The Yearly Home Reset that I’m Always Recommending
A few years ago when I was “nesting” with our youngest, I came across Kathryn Whitaker’s Yearly Home Reset. Being in full Nesting Mode, I tackled that challenge head on and our home felt much lighter and readier to welcome a baby after just two weeks.
But the way she shares her Yearly Reset isn’t something I gravitate towards in my current season of life. Instead of posting everything at once, she sends one email every weekday for two weeks for a total of ten Reset-related emails. Each email instructs you to tackle a different area in your home (sometimes a single area spans two days or two different emails). If you missed a day or the day before took a bit longer, tough luck: it’s time for the next day’s to-dos.
That’s not something I look forward to checking, reading, or following anymore. Hence this post.
So I’ll go ahead and include her plan below, followed by my reasoning for why I now don’t like the way she shares it every year, what I changed, etc. If you don’t care about all that but just want to get to the plan, then here you go!
Without further ado: The Home Reset Plan
(Btw, I’ve commingled her ideas with mine but don’t always specify whose are whose. If you’d like to contribute your own tips so this post can become even more collaborative, please comment them below!)
CLEAN SWEEP
- Throw out the trash and take out the recycling
- Donate things you haven’t enjoyed looking at or even managing for months.
- (As a non-Reset aside, to manage inventory means to have to deal with it. To have to deal with something means having to use it, clean it, put it away, look at it, etc.) If you don’t want to have to deal with something, or if you’re OK with the thought that it were to spontaneously combust right now, then it’s time to get rid of it.
- Skip the drawers and the areas under the beds for now.
Fridge and Freezer
- Take EVERYTHING out.
- Wipe down the interior of the fridge for a clean slate. (Use Clorox Wipes or warm, soapy water for the shelves and drawers, ensuring you don’t keep it open for too long.)
- Throw out what’s expired.
- Make a grocery list if necessary.
- Throw out the stuff that’s not good for you and put what’s optimal and/or should be used more frequently within easier reach.
The Pantry
- Take it ALL out and lay it on your counters.
- Throw out what’s expired + what you know you and your family shouldn’t be eating. Donate what makes sense and toss the rest.
- Re-load and re-organize your pantry in a way that serves you.
- Use clear bins and small shelves to take advantage of vertical space.
- Consider adding a shelving unit to the pantry door.
Cabinets and Drawers
- Empty them all out and lay everything on the counters.
- (If you don’t have enough time, go through the spaces that bother you the most. Maybe they can’t fit anything else? Maybe that one drawer that’s full of plastic bags can instead accommodate your wooden utensils or measuring cups and spoons.)
- Consider donating or tossing that single-use kitchen gadget.
- I recently got rid of a banana cutter (I’d rather teach our kids to use a knife responsibly) and a grape cutter. Both were more hassle and took up more space than they were worth!
- Go through your spices as well and toss the ones you know you won’t use anymore. Put the ones you use the most front and center or near the bottom or a layered organizer.
- Clear your countertops. Empty countertops are very liberating and clutter is stressful.
- Remember: The less you have to manage (in this case, even look at), the better.
- Simplify your small appliances! Try finding a shelf just for them in the pantry. If there are any you definitely use but not that often and don’t want to keep it in your kitchen, consider making a small space for them in the garage. (I keep our Instant pot in our garage.) maybe get rid of those you haven’t used in at least a year?
- Don’t feel forced to keep something just because someone gave it to you.
Cleaning Major Appliances
Kathryn recommends a water-vinegar solution for fridges, microwaves, dishwashers, and stove tops. I use that to wash our produce but I bet it works really well for appliances too. I use Weiman Stainless Steel Cleaner and Weiman Cooktop Cleaner instead. They work really well!
I won’t extoll her “Magic Solution” for the oven because it didn’t work for me and it was more trouble than it was worth. If you’re interested, it’s made up of ONE CUP Water + ONE TEASPOON Castile Soap + TEN DROPS of essential oil (optional).
Store dishes, flatware, and glasses near your dishwasher. Pots, utensils, and oven mitts near your stove.
Think about what you need as you stand near your major appliances and restock cabinets and drawers accordingly.
- Pull out any expired medications but DON’T toss them. Instead, drop them off at the police station or a drugstore in their bin for expired meds so they stay out of the trash and water supply. (I admit I forget to do this.)
- Take an inventory of what you have and make a list of what needs to be restocked.
- Would separating things into Kid Meds, Adult Meds, and First Aid make sense for your family?
