Home Improvement for 2018 - Page 2

"Instead of setting a specific goal, try themes," she recommends, suggesting "improve the backyard" as a resolution rather than any specific project back there. Remember, any improvement is something to be proud of, not ashamed because it doesn't go farther.

Resolutions should not be a burden but rather, as self-help author Melody Beattie once wrote, "an affirmation that you're interested in living life in the years to come."

Say you resolve to declutter your home in 2018, to strive for a more minimalist existence in line with the house's architecture. A fine goal, to be sure, but not one where you want to echo General Washington's legendary call for his troops to "resolve to conquer or die."

"Break them into smaller chunks," Johnson-Tyler suggests for more successful resolutions, which might include vowing to declutter a room or two in '18, if not the whole house. To proceed with your goals in an efficient manner, she said, "Create a calendar of what things need to be done in the house [and when]."

"Start by putting one small task on your calendar each month: 'check and change all light bulbs to CFLs,' 'touch up interior paint,' 'replace air filters,'" says the life coach. "This way, you'll be mindful of home repair and may decide to take on a larger project. But even if you do just this one small thing, you feel good and are keeping up with minor maintenance."

Perhaps most important of all, don't allow cynicism from others or yourself to rob you of an opportunity to improve your home. Then, you avoid the resolution pitfalls cited by wags like Oscar Wilde, who once remarked, "Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account."