Sticking to your New Years Resolutions accountability thread

[Haruka]

I thought it might be a good way to hold ourselves to account on here until new habits have stuck.

By the end of 2026 I want to

• have a clutter-free home
• drop a dress size to a size 12
• have read 10 new books and re-read 5 others
• have completed an important course for work
• have gained increased proficiency in Japanese
• have an even happier relationship, including a continuation of our 1 significant date a month habit
• have made a new friend and maintained my established friendships
• made my life more eco-friendly
• have completed at least one craft project a month
• have learned a new skill (last year it was blacksmithing)

To that end, today I have

• decluttered some old, inedible food and used up the rest of my apple sauce from Christmas in a slow cooked dish for our evening meal
• joined Duolingo to practise Japanese and completed 15min on it
• arranged a meetup with a friend in February, who will also meet my partner for the first time
• booked us into a concert for this month, while my partner booked us into a comedy show for February

I am also about to saw up the Christmas tree, ready for the tip and to use the needles as eco-friendly weed suppressant and we will go on a family walk in the afternoon. I am making a habit out of taking things with me when I leave a room again, to try and tidy up some of the clutter that needs putting away into other rooms. I am not planning on doing everything in one go - from past experiences, that will fail in the long run, but I will work on each thing weekly rather than daily.

I will continue to log this here and would love others to join, so we can go on our walk to a successful 2026 together.

Who's with me?

Mine are quite simple:
stay sober for the entire year. No drinking at all.
Drop a dress size to size ten. (Already lost a dress size in 2 months).
Read at least 25 books. (Already read one.)
Declutter the house.
Stop wasting food. (Far to expensive to waste these days!)

These are good goals. I forgot: save £4000 at least. That ties in nicely with rennovation goals (with the aim to upcycle and sell my starter home and move in with my partner into our own home), less waste (therefore eco-friendly), more DIY/ crafts and weight loss.

I'd struggle with no alcohol at all tbh - there are too many occasions where I'd fail, but I did quietly decide to restrict my drinking to aim for only non-work evenings (mostly Fridays and Saturdays), which, again, should massively help with the above. How will you tackle those events?

My green waste bin sticker has just arrived, so that, again, will help matters.

Everything that needed going to the tip today did - the tree is gone (we are now growing one ourselves for next year, so I will hopefully never have to buy one again), the tree outside my house has been cut back and all that green waste is gone, too, as has all the crap the previous house owner left behind in the garage.

I have also managed to use up some food which was left in the cupboard and freezer for months/ years for a random lunch and sort through my toiletries.

So, today's verdict:

• have a clutter-free home ✅decluttered green waste and garage, tidied
• drop a dress size to a size 12 ✅exercise (tree sawing)
• have read 10 new books and re-read 5 others
• have completed an important course for work
• have gained increased proficiency in Japanese ✅joined and completed 4 lessons on Duolingo
• have an even happier relationship, including a continuation of our 1 significant date a month habit ✅booked dates for the next 2 months, will game together again later
• have made a new friend and maintained my established friendships ✅made contact and arranged a meet-up with a friend
• made my life more eco-friendly ✅used up old things
• have completed at least one craft project a month
• have learned a new skill (last year it was blacksmithing)
• save £4,000 ✅bought only the bare minimum food in top-up shop

Tomorrow's priorities will be the course for work, more decluttering and using up things, more language practice, some work on an onging craft project, start reading (need to renew a book I borrowed from the library).