- Print a dosing chart to store with your kiddos’ medicines.
Makeup, Skincare, Body Care
- Toss expired makeup, shampoo, and body care products. “Most beauty products have a little jar icon on the back with a number on it, indicating in MONTHS when it expires.”
- Clean those hair brushes, tools, and makeup brushes.
- Download the EWH Healthy Living app so you may scan the barcodes on your products to see their toxicity rating.
- My favorite makeup brands that I currently use are Ilia, Jane Iridale, Adel Cosmetics, and Toups & Co. Organics. My face cleanser is the DHC Deep Cleansing Oil and my face moisturizer is by Vanicream. They’re all part of my basic but wonderful routine and contain high-quality ingredients with no butylene glycol.
Linen Closet
- “You probably have too many towels.” Kathryn and her family of eight have “enough towels for two/person, one beach towel/person and two extra pillows in addition to what we need for the people that live here.”
- In our family of four we have three towels total for the kids + two towels for each adult + three extra towels for incidentals (our dog, cleanups, pool days, etc.). We don’t have extra pillows. She suggests asking neighbors for when you have too many guests but we don’t do that.
- “I doubt you really need a dozen blankets. Donate the surplus to a homeless shelter.”
- We have a lot of jackets and coats. While Kathryn shares they don’t have as many since they live in Texas, they’re very important for us in Utah so we have multiple snow coats, snow bibs/pants + lighter jackets. We like keeping some in our vehicle as well as at home so we’re ready for last-minute snow and sledding outings without having to hunt down one item in particular. Gloves and hats go in a drawer in our entryway closet.
Time to reclaim your peace. It’s bedroom and closet day! At the end of the day, I want you to walk into your bedroom, let out a grateful sigh, and love where you sleep. It matters. We often neglect our own bedroom, putting it on the back burner because so many other things demand our attention. But I’m telling you that you’re worth it (and… your spouse is worth it!) and I need you to believe me. This is the place where you recharge everyday, so let’s make it worthy, okay?
Before you do anything else, move all the kids’ toys and pictures OUT of your bedroom. Keep your haven a toy-free zone.
Let’s move on to Kathryn’s plan.
Your Bedroom
- Hang or fold clean clothes that are on the floor or on furniture and put dirty ones in the hamper.
- Clear off the nightstands.
- Remove knick-knacks and clutter, both from surfaces and from that space under the bed
- Change and wash the sheets.
Your Closet and Dresser
- Toss underwear and bras that no longer fit, as well as mismatched socks and those with holes.
- Let go of anything that doesn’t fit or you haven’t worn in a long while.
- If your region has seasons like Utah, consider donating what you haven’t worn in a year or four+ seasons. If you’re trying to fit into a particular item, set it aside for a few months and then come back to it: If it still doesn’t fit, donate it. Or donate it today.
- Wear the jewelry you have, and sell or donate what you don’t wear. Consider cleaning your own jewelry or asking jewelry stores whether they’ll clean your pieces for free. There are some in Utah that will clean their own pieces for free for life.
Other Bedrooms in Your Home
- Don’t sort through your kids’ closets and clothes yet. Take a quick run through the other rooms, skipping over toys, clothes, and your kids’ school papers.
- Clear dressers and nightstands.
- Let the “Container Method” guide what you can keep: If it fits the container (be it a drawer, a basket, a shelf), it stays. If it doesn’t, it goes.
- Change and wash the sheets.
- Make some space in the guest bedroom for them to set down luggage.
Kids’ Clothes
- Kathryn shares a neat system for going over Kids’ clothes: https://kathrynwhitaker.net/2012/04/hdydi-organize-a-kids-closet/
- I disagree with some of the statements she makes but I nevertheless thought you’d find it handy since I can relate to some of the methods she specifies.
- How we deal with Kids’ clothes: I simply don’t care to have lots for them. I really don’t, as long as it’s within reason. (For instance, our daughter likes dresses so she has many, but she doesn’t wear pants out of our house so I only have a couple for home. Likewise, our son doesn’t wear sweaters so he has one or two, but he likes long-sleeve shirts when it’s colder so he has several.)
- I don’t like to have them wear the same thing every time so I like to provide myself with options and then I’ll give them two choices for them to select from for an event or outing.
- Every season I go through clothes they’ve outgrown and set some aside for hand-me-downs for friends, others for donations, and others that I consider really special and I have strong memories attached to, I’ll keep in a separate tub.
