It’s time for our annual goal-setting ritual — nothing motivates like a public declaration. Let’s get into it.
Goal #1: Find balance. We mentioned the need for more balance in a previous resolutions post. We don’t want to invest all of our time, money, and energy into the house at the cost of life, savings, and family time. Since our honeymoon we haven’t taken a big trip — only short road trips and family beach weeks — and that has to change. This past year has been full of exciting changes (John started working full time, we moved, Clara is growing fast, we’ve written for BabyCenter and Do It Yourself, completed a 260+ page book, tackled many house projects, and redesigned the site). But that flurry of activity has often pushed aside downtime and unplugged moments. The internet is always on, and we find ourselves connected nights, weekends, vacations, and holidays. Even after having a baby, posts kept going up. One reason we launched Young House Life was to remind ourselves to put the laptop down now and then — to be spontaneous, enjoy life, and recharge away from the screen.
Goal #2: Keep posts concise when appropriate. Shorter posts can help us regain balance. Some of our most-loved entries weren’t long essays with dozens of photos — they were quick updates, simple purchases worth sharing, or funny little moments captured on video. We admit that overly long posts get skimmed, even by us. So we’re committing to more short-and-sweet posts where they fit, instead of turning every update into a novel.
Goal #3: Bring back before-and-after inspiration. In the past we regularly featured reader redesigns, weekly giveaways, and a Friday poll called the Burning Question. Over time those features pulled the blog away from the original DIY diary feeling. Last year we shifted focus back to our house and cut a few recurring features. We missed the reader redesigns the most — they’re full of inspiration and practical ideas — so we’re bringing them back in a more flexible way. They won’t necessarily run twice a week, but they’ll appear regularly again. If you have a transformation you’d like to share (like the card-catalog-turned-buffet below), send submissions to [email protected].
Goal #4: Be confident in our blog’s identity. We want to be secure in the fact that this is our personal DIY diary — the wins, the messes, and the small everyday moments. With thousands of posts and millions of readers, not everyone will love everything we do, and that’s okay. Projects, decor choices, and writing styles are subjective. Some days we’re demoing a bathroom, other days we’re organizing a junk drawer or discussing parenting tangents. That variety is what built this blog: a genuine, occasionally messy record of home projects and ordinary life. We’ll keep doing it our way and appreciate that others may do it differently.
Goal #5: Stay grateful. It’s easy to get swallowed up by to-do lists, tight deadlines, and stacks of comments. Reminding ourselves that this is a dream job helps reframe stressful moments. We started this project from passion and it now supports our family, which brings both joy and pressure. When stress rises, we’ll pause, breathe, and remember how lucky we are to have this opportunity. That mental shift — gratitude — helps keep perspective when things get chaotic.
Goal #6: Try new things. We want to stay open to new and sometimes scary ideas, whether that’s experimenting with odd decorating concepts or launching new series like House Crashing or Window Shopping. With our book coming out next fall, we expect new experiences — photoshoots, secret projects, and other challenges — and we want to face them with curiosity instead of fear. Trying new things ties back to gratitude and a willingness to take chances that helped get us here.
Those are six goals for our fifth year of blogging. Some may not be fully accomplished, but we’ll give each our best effort. We also like to revisit last year’s goals to check progress:
Here’s a brief recap of last year’s goals and how we did:
Last Year’s Goal #1: Move on. This was about settling into a new house, enjoying it, and documenting projects and everyday life. Verdict: Mission accomplished.
Last Year’s Goal #2: Loosen up. We wanted to blog in a looser, more real-time way instead of queuing content weeks in advance. We improved timing — posts now usually go up a day or two after a project is finished — but we still need to balance long, detailed posts with quick updates. Verdict: Progress made, still working on it.
Last Year’s Goal #3: Get real. We aimed to share more ordinary, in-progress moments and spur-of-the-moment posts. We kept things authentic with messy house tours, fridge before-and-afters, and updates like cloth diapering, but we missed some of the quick, random posts from our early days. Verdict: Partially accomplished; more light, off-the-cuff posts are on the list.
We’re grateful to everyone who reads and supports the blog. Four years after starting a small kitchen-makeover blog for friends and family, we’re amazed by how far it’s come. This year we’ll keep working on concise posts, more reader features, gratitude, and trying new things — and we’ll remember to unplug now and then.
Psst — image credits: first image found via a news source, last image from another source (we adjusted heads in the images). The cute photo of the toddler was taken by Katie B.
Pssst — we also announced this week’s $500 West Elm gift card winner.