It’s time for our annual goal-setting—there’s nothing like a public declaration to kickstart motivation. Let’s get started.
Goal #1: Embrace the Crazy (be flexible): After five years of blogging and more than two years doing this full time, we’ve accepted that no two days are the same. The coming year promises to be even more unpredictable. With our book releasing on November 6, a multi-city book tour, and a few secret side projects we’re excited to reveal, the next twelve months are likely to be unlike anything we’ve experienced. Our plan is simple: stay flexible and resist clinging to a false sense of normal. By letting go of rigid expectations, we hope to reduce stress and fully enjoy whatever comes our way. And of course, we’ll share those moments and lessons with you as they happen.
Goal #2: Bring Back Variety: Looking back through the archives, it’s clear our blog used to cover a wider variety of topics. Over time we fell into a routine, and that predictability nudged out some spontaneous, offbeat posts we used to love. Alongside our regular projects, giveaways, and reader makeovers, we want to reintroduce more diverse content, including:
- House crashings
- Window shopping and finds
- Budget blooms and affordable refreshes
- Quick, low-cost upgrades
- Soliciting advice from readers and sharing our questions
- Table setting and entertaining ideas
- Holiday decorating inspiration
- Mood boards and design thinking
- Working creatively with what we already own
- Round-ups and top-ten lists
- Road trips and travel-related posts
- Casual, off-topic conversations that reflect real life
This mix will better reflect our everyday lives—because we’re not renovating constantly. Sharing two or three project posts each week has been a sustainable rhythm for us. It keeps burnout at bay, helps manage the budget, and still shows steady progress (see our monthly recaps for examples). So we’re recommitting to mixing in old favorites and new ideas while keeping that comfortable project pace.
Goal #3: Less Typing, More Living: Finding balance and trimming overly wordy posts go hand in hand. We’ll still put in late nights and occasionally ramble, but many of our most-loved posts were concise and to the point. We admire other blogs that strike a balance between short and substantial, and we want to do the same. This year we’ll aim for clearer, more focused posts when it makes sense—short and sweet or long and juicy when appropriate. We hope you’ll enjoy that variety.
Goal #4: Include More of You: We want to involve our readers even more. Whether that means featuring more reader homes, asking for your perspectives on living spaces, or creating projects that highlight the community, our goal is to make this space feel welcoming. Our home is your home—come on in and get comfortable. We hope to create a warm, interactive community where readers feel encouraged to share and participate.
Those are our four goals for year six of full-time blogging. They might not all be perfectly achieved, but we’ll try our best. We also like to revisit last year’s goals to see how we did. Below is a concise recap of last year’s intentions and our reflections.
Last Year’s Goal #1: Find Balance: We’ve been working on balance for a while—trying not to let the blog consume all our time, money, and energy. The internet is always on, so unplugging is an ongoing challenge. Creating separate space for life, spontaneity, and fun remains important. Verdict: Still a work in progress, but we’re improving. We even took a short break from blogging this year, which helped.
Last Year’s Goal #2: Avoid Long-Winded Posts: Shorter, sharper posts can help maintain balance and keep readers engaged. Verdict: Also a continued effort—something we intend to keep refining this year.
Last Year’s Goal #3: Bring Back Before & After Inspiration: We missed the reader redesigns and before-and-after makeovers, so we brought them back. Verdict: Success—these features are back and inspiring both us and our readers.
Last Year’s Goal #4: Be Confident in Our Blog Identity: We aimed to be comfortable creating the content we love, even if not everyone agrees. The goal was to blog more fearlessly and accept that taste is subjective. Verdict: We’re finally settling into a confident groove and writing more authentically.
Last Year’s Goal #5: Practice Gratitude: When projects pile up and stress rises, we wanted to pause, breathe, and remember how fortunate we are to do this work. Verdict: We embraced gratitude and used it as a reset whenever things felt overwhelming.
Last Year’s Goal #6: Try New Things: We committed to staying open to spontaneous ideas and new adventures—whether creative experiments or the challenge of writing a book. Verdict: We tried fresh formats and spontaneous posts, tackled book photography, and generally stayed open to new directions. There’s more to come.
Finally, we want to say thank you. Your support makes this possible—not as a casual “thanks,” but as a heartfelt acknowledgment that you enable our work and make it joyful. We’re excited to announce book tour dates soon and hope to meet many of you in person. Your encouragement, laughs, and feedback are the reason we love doing this.
First image originally credited on Flickr. Last image edited by us for the post.
We also announced this week’s giveaway winner—check the site to see if it’s you.