Thoughts

Editor’s Note

LOOK,I MAKE resolutions each January—I know it’s cliché, and I just don’t care—and as usual thisyear’s goals are all over the map. Some are big and practical:We’ve got to renovate the kitchen,with its too-dark cabinets and refrigerator-door rubber seal that tears a bitmorewitheachopening.Someare heartfelt: I’d like to be a better listener and offer my full focus to my husband and my daughter more often than I do now. Some are about home sanity: Iwant the walk-in utility closet to look like it did the dayafterthenicefellowfromtheContainer Store installed the shelving system.

Infact, gettingorganizedisthetop resolution readers tell us they make (and sometimes break).This month,we bring you 10 pages of room-by-room organizationtips,startingonpage86.AndIknow whatyou may be thinking: “I can get my hometotally organized. I justcan’t keep itthat way.”Ihearyou—that’s why we’ve included strategies to maintain that finely organized feel throughout thewholeyear. Some of this comes down to not taking it all onyourself:We reveal provenways to enlistyour family crew to be a part of the solution.

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Someyears, resolution-making is more complicated. I’ve had times inwhich I felt dissatisfied andwanted to make life changes, but Iwasn’t exactly sure of my goal and the steps to get there.Which is why Iwas drawn towhat author and coach Stacy Kim calls the Lighthouse Method (page 110).The idea is to just start making small changes,which getsyou in a good frame of mind for trying new things.You seeyour life from a different perspective asyou move towardyour goal (the lighthouse) in the distance.

Whateveryour January goals are—puttingyourfinances in order, getting healthier, streamliningyour morning routine, connectingwith friends and family— I hopeyou’ll find inspiration in these pages. AndIwish youluckwith yournew year’s plans. I’ll be here, praying this refrigerator door doesn’t give out on me before I get mine underway!

HOW’S YOUR CLOSET? My closet was kind of a hot mess until Alyssa Dineen, one of our experts in “A Better Way to Buy Clothes” (page 48), helped me say farewell to items I wasn’t wearing and identified pieces that made pulling together an outfit in the morning a total breeze. Example: The top Alyssa is zipping me into at the boutique Bird in Brooklyn (above) goes with 80 percent of the skirts and pants I own.