The Year’s Half Over—And There’s One Weekend Project You Finally Need to Finish

Apartment Therapy Weekend Projects is a guided program designed to help you get the happy, healthy home you’ve always wanted, one weekend at a time. Sign up now for email updates so you never miss a lesson.

We’re past the halfway point of the year. If you’re anything like me, you might have had a fleeting thought or two about the things that you haven’t kept up with as you planned to when you were a bright-eyed 2019 newbie.

Due to making vague plans like “finally getting the house in order” or “cleaning out the garage,” or unexpected things curving your path in a chance direction this year, many of us have tasks sitting heavy on our list of I-wish-to-dos.

I definitely don’t recommend you get down on yourself for the un-done things. Instead, try to see it with a silver lining: You now have six months’ worth of perspective to show you what’s really important. Now you can choose one of your home projects and make a realistic plan to chip away at it. It will have the power to get you through to the other side—a place where you can feel accomplished and lighter.

Getting started on a larger task and following through is about momentum, and this weekend we’re going to push the ball up the hill so it rolls down.

The “how” is simple: Pick a task you’ve been meaning to do or you know you’ve got to do, and make a plan for finishing it (or at least making a leap of progress) throughout the week.

Here are ideas for a larger task you could tackle:

• Go through you or your family’s closets and dressers for clothes that no longer fit or get worn.
• Make a home inventory.
• Declutter the back bedroom you toss everything into.
• Clear out those boxes you still haven’t unpacked from your move.
• Go through the boxes of “sentimental items” you’ve been carting around for a decade and decide what to do with them.
• Set up a budget.
• Organize the garage.
• Finally paint that room or piece of furniture.

Take a piece of paper or a notepad and write your big goal at the top, then below, make a list of steps you need to take to accomplