Revisit your New Year’s Intentions with a Strategy to keep you going all year long

Why is it that New Year’s resolutions are so hard to keep? Are you one of those who make lovely, enthusiastic goals to launch you into the New Year, just to find yourself slipping back comfortably into your old ways? I know that for me, a new year always raises my spirits with a promise for new beginnings! But I’m with you—my New Year’s goals are consistently hard to keep. So this year I am trying to remember a few things that have helped me to be successful in keeping my goals and staying strong throughout the year.

First of all, when selecting an achievable goal, you must consider whether or not you can honestly stick to the goal you are setting out to reach—this is huge! When you start to make goals that encompass too many ideals of perfectionism, it begins to become a problem. Your hopes in keeping them dwindle quickly and your goal becomes farther out of sight than ever. I have gotten so discouraged on numerous occasions and inevitably begin to doubt why I decide to make goals in the first place. The problem is not in making the goals, but in striving for perfection and over-reaching when selecting your next step to a better you.

Here are my tips for setting the right goals for you and how to keep them while you’re at it:

*Set five long-term goals that you know in your heart of hearts will have an end in sight. Visualize yourself achieving these goals. You want to push yourself to be a better version of yourself, but be realistic—how much time and effort are you willing to give to the future you?

*Break down each of these goals—how can you make them happen? What are the smaller steps and goals that help you take the necessary steps upward? I suggest making small weekly and monthly goals that you can accomplish to get you just a little closer to the larger picture.

* Reward yourself each month when you check off the smaller components of your goal. My husband has been helping with this one—he actually wraps up a gift and leaves it wrapped on our front table so that I see it daily, reminding me that there is always a reward for my hard efforts. This does wonders in keeping me motivated and moving forward each day.

Your reward doesn’t have to be a physical gift, however. I am equally motivated by my favorite flavor of ice cream or a fun bowling night with my husband or family. A good movie date with my mom will get me checking boxes off my list like nothing else! Whatever it is, small and simple or a well-deserved larger celebration for those big mile markers, just make sure it motivates you and reminds you how amazing your accomplishments and contributions to those life-changing shifts really are.

These few steps to making your larger goals come to life has helped me immensely in evolving my business and I continue to move forward because I am constantly making smaller, reasonable goals! I’d love to hear some of your goals for the new year. Please comment below and let me know how you plan to spend the year working proactively to step into your new life—revamped!

Get a Jump on 2016 with our Subscription Program!

Welcome to 2016 everyone! I hope the New Year has you as psyched about new beginnings and revamping your life as I have been. Over here at Your Life Revamped, there’s been a lot of planning for the New Year and we’re beyond excited to have you all along for the ride! Our subscription plan is taking off—The January issue is all about the best practices for putting away and organizing your Holiday décor. I don’t know about you, but getting my home in proper working order at the beginning of a new year is huge for jumpstarting my goals and upcoming projects.

Some of my favorite tips from January include using color-coded bins, balloon bags, and Command hooks to create a fully functional space to store your favorite holiday items. Use balloon bags or even translucent garbage bags to cover wreaths and hang them on the wall with Command hooks.

To learn more, SUBSCRIBE to our program! I promise you won’t regret taking steps, right alongside me, to revamp your space and create the calm organization you dreamed of when penning your goals for this year. To subscribe, visit ylrevamped.com. Let’s get organizing!

Holiday Card Organization

For those of your who haven’t had a chance to sign up for my subscription program, it is up and running and we’ve had a great response! I’d hate for you guys to miss out on such an awesome deal. I’m taking my readers through a hands-on program to revamp their lives without paying my professional fee. For those of you who are looking for that perfect gift for that well-intended, but perhaps messy little animal/best friend/boss/lover in your life, seriously consider gifting my program. It will help them come to terms with the clutter and start taking action! Now, on to my tips for all of those cards that are accumulating this time of year!

After you’ve set up the tree and found a spot to display cards from your friends and family, it will soon be time to find a way to store the keepsakes and make the hard decision of ‘to keep, or not to keep.’

·       Find decorative boxes that insight joy for your keepsake cards. These should be the lovely cards that make you smile, bring back joyful memories, or the cards you just can’t part with. Keep them in your beautiful box to keep year after year. Be picky—this box should bring you nostalgic happiness for years to come.

·       For the cards that you have purchased to gift to others and didn’t get a chance to use, stored in a similarly gorgeous box or bin that’s clearly labeled. This will come in handy next year and will be sure to save you money in the long run. Instead of misplacing unused cards or letting them get wrinkled in an obscure junk pile, just toss them in an easy-to-access box for a future gifting occasion.

