With the beginning of a new year, I always make resolutions, like most people, and like most people, I rarely stick to them. Quit or at least reduce my sugar intake….yeah that one is too hard for me right now. Another common resolution for me is to lose weight. Now I have lost some between last summer and the present, but not enough to buy new clothes. Just enough that my pants are no longer cutting off my circulation.
For 2024, rather than making resolutions, I would like to set goals. Things I want and can reasonably achieve. I am determined to take a solo vacation, something I’ve never done, by the end of this year. Reading more than the fourteen books I finished in 2023; I think that’s very attainable. Another goal? Adding more clients to my freelance roster. Another? Revamping, refreshing, and reworking my living space.
The “artwork” on my walls feels a little stale and juvenile (pictures for another time). My couch, once a vibrant blue, is fading to grayish-white in some spots. My closet is overstuffed. Refreshing everything will take some time, and I want to do my best to keep the costs down. So, I’m opting to do this in stages. It might take the whole year, but it’s a goal I think I can hit.




Starting with my closet. It’s a hot mess or it was before I wrote this post. For starters, despite what the timestamps say on my photos I did take these just after Christmas not in April. I got a camera for Christmas, and I’m still figuring out how to use it including fixing the date/time on the display. Back to the closet, the floor was packed with stuff. I had piles of clothes reaching up to the ceiling (hard to tell from the photo, but it was high). I wasn’t sure how much I would purge from my closet, but I wanted just enough that the space didn’t feel so claustrophobic.
The piles on top were deep. My rule of thumb with this purge: if it hasn’t seen the light of day since I moved in two years ago IT MUST GO! The donation pile got quite high; I filled two big garbage bags. Along the way, I found some surprises.
Christmas 2022, I lost my scarf in the airport while shuffling from one gate to another (thanks United Airlines for the last-minute gate switch). Ever since I was too lazy to buy another one. Lo and behold, I didn’t have to because I found one cleaning up my closet.
What else did I find? My iron – still in the plastic bag I put it in when I moved from my last apartment. I thought I lost it during the move. My apartment has a washer and dryer, so I just pop things in the dryer when I want to get the wrinkles out. Two years into living in this apartment, I finally found my iron. AHHHH!!! A lesson to me to never let the closet get so packed again.


The after pictures might not show a huge difference but thanks to some storage bags from Amazon (not an affiliate link I promise, just passing along the info in case you need them), my closet feels lighter and brighter. That ginormous pile was blocking some of the light. This was a small thing for me, but less clutter in the closet is so much better than the alternative. What are some goals you are striving for in 2024?
Upcoming posts:
Thursday: Lost recaps for episodes eleven and twelve
Monday: Dorothy Must Die: But only if you read all four books!