Thank you so much for the amazing response to our little announcement this morning — we truly appreciate you all.
We won’t make 2,013 resolutions, but here are five goals we’re announcing for the year. Every year we share our resolutions publicly to help keep ourselves accountable (you can see past years if you’re curious). Now, let’s get into it…
#1. Hold On. If anyone’s worried we’ll run out of projects or rooms to makeover, put that worry to rest. This year will likely be our busiest yet, packed with new DIY undertakings. We can’t share all the details just yet — some big things are brewing — but we’re excited to reveal them as soon as we can. We have plenty of untouched spaces to tackle, from Clara’s big-girl room to the front porch, carport, and guest bathroom. And beyond those, there are some major projects in the works that we can’t wait to over-share with you. And no, Mom — I’m not pregnant.
#2. Chat Things Up. You put the “you” in Young House Love, and we’ve said before that we want to include more of you in this DIY diary. Many readers have asked for forums as a friendly place to share photos, advice, ideas, and inspiration. We’ve been researching options that won’t crash the site or require hours of daily maintenance. Our plan is to focus on launching community spaces in the spring, once book tour craziness winds down. Fingers crossed for a smooth rollout — “no crashies, no crashies.”
#3. Be Realistic. We try to write like we’re talking to ten friends, but the truth is a lot more people stop by. Large sites that get millions of hits a month are usually run by teams, while we’re just two people with a toddler, juggling DIY projects, posts, a book tour, site coding, and a few secret projects. This resolution is a reminder to accept that we’re only two people — dedicated and passionate, but not a team of ten — and to stop beating ourselves up for not doing it all.
We love our grassroots approach and have no plans to hire people to answer comments, write posts, or program the site. That means being efficient, realistic, and kinder to ourselves. We’re not a big network — we’re John and Sherry from the blog — and you’ve told us that authenticity is a big reason you enjoy YHL. It’s time we embraced that more fully.
#4. Reclaim Our Lives. This ties into being realistic. For years we’ve struggled to find balance and joked that we’ll sleep “next year.” Now that it’s that year, we’d like to avoid being up until 1am finishing projects and posts while also juggling book work and everyday tasks like laundry and grocery shopping. We left a hectic city lifestyle for a reason, and we want to honor that by working smarter, not harder.
Many readers said they’d be fine with fewer posts, but we’re not ready to drop that drastically. Instead, we’re trimming from eight posts a week to seven (with two additional posts remaining on Young House Life). When we look back at our monthly roundups we’re often surprised by how much we accomplished, so this small adjustment should barely change what you see. It mostly means spacing out regular features like Window Shoppings, House Crashings, Budget Blooms, and Reader Redesigns so there’s one fewer of those each week to write, photograph, edit, proofread, and respond to.
We don’t think you’ll notice much of a change. Our tentative schedule is to post twice on Monday, once on Tuesday, twice on Wednesday, once on Thursday, and once on Friday, plus two additional posts on Young House Life. That pace will give us more time to brainstorm, complete projects, and recharge with family — all of which should lead to better, more thoughtful content and help prevent burnout. We want to play the long game and keep doing what we love without wearing ourselves out.
#5. Be Free. You often surprise us by loving posts that aren’t strictly about DIY — like personal pieces or random thoughts — and those posts draw lots of comments and interaction. Sharing the human side of our lives — sometimes stream-of-consciousness, sometimes spontaneous — keeps the blog light and fun. We plan to keep those posts coming because they’re part of what makes this space ours and keeps it enjoyable for you and for us.
So those are our five resolutions for the coming year. What are you resolving? For me, I want to simplify — really pare down the clutter. Over the years I’ve accumulated too many gadgets, decor items, pillows, gift bags, pens, and boxes of things that add up to too much. I’m inspired to live more simply, like we did when we had tiny studios in the city with nowhere to stash extras. Less truly can be more.