- At the end of every season I’ll also go over the next season’s clothes and make a list of what’s needed +…
- If you’re really sentimental about some clothes and don’t want to store bins full of them, why not turn them into a quilt? Kathryn suggests you (have your kids) collect them during their childhood and then you can give them the finished quilt when they move out.
Kids’ Toys
- The Minimal Mom shared a great playlist with ideas for decluttering toys that you should find helpful if you need to do just that. (Below you’ll find the first video from this series.)
- The mom behind the YouTUbe channel Paper Town Home also has some great tips that helped me more recently to declutter our kids’ playroom and decrease the toy overwhelm. You’ll find that video following The Minimal Mom’s.
Once you find your true system for decluttering toys and kids’ clothes (which it’s so easy for us to maximize!), you’ll find that no other system can beat it, so don’t feel pressured to learn what everyone else is doing.
For instance, if something Kathryn does isn’t your cup of tea, then by all means don’t think you MUST adopt it. Don’t “fix” what isn’t broken.
Laundry Room
- Relocate what doesn’t belong here and get it to its rightful place in your home.
- If you don’t have time for it today, put it all in a bag ir box and relocate it when you DO have the time.
- If you haven’t found a match for that lonely mismatched sock, just toss it.
- Kathryn also suggests you take stock of your laundry supplies and either toss them (if they’ve expired), refill them, or use them.
- I’ll go one step farther: Declutter as much as possible. You don’t need to add three or four products to your Wash and you really don’t need Dryer Sheets.
- Throw in a washing machine tablet and run a quick load to clean your washer.
Living Areas
- Purge your bookshelf/bookshelves.
- Again, I’ll take it one step farther: Organize them! I like to divide our books into Spanish and English, and then alphabetize them or categorize them by Subject. Any system helps (especially for us homeschoolers!) as long as you stick with it.
- Vacuum the couches, wash the throw pillow covers (or donate the throw pillows themselves?), and wash or air out those blankets.
- Change the batteries in (or recharge all) the remotes.
- Put all the toys in a bin or corner of the room.
- Declutter your end tables and coffee tables. Surfaces don’t all need stuff on them.
- Update your family photos
- I recommend Shutterfly and Walgreens for their affordable prints of all sizes. We’ve also been using EasyCanvasPrints [dot] com practically since we got married; it lets you print beautiful canvas of many sizes and we have several around our home.
Office Space/Paper
Let’s declutter your own corner of your home so it’s less stress-inducing and more organized.
- Recycle junk mail
- Shred stuff with your contact information.
- Pay bills.
- File what needs to be filed.
- Use a color-coded system for this if you don’t have one already: Red folders are for X, White folders for Y, Blue folders for Z, and so on.
- Make a stack of kid papers* and put it neatly away.
- Toss or donate extra supplies (writing utensils, Thank You notes, paper clips, etc.) and use desk/drawer organizers to organize what’s left.
*Kid Papers – Katherine’s method (from iHeartOrganizing)
- Each child has a hanging file folder box with a file folder for each grade: This is for art, school projects, and any other school papers.
- Each child also has a coordinating box that holds oversized keepsakes that not papers (e.g., art books, homemade trinkets, awards, etc.)
- Add stuff twice a year with the kids
- Hand them both boxes when they move out. She says it’s “manageable, comprehensive, and still sentimental.”
Important Papers, Safety Deposit Box, or Fireproof Safe
- Many banks don’t offer safety deposit boxes anymore, so if your home’s where you’d rather keep your important documents at, get a highly rated fireproof box or folder to store them.
- If you’d rather keep them at a bank, shop around for the best rates.
What to keep in your box:
- Wills, durable power of attorney (and keep the originals at home)
- Military papers
- Government IDs (Passports*, Social Security Cards, etc.)
- Birth and death certificates
- Religious records
- Report cards and transcripts
- Housing documents
- Irreplaceable items (such as art, jewelry, family heirlooms)
*Keep these at home when someone’s traveling outside the country and keep scanned copies of passports, birth certificates, and sacramental records at home as well for quick and easy access.
Consider purchasing a Home Binder off Etsy to help you organize your important documents and information. Andrea Dekker has a free printable version you can download here: https://andreadekker.com/family-emergency-binder/
To get rid of junk mail, you can write RTS PLEASE REMOVE with a sharpie and hope your postal carrier obliges. YMMV!! (RTS stands for “Return to Sender”)
Cars
- Throw out the trash
- Relocate anything that doesn’t need to be in the car
- Weather-permitting, run it through the car wash or wash it yourself, and vacuum it.