I hope you’re all enjoying the season and feeling prepared and orderly for the upcoming holiday! 

If you enjoyed my tips above, don’t forget to check out my monthly subscription for an entire life remodel, you won’t regret it!

Your Life Revamped Subscription: Don’t Miss out on our November Subscription!

Hello everyone, if you haven’t heard our exciting news, listen up! Your Life Revamped has launched a new subscription program that will provide you with even more helpful tips for professional organizing in your home! We are ecstatic about the design of our chic and functional November printouts—you have to see them! And this is such a great month to start working on your home, with the holidays just around the corner. Our new program takes you room by room, through a progressive course to declutter your life and create a more efficient home organization system. I will show you how to integrate our course to minimize stress and live joyfully in your home. Yearly subscriptions are a great gift! Follow the link below to find details about pricing—you won’t want to miss out.

November is packed with all the materials to make the most of the upcoming holiday season. It’s all about maximizing the magic of the season! Check out our NEW SITE to get started!

be a wrapping paper boss this season

It’s beginning to look a lot like WRAPPING PAPER SEASON! You know what I’m taking about: the cute reindeer prints, the embellished snowflakes, and golden swirls that have already started popping up in every store. No gift is complete without beautiful wrapping. It is my experience that giving gifts is a lot less stressful when your life and home feel organized and put together. The stress of having to find the right box, wrapping paper, ribbon, and gift tags can be overwhelming, especially when trying to juggle the extra responsibilities the season brings.  

Keep your wrapping station tidy with this guide on wrapping paper storage (apply year-round):

·      Store gift bags within gift bags. Think Russian nesting dolls! It’s an easy storage concept that allows you to easily coordinate the right gifts for the right size. If you have the space available, I also like to store gift bags flat in a drawer or a flat bin if this is more functional for your space.

·      If you don’t already have one, pick up a tall bin to store those beautiful rolls. Nothing’s worse than pulling out a torn or wrinkled roll due to improper storage.

·      Store ribbon in an easily-accessible bin—a shallow one may be best. Spools of ribbon stack easily side by side for maximum visibility. Use pins to tack down the ends of your ribbon so that no unraveling occurs while in storage.

·      Store tissue in a flat bin that tucks and stacks nicely in a holiday storage closet.

 The holidays may become overwhelming if you don’t start planning in advance, so set up your wrapping paper station in advance so you can enjoy the process of wrapping and decorating your gifts this season.

For those of you who have already started shopping early, read more about preparing early for gift giving on my post about gift boxes. 

Closet Organization for Joyful Living

Closet organization, while it may seem complicated and daunting, is actually one of the most satisfying and straightforward tasks when tackling a room. After you’ve channeled all of that wonderful Kondo-ness from our girl Marie Kondo, decluttering and removing unnecessary items in the space, you should feel ready to approach joyful organization with calm excitement. Let’s get to the details:

First off, the clothing in your closet should be facing you when you enter your closet. For those who feel this is ridiculous, think of it this way—would you want a friend to greet you without looking up from a screen? Your clothing should feel inviting and function as a source of comfort and structure. If you go about creating joyful closet space, even if it takes some time, you should find your items more quickly, they will look better, and un-coincidentally, YOU will look better.

The next step is categorizing your closet. Take time to do this in a similar way that you would your pantry: Tops separate from bottoms, socks separate from shoes etc. My closet breaks down into tanks, t-shirts, long sleeves, collared shirts, cardigans, blazers, jackets—you get the idea.

Within the categories that you’ve made, take the extra step of ordering them by color as well. However, if you can’t commit to categorizing by both, item AND by color, choose the former. Categorizing by color alone is a great way for articles to get lost in the depths of wardrobe space.

For those of you who have already taken the steps to perfect and beautify your closet, how has creating an organized closet promoted joy in your life? Leave your comments and questions below.

Gift Boxes for Smart Foxes

My mother—queen of gifting—since I can remember has designated gift boxes that were stashed away in our house. Looking back on a function that once puzzled me, I realize now that it’s a stroke of genius for anyone looking to save time and become more efficient. She had a separate large box for every occasion to make it as easy as possible to be prepared for any event or party.

Find a spot in your house that you can safely store some large boxes to hold any fun gifts that you’d like to keep on hand. I know that when I’m shopping and see a great deal on an item I tend to gravitate toward anyway, I save time, money, and extra trips to the store—especially if it’s a bustling holiday like Christmas!

Implement boxes into your storage space to make your kid’s friend birthday parties, weddings, bridal showers, and baby showers fast and simple to prepare for—not to mention the money you’ll save along the way!