My goals for June

I'm really enjoying making myself a list of goals for the next month, I find it really makes me focus on what I want to get done. I did fairly well last month with my goals for May, and so here are the things that I want to get done in June.

Don't obsessively scroll the news websites. I did well avoiding Twitter last month and hopefully that can continue. Now I need to do the same for BBC News, the only news website I really check. I will still check the news, but maybe just at certain points during the day like first thing and lunchtime. 

Throw away or recycle at least 5 things per day. I desperately need a decluttering challenge, but it is  difficult at the moment to find a charity shop taking donations and the drop off box at our gym has been removed. But I'm sure I have plenty of things that can go in the recycling - I'm thinking expired paperwork, instruction leaflets, empty boxes, packaging and so on. I also know that I have a number of small electrical items lying about that can be put out with our household rubbish for recycling. From playing the minimalism game in the past I know what a difference even just getting rid of a few things each day can make. 

Think about taking part in the garage sale trail. My village holds an annual garage sale trail where a number of houses take part on the same day with a map showing all the different locations. I've taken part a few times and we had a pile of stuff for last year, then of course it was cancelled. So I need to make a decision as to whether we take part this year, and if so I can start putting together some things that I can sell. 

Try three new recipes. I have a box filled with recipes that I've pulled out of magazines but never tried! I need to try them or chuck them.

Don't pick up my phone as soon as I wake up. Even though I find that it helps to wake me up instead of falling back to sleep, it would be much better to just get up and get on with chivvying children and making breakfast.

Play the piano every day. I like playing the piano, I make sure that Harry does his piano practice every day, I can easily find ten minutes to sit down and have a play.

Tidy up the front garden, in particular the area around our front hedge. It's hard to describe, but we have a large hedge that goes around the house and we never see it from the other side as our driveway is on one side. I cut it back last week and discovered that areas have become very overgrown and were blocking a couple of small drainage grills. I sorted out the worse bits, but I need to go back and have a good weed underneath, as well as sweeping away lots of dead leaves. 

I think that all this will keep me busy!

Photo credit Alexander Schimmeck