10 New Year's Resolutions That Will Keep You Organized in 2021

According to a recent study by Finder, 55.31% of Americans feel confident that they can accomplish their New Year’s Resolutions this year. Whether you consider yourself part of that group, or you’re feeling a little less optimistic, it’s normal to have big goals at the start of a new year. The most popular New Year’s resolutions are centered around health, self-improvement, money, family, love, and career. 

Guess what? Getting organized can have a positive effect on all of those categories. Here’s how: Organization has been proven to reduce stress, boost productivity, improve relationships, and promote healthy eating and exercise habits. As an added bonus, being more organized can even help you get more zzz’s. And who doesn’t love a good night’s sleep?

Ready to get organized in 2021? Choose one of the following resolutions and get to it:

Plan Out Your Week on Sunday Night

Do you find yourself suffering from a serious case of the Sunday scaries at the end of every weekend? You’re not alone. Use that nervous energy for good by dedicating an hour each Sunday night to planning out your week. Review meetings, appointments, and deadlines, and write down goals. 

Learn to Meal Prep

Everyone has that one friend who is wild about meal prepping—you know, that person whose Instagram always includes colorful photos of organized containers accompanied by clever hashtags. You may roll your eyes at that person, but here’s the thing: meal prepping before the start of a busy week can free up time in the future. It also helps you stick to your goal of eating healthy, especially on days when you’re exhausted and don’t feel like cooking.

 Create a Cleaning Schedule

The most important thing about creating a cleaning schedule is making sure it’s one that works for your life. If your family loves to go on weekend adventures, it doesn’t make sense to save the vacuuming and dusting for Saturday. An effective cleaning schedule should include a mix of easy tasks that don’t eat up a lot of time (loading the dishwasher, picking up the kids’ toys, putting away shoes from the entryway) and more involved activities that require more than a few minutes (vacuuming, laundry, scrubbing the toilet bowl). Look at these in terms of time required and see where they fit into your schedule.

Don’t Be Afraid to Delegate

One little note on the above: Let 2021 be the year when you finally start delegating household chores to other people in your household. Teach your kids how to do chores. Get your spouse on board. If you live with roommates, have a house meeting and discuss who is responsible for what.

Donate Items You Don’t Use

Purge your closet this January—it feels good! And it’s a great way to give back to your community. Get rid of clothes you didn’t wear last year. Commit to repeating this on a seasonal basis. 

Organize Your iPhone

Admit it; you’re glued to your smartphone. We all are; there’s no shame in it. Since you spend so much time staring at it, you should also spend a little bit of time organizing it, because it turns out, that little device can actually be a pretty big organizational tool. Start by organizing your home screen. You can organize apps by color, into folders by action (exercise, social media, work, etc.), alphabetically, or by how often you use them. Once you’ve got that done, consider downloading a few organization apps to help with productivity.

Declutter Your Pantry 

Did you know that an organized kitchen can inspire you to eat healthier? Whip yours into shape by decluttering your pantry. Remove everything, give the shelves a good cleaning, and only put back the things you use. Keep healthier items at eye level and treats out of sight. 

Try the Pomodoro Technique

Whether you’re cleaning your house, exercising, working, or decluttering your closet, using the Pomodoro Technique can make organization more manageable. It works like this: You’ll set an alarm for 25 minutes from now and focus exclusively on the task at hand. Once the alarm goes off, you have five minutes to do whatever you want. Once that’s up, set another alarm for 25 minutes from now. Every four to five cycles, take a longer break (about 30 minutes). By organizing your time, you’ll find that you accomplish more.

Use a Day Planner

If you’ve never used a day planner before, give it a try this year. Writing down your goals will help you stick to them, and having a physical schedule in front of you helps you organize your day. You can also use a day planner to schedule organizational tasks, like cleaning the house and decluttering closets.

Make Your Bed in the Morning

If all of the above sounds like a lot, start with this: Make a resolution to make your bed each morning. This little task only takes a few minutes, but it gets your day off to a nice start. After that, you can accomplish anything.