How to Start the New Year Fresh

We want this to be your best year yet: A year of health, wealth, good vibes and great bedding. But it’s hard to slay like Beyoncé when your life looks like an episode of “Hoarders.” So here are some easy ways to clear your space – both physical and mental – for an amazing year.

Dry Clean Your Textiles

How long has it been since you dry-cleaned that throw? On second thought, don’t tell us. Now’s your moment! Resolve to be comfortable – and clean – in 2019. If you promise to clean all of your neglected textiles, we promise not to tell you what has accumulated there over the past 12 months…

Clean Out Your Closet

You are never going to wear that poncho. So pour yourself a drink, turn on your favorite TV show of questionable artistic merit, and clean out your closet. You are completely allowed to watch bad TV if you’re bagging up stuff for Goodwill, because your good deed cancels it out. That’s just math.

Toss Expired Foods and Meds

If your Alka Seltzer is older than Dakota Fanning, it’s time to take control. Cleaning out your bathroom cabinet is easy since medication comes with an expiration date. Chuck anything that’s past its prime and feel like a total Marie Kondo without doing very much at all. And how about cleaning out that pantry while you’re at it?

Clear Your Headspace

But enough about your apartment. Be sure to give yourself some TLC, too. Take a trip to the Korean spa and get last year scrubbed out of you; light a candle and write in your journal; or blast some death metal and scare last year’s demons away. Do whatever small ritual will help you release the things you’d would rather leave behind.

Sell/Donate Old CDs, DVDs and Books

If you have been carting a huge box of CDs, DVDs or books to your last four apartments, it’s officially time to lighten your load. Sell them online through Second Spin – or donate them and save yourself the headache.

Spend New Year’s Eve the Way You Want to Spend New Year’s Eve

Absolutely go to a New Year’s Eve party if that sounds appealing. But don’t feel obligated to go out if you’d rather lie low. Most of our New Year’s Resolutions involve health, so waking up without a hangover on New Year’s Day is a nice start.

Streamline Your To-Do List

Did you know that having an overly thorough to-do list can actually cause stress instead of mitigating it? List-lovers often finish easy tasks first in order to “check something off” when other tasks are actually more important. If this sounds like you, either ditch your list or slash anything less than essential.

Know Your Power

If politics have left you wanting to get involved, now is a great time to pick the cause – and corresponding organization – you’d like to help. Then find small ways to give. For example, you can easily set up your Amazon account so that 0.5% of eligible purchases goes to the cause of your choice at no cost to you.

Batch and Conquer Boring Annual Tasks

Making appointments with doctors is one of the few things you still have to do over the phone (unless you use Zocdoc), and to most of us text-addicts, talking on the phone to an actual human is about as appealing as eating hair. So batch this task: Schedule all of your annual medical appointments in one well-caffeinated morning. You’ll feel like you just conquered Everest.

Call Your Grandma

We just think you should.