My Top 7 Ways To Reset The New Year in 2024

After the holidays and the house feels like a clean slate, that’s the same time I look at my top 7 ways to reset other ways in the new year.

Having the house clear gives me the motivation to want to clear out the junk in other areas of my life and not just the physical junk either.

It’s the perfect time to realign goals, check in with your partner, your finances, all the things and this year for me, nothing is off the table.

1. Take a look back at the previous year

Even in the most devastating of years, I have always learned a lesson that has forever changed me.

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Most Importantly are the projects that I was able to cross off my list, including the much awaited pantry project.

Often times I can see the things that I did that worked, make some small adjustments and continue, scrap the things that didn’t, or take on completely new challenges.

I have a complete list of projects ready to go for this new year so I am ready to tackle all the things.

2. Dry January

This year we’re doing something that we’ve always wanted to try, but never was ready to fully commit, dry January.

The whole concept is to give up alcohol for an entire month especially coming off a month heavy with holiday parties where alcohol tends to be the center of attention.

For Courtney and I, our reasoning to give up alcohol is for many reasons:

• Cost
• Improve our quality of sleep
• Better overall health benefits from not drinking
• Find better coping mechanisms for stressful/ hard situations

As of right now we are taking it day by day and will evaluate at the end of the month if this is something we will continue beyond January.

3. No Spend January

Some time in 2022 and 2023 we got a bit careless with our spending and had a few major life events that threw us off track.

In the middle of December I printed off the last few months bank statements and went through line by line and grouped together what we have been spending our money on… OMG.

Being realists and knowing that life is always going to throw us curveballs, I’m not going to beat us up if we don’t follow this 100%, BUT we’re going to follow it pretty darn close.

Allowable expense

• Mortgage/ Rent
• Utilities
• Insurance
• Car/ Gas
• Medical Expenses
• Cleaning Supplies
• Groceries
• Planned Events (I already had a retreat paid for and planned for this month)
• Gifts for Birthdays (Kennedy’s birthday is next month)

Expenses that are a no

• Clothes
• Shoes
• Accessories
• Eating Out
• Coffee Out
• Electronics
• Home Decor (This one hurts a little)
• Extras at the Grocery Store (Those side quests are a no -no)
• Random Amazon Items
• Makeup and Skincare
• Nails and Spa Treatments

I’m truly hoping this will help us to at least pause and truly think “do we really ‘NEED’ this or is this something that is a wasteful impulse buy?”

And instead of looking at it as deprivation, I’m really trying to make it into more of a game.

So that we can be better prepared for life’s little unexpected expenses, like when your puppy all of a sudden has to go to the vet’s office out of the blue. (No spend January or not, she’s totally worth it though. 😉 )

My plan is at the end of January to pull up the bank statements and sit down and talk about the month and how we can modify our spending habits moving forward so we can stay on track to achieve our financial goals for the year.

4. Re-Evaluate accounts and policies

I noticed when I was going through our bank statements, we had some fees and memberships that were auto-drafted out of our accounts that we needed to stop.

Speaking of bank accounts, one of the bank accounts had a service fee that was also high based on the fact that we were no longer meeting some of the minimum requirements. I spoke to the bank and was able to change to a different type of checking account.

Things to double check:

• Homeowners/ renters insurance
• Auto Insurance (may even be able to bundle the homeowners/ auto for a better deal)
• Cell phone carrier
• Internet
• Bank fees
• Streaming services/cable

Since some of the membership fees were auto-drafted we weren’t paying attention and all those little charges add up too.

A few years ago we did switch cell phone carriers and not only were we able to save money monthly, the new carrier also covers the cost of a couple of our TV streaming services also saving us money.

5. Realigning household responsibilities

I know this is a topic that may cause debate and every household runs very different, so there is no judgement from me.

Over the last few years our household dynamics have changed and while I work from home, a lot of the at home responsibilities were defaulting to me.

What ended up happening is that it left very little time for me to devote to Cribbs Style and I found myself becoming VERY discouraged and resentment started to settle in.

We had a very open and honest conversation of expectation vs. reality and came up with a game plan to help lessen the burden and tackle the household tasks together.

The conversation was hard, mainly because I have a very hard time asking for help, but I have also lived by the idea that people won’t know there is a problem if you don’t tell them either.

6. Personal and business goals

The last two years for me personally I have had a lot of physical challenges with my double mastectomy, and all that came with the healing process.

Which in turn impacted my business and what I was able to accomplish due to my physical restrictions.

Despite all of that, in 2023 I was able to hit a major milestone by being published in American Farmhouse Style Magazine, but I still have a ton of projects I can’t wait to tackle in 2024.

Toward the middle of 2023 I started working with a doctor to help transform my body and by the end of the year I was able to lose 23 pounds of the weight I put on due to surgery.

By not spending money eating out and focusing on eating at home, it will also allow me to continue my health journey in 2024.

All of this has started to give me the confidence and encouragement I needed to focus on being the best version of myself.

7. Plan for 2024

I am not a fan of resolutions, instead I pick a word that I want to center the new year around and for 2024 my word is MINDFUL.

The definition of MINDFUL:
1. Conscious or aware of something,
2. Focusing one’s awareness on the present moment.

I dove in deeper and also discovered that being mindful is being:

• Attentive, aware or careful
• Insightful, open minded
• See the world with great clarity without attachment to preconceived ideas about people, places, and things.

Truly this is everything I have always approached spaces and projects with Cribbs Style and how to look at things differently, break away from the norms.

I want to do more of that in 2024, I want to be mindful and see if there’s a better way of doing things that make more sense for me and my family.

Approaching 2024 with a clear mind and a focus on the future has me more excited than I have been in a LONG time and it feels really good.