions. One is to unplug from social media much more [meaning I’ll post for my business/blog, but spend much less time scrolling which becomes such a time suck and unproductive] and the second is to invest more time in creating a home for both S and I. What I mean by that is cooking more, creating a cleaning schedule and overall just ensure that he has a quiet, refreshing home to relax in after leaving work and filling his bely while I’m at it. I received so many wonderful cooking and baking gifts this Christmas that I’ve had so much fun digging into!

Do you have any resolutions heading into 2017?

In addition to resolutions, I like to take the last week of December to set myself up for a fresh, clean start in the year to come.

The New Year feels like the ‘ultimate Monday’ to me.  Many people hates Monday’s, but I actually tend to enjoy them because they’re a fresh slate and clean start – just like the New Year! So today I’m sharing 5 ways to start the New Yer fresh.

1.Grab a Planner
With wedding planning in full swing, I honestly grabbed my 2017 planner in August, haha! We were scheduling appointments and important dates that were months and months away so before I lost track of any, I started in on a new planner to be as prepared as I can be. Last year I used this one and this year I picked out this pretty python planner!

2.Reorganize Storage
After our last move, I told myself I would reorganize, purge and donate each quarter to avoid doing it once every three years when we move, haha. This will probably be our last apartment before we buy a house, so keeping it clutter-free a space we really enjoy has been important.

Without a deep top to bottom clean [as if you were moving], you don’t realize how many things you’ve accumulate that you don’t even use. Whether taking on room per week or devoting a weekend to cleaning and organizing, you’ll feel so great starting fresh and organized come January!

My main focus will be our walk in closet, kitchen and loft. For our closet, I’m not taking as much advantage of it as I should. We need to great some organization bins for the floors, donating some clothes and really see if we are utilizing the closet space to its full potential.

I may be crazy, but I’m so excited to reorganize our kitchen! Our pantry is in the corner without much lighting, so I feel like I’ve just neglected organizing it which causes a headache every day trying to find an ingredient or snack.

For Christmas, all I told my dad and S I’d like is kitchen items. I’ve always loved baking, but ever since we were engaged I just want to learn recipes and make food that S loves and host friends. I’d say I’m equipped to do that now with  a Kitchenaid Mixer and new pots and pans! With that I want to organize our pantry, to make sure we always have ingredients on deck to whip up something quick for friends or ourselves.

Then there’s the loft. Since I frequently work from home, this will eventually be my work space, but for now it’s a storage area. We need to go through the items up there that we haven’t touched for six months and either find them a place in our home or donate them. Not looking forward to this one, haha!

But the key is to take it room by rom, weekend by weekend. Unless you have two entire days to dedicate to this, just plan one room per Sunday afternoon and before February, you’ll feel great! If you’re wanting to stock up on cute kitchen accessories I linked  few favorites here:

3.Invest In Your Health
While S and I work out consistently through the year, there’s nothing that gets me more motivated for a work out than new gear! Whether you need to replace your sneakers, grab a new pair of leggings or opt to increase your water intake with a pretty new water bottle [I just grabbed this one and have been be drinking so much water having it by my side constantly!]– take advantage of the post-Christmas sales and treat yourself.

Hey – maybe you keep putting off joining a gym or trying out that new spin studio, make 2017 the year you invest in your health and try them out!

4. Splurge On Your Skin
Like I mentioned above, last year was the year I wanted to finally take my skin care seriously.  That meant finding a great SPF, investing in proper tools and splurging on a care line. Your skin is your biggest organ –s o save on lipsticks, eye shadows and mascara. Splurge on your skin. If you’re interested in Tula, I suggest trying the discovery kit where you get mini bottles of their most popular items. Plus you can receive 25% off with code ‘MINDY25’.

5.Donate Unused Clothes
While I touched on this earlier, cleaning out your closet and bureau deserves it’s own section. Start the year off with a closet that only has items that makes you feel great. Nothing makes my day start off more smoothly than having a well-organized closet that is full with versatile pieces that fit my body and make me feel great. Ditch the sweater you haven’t worn in two years and jeans that don’t hit you just right. Unless the pieces fit and bring you happiness, there’s no need to keep them hanging around.

I hope these 5 tips help you start out your New Year fresh! Xoxo Mindy

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