Is 2016 the year you’re finally going to restore the fireplace? Or maybe you’ll finish installing gutters on the back of the house. Will you get that home office set up? Paint the front door? Repair the dripping bathroom sink faucet? Install a doggy door for the family pooch?
Sometimes it is time and money that prevent us from reaching our living-space goals, but often we just don’t know where to start. If you have unfinished projects or unrealized home-ownership goals, they could distract you from fully enjoying your living environment. Something as small as a wobbling ceiling fan, for example, can irritate you so much that you avoid using your home office.
A new year typically comes with a push for resolutions and goal setting – and just as typically these are quickly lost or forgotten. But here’s a fact: It doesn’t matter what time of year it is, making a map of goals – with a game plan – can help you focus on accomplishing things you really want to cross off your list.
According to Forbes, goals can be achieved by identifying what the goal is and telling people about it. Yes, saying “I want to landscape my yard” sounds vague and, depending on your experience and green thumb, daunting.
So, instead, break this goal down to one or two smaller but more-detailed plans. “This year I want to plant – and maintain – a vegetable garden in my back yard.” Then share your plans. Next time you see your neighbor with all those beautiful climbing roses, let him or her know of your plan. If you’re on social media, post your plan and ask a few friends who grow their own herbs if they have any tips.
You’ve now put it out there that you’ve got a goal to achieve, and you’ve defined to yourself exactly what the plan is. A Google search, a visit to your local nursery and an hour perusing essential Houston gardening books such as Houston Garden Book or Year Round Gardening for Metro Houston will give you a timeline for when you should put in your vegetable garden.
If your project is to add gutters on the back of your house, ask the staff at the neighborhood hardware store about what is the best time of year to install them. Or, perhaps they have any recommendations for a professional installation service.
Asking a few simple questions allows you to make a realistic time line – an essential step to success. Asking questions also allows you to figure out if this is something you can realistically do yourself or if you need to hire a professional. A great resource is the “How-To and Repair” section on the This Old House website.
If you’re a handy person and want to take ownership of the project yourself, make sure you have the tools and materials necessary to finish the task in a timely manner. Three visits to Home Depot on a Saturday is not a good use of your time. And you don’t want a half-finished project or repair haunting you for weeks. Then jot down your personal timeline for getting these pesky home ownership projects completed. “A goal without a timeline is just a dream,” advises author and business guru Robert Herjavec.
A great goal-planning tool (helpful for any goal, really) created by the Harvard Business Review can be found here.
So you have the tools, the knowledge, the commitment to yourself and a good game plan. You’ll feel great getting those dining room chairs recovered … and wonder why it took you so long.
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We believe in following our own advice about identifying and sharing goals. Here are the 2016 goals for the River Oaks Houston writers and editors:
Taylor’s living-space goals 2016:
– Organize the garage: update labels on all storage bins, sweep out leaves, break down cardboard boxes for recycling.
– Take apart the dryer: What is that loud rattling noise? Order new parts from partselect.com and install.
– Master closet: Clean out clothes and shoes I have not worn in the last year and replace all regular hangers with slim line hangers. Not chic, but desperately need the space in this tiny closet. Packed-in clothes make it hard for me to get to anything and stress me out in the mornings.
– Bathroom: Re-caulk bathtub and replace weather stripping on bathroom window.
Becca’s living-space goals 2016:
I’m not one to wait on starting projects, which is both a strength and fault of mine. I’ve already built shelves and a headboard, stained and painted the kitchen table, wall-mounted the TV and devised countless small-space storage solutions. Here are some goals and small projects I have for the coming months:
– Organize closet: Donate items (clothes and shoes) I have not worn in a year. My boyfriend deserves at least one drawer of the dresser.
– Keep my dog off the couch: A new couch has been ordered and will be arriving at the beginning of March, so I’ll be making all of the efforts to keep it looking new and fresh. (And it’s time I finally followed the dog trainer’s guidelines anyway.)
– Give a mirror an antique facelift: I can’t quite afford to fill my living space with antiques, so with the advice from an experienced friend and some online tutorials, I have plans to distress a mirror this year.
– Install lighting: I live on the second floor of a duplex, and there is no light at the bottom of the entry staircase. I’d like to add some sort of light so guests aren’t welcomed in the dark.
– Lastly, stop buying pillows: This may sound silly, but I cannot squeeze one more pillow into my apartment’s one and only storage closet. The pillow-buying must end.
Teresa’s living-space goals 2016:
– Hire crew to grade back and front yards and install drainage.
– Plant one each: Mexican thornless lime, Meyer lemon, Celeste fig and satsuma (variety to be determined).
– Sort cookbooks and wine books and winnow by at least half. Donate unneeded/unwanted books to Goodwill.
– Refurbish large mahogany sideboard in dining room. Find vintage hardware on eBay.
– Buy smaller, easier-to-handle staple gun. Recover all chair seats in office conference area.
Cameron’s living-space goals 2016:
– Get on with installing shutters on the front and west side of the house. This will entail scraping and painting them, plus finding 1920s-style hinges for hanging them properly.
– Retrieve books from storage, clean them and organize them in the new library. Personal deadline for moving all books into the house: February 29.
– Create my personal valet area, including space dedicated to shoe cleaning and polishing. Buy a professional clothes steamer.
– Open more vents into the apron around the house. (Most pier-and-beam houses do not have enough air circulation underneath.) Find decorative cast-iron or cast-concrete vent covers to install. If impossible to find or too expensive, create my own vent covers by reproducing the sole surviving original cast-concrete chicken cover.
