Before You Make Any Lofty New Year’s Resolutions, Go Clean Your Room
Long before Jordan Peterson was telling young men to “make their bed,” wise matriarchs were imposing this “rule for life” on their households for ages. It’s a good rule, but particularly this time of year, as we enter 2026 and start thinking about lofty goals and resolutions. I’d suggest — just as your mother might have — before deciding on any big changes, to start with your bedroom.
The New Year presents itself as a chance for us to turn the page, to change the things we don’t like about ourselves, and that can be overwhelming — to the point that many people don’t even make New Year’s resolutions for fear of failing at them or forgetting about them by MLK Day. Only 31 percent of American adults even planned to make a New Year’s resolution in 2025, according to a YouGov poll.
So before you pledge to run a marathon or make some other seismic change come January, the first thing you should do is make your bed. This is the best way to ward off the sense of being overwhelmed or fear of failure for two reasons. The first is the practical benefits.
Leila Marie Lawler, the anti-feminist, mother of seven, describes this concept in practical terms. She writes clear and encouraging instructions for stay-at-home moms with lots of children on how to keep a “reasonably clean house” (a difficult task), but I think her counsel is helpful for anyone overwhelmed by all the things we need to do on a given day, not just housewives.
Lawler explains that some people think getting your life together should start in the kitchen. A sink full of dishes is quite paralyzing in itself after all, and the kitchen tends to collect more clutter due to more traffic, especially in big families. But Lawler is right to ask, “If you start in the kitchen, will you ever leave?” The answer is no. In a few hours, you’ll start making another meal in there, and you’ll be back at square one. (Read more from “Before You Make Any Lofty New Year’s Resolutions, Go Clean Your Room” HERE)