- Consider keeping these in the car(s):
- First Aid Kit
- Old towel
- Scissors
- Tissues and napkins
- Baby wipes
- Bandaids
- Pens
- Rosary
- Umbrella
- Car bingo
Garage/Shed
- Declutter it! Trash or donate what you don’t need or haven’t used in forever.
- Determine an organization method (such as ceiling hangers, shelving units, cabinets, etc.) and implement it as time and budget allows: Think vertical space and wall space!
- Add a signature that disclaims how long it may take you to respond to emails and why.
- Unsubscribe from newsletters you’re no longer interested in or aren’t serving you
- Hit MARK AS SPAM if it’s been TEN days that you unsubscribed from those newsletters and you’re still receiving them.
- Set Email Rules and Filters. (Automatically delete specific emails, send Purchase-related emails to a Purchases folder, etc.)
- Create an email alias and/or several sub-accounts.
- I’ll add that you should definitely switch to a PRIVATE email provider. We use Proton Mail.
Passwords
- Use a trusted Password Manager (Apple Passwords, BitWarden, NordPass, Proton Pass) and designate someone, an emergency contact, to be able to access it if you can’t.
Computer Files and Photos
- Come up with an obvious, consistent system for naming your folders and stick with it.
- A former employer of mine would name image files in the format MMDDYY, or 012625, for instance, which was very helpful, so I’ve been using that system for as long as I can remember.
- Delete duplicate photos: Keep the single best one.
- Don’t keep others’ pictures: If you take them, email them and delete them from your phone.
- Purge them once a month.
- Back them up regularly with an external hard drive and/or a Cloud service. (Kathryn uses Carbonite. Kim Komando has a deal for 50% off your first year for it.)
- Consider a subscription for Chatbooks! Get 30-60 of your favorite photos made into a small book each month. Our kids love to get their monthly book and spend weeks looking at the previous month’s!
Hard Copy Photos
- Purge duplicate, blurry, or poorly exposed photos.
- Don’t think you MUST keep every single scrapbook. Maybe take a few pictures ut and get rid of the rest.
Social Media
- Kathryn still uses social media so I’ll take it one step farther again with my idea: Quit social media. That’s all.
Why I’m Foregoing Her Reset Emails from Now On (Not that you should care, but you’re welcome to stay and find out…)
Since we didn’t homeschool and our oldest still napped three hours each day, I had much more time years ago to dedicate to the upkeep of our home, including this Reset and her daily emails. But now that we homeschool and I’m chasing after two little kids (granted, our youngest now naps three hours each day), the time I’m able to dedicate to housework–including. this Reset–has greatly decreased.
Kathryn, a mom of six and author whose work I’ve written about before, will tell you that she’s tackled this Reset Challenge during all kinds of stages with her family. But, honestly, her kids have also been gone all day at school for many years, so I prefer to take that with a grain of salt and do things my way.
I also recently started doing the FlyLady system, which has significantly benefited how I take care of our home AND how much I enjoy doing it, and I don’t have additional time every day to follow what an email tells me to do. (Plus I’d rather not store a bunch of unread emails as reminders.)
Not to mention FlyLady’s Zone schedule differs from Kathryn’s, so I’d rather follow the former that I’ve already written out in my Planner that week than the latter, which may deviate from my to-dos that week–and I’m not looking to work harder or add to my workload.
What I shared with you above is a short overview of all her Reset days for you and I to follow at your leisure.
If you find that you’re able to or would like to sign up for her daily reminders, then DO sign up for her newsletter below. It’s actually a good one and she shares valuable insights and tips from time to time!
Her life updates I don’t really care much for but occasionally she’ll recommend a good book and I’ll get hooked on that author for that whole year. In fact, it was a brief recommendation she shared maybe at the end of 2023 that encouraged me to start reading books by Sarah Sundin, and it was her books I read exclusively before bed in 2024 before I switched authors (while staying within that genre of closed-door historical fiction romance) for 2025. I have Kathryn to thank for my rediscovered passion for reading before bed.
Anyways, at the end of every year Kathryn invites her email recipients to sign up for her separate Reset Email List. Do it at least once if you’re not doing it already. It really is a great system if you have the time for it.
(Or follow my outline above if you’d rather spread it all out on YOUR timeline without having to wait for daily emails.)
Good luck in your Reset, and as Kathryn says, “Progress, not perfection.”
