A Year in Review

New Years is fast approaching. In just a few hours 2017 will be over and 2018 will be starting. At the end of each year, I like to reflect back on the previous year and look ahead to the next. Usually I do this in my journal, but this year I thought I'd do it here. (Bare with me, it's a long one!)

Minimalism Game/Decluttering

This year I wanted to continue working towards living as simply and minimalistically as possible. I also wanted to journal about it, which to be honest, didn't happen. Weekly goals were also something I tried for a while. These don't seem to work for me like I always hope as the upkeep is too time consuming.

In January I succeeded in completing the minimalism game where you get rid of one thing on the first day, two on the second, and so on for 30 days. Through this, I was able to get rid many items I no longer needed in my life. (I somehow managed to not take a photo of this.)

Throughout the year I continued to get rid of things as I found stuff that was no longer serving a purpose. While there's still a lot of stuff in our house we don't use or need, and there are areas that I didn't even touch this year, I have come a long way toward my decluttering goals.

Shopping Hiatus/Buying Less

My six month shopping hiatus started out strong, but overall was not successful. Six months is a long time, and while a shopping hiatus helps me to save money and stop impulse purchases, the time frame was too long.

Now before you get mad at me, I must tell you that my goal has never been to stop purchasing all items. My goal with has been to be more intentional in what I spend money on and bring into my life. When looked at this way, I was fairly successful. I purchase less now than I did several years ago. Around November, I started a list of things I think I would like to purchase. Instead of automatically buying something when I think of it, I've been putting it on the list. This has helped stem the tide of impulse purchases and also became a gift list for family this Christmas.

During the month of November, I completed a month of no personal purchases. My intention for next year is to choose a few months to do this again, as a month was a much more manageable time and served my purpose much better than attempting to abstain from spending for half a year.

Gardening

This was my biggest area of failure this year. One thing I value is home grown vegetables and having a garden. However, I utterly failed at having a successful one this year. Next year, I need to either figure out what motivation is needed to spend daily time in the garden or forgo many of the things that I think I would like to grow.

Reading

Reading was a huge success, as per usual. I read 51 books this year, which you can view here if interested in my book choices this past year. Some of my favorite books were the many I read from The Shannara Chronicles by Terry Brooks, The Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman, The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova, Origin by Dan Brown, and Goodbye Things by Fumio Sasaki.

Crafts

Crafting is one way I find to bring creativity into my life. However, I have this bad habit of starting a project and then never getting around to finishing it because I started a new project (who's with me on this?) In looking at the list of projects to complete in 2017, some were not even touched. Mom's house socks were finished as a Christmas present for her this year. Several soy wax candles were made and enjoyed this year as well. I got rid of the quilt I've been "working on" since 2010, the green knit sweater, the bead id lanyard, and my mustard socks I started WAY back in 2009... The teal socks and grey scarf have not been finished, but have at least been added to my list of items on "trial," a list I added in my bullet journal of things to get rid of by certain dates if they have not been finished, or found to be useful.

Several additional projects were started and completed (or are nearing completion) this year. I made myself a double sided, reversible knit hat for winter (which is awesome if I do say so myself!) Dad wanted a new pair of knit socks for Christmas, and Tom wanted a hat like mine. Dad's socks have been finished, and Tom's hat is getting close to done. A few more episodes of Broadchurch or Peaky Blinders should see it finished. Other than these three things, I didn't really create much this year. This is something I want to attempt more of in 2018.

Travel

Tom and I traveled to Maui this past summer, and let me tell you, it was AMAZING. We rented this cute one-bedroom condo that was a three minute walk up from the beach. Many items on my bucket list were accomplished on this trip, and overall it was worth every cent. There's way too much to write about, so I'll just post some pictures with short descriptions here instead.

Other Goals

There were several other goals I worked toward accomplishing this year. I wanted to read more often, which was mostly successful. I read nine more books this year than in 2016. I also wanted to take calcium and clean the litter box every day. These were more challenging. Taking calcium would always get forgotten, or I would forget to put it in my bag for work. Cleaning the litter box has never been something I've enjoyed (honestly, who does?) so this would get "forgotten" as well.

However, I have to say that I've ended the year strong with both of these goals. What changed you might ask? Well, I still forget about the calcium and cleaning the litter box is still a hated chore. The thing that finally helped me to accomplish these daily tasks was setting alarms on my iPod (I still don't have a smart phone, and don't intend to anytime soon). For me, this works better than a calendar reminder because it's a persistent alarm that has to be dealt with unless I want to listen to it for 15 minutes. When the alarm goes off, I have to get up an turn it off. Since I'm up, it's easier to get myself to attend to both of these tasks. The alarms have also been helpful in reminding me to clean the house in small chunks each day of the week.



Well, there you have it. My year in review. Do you spend time looking back on your year? Let me know in the comments. In the next few days, I'll post my thoughts on looking at the year ahead and things to leave in 2017 or bring with me into 2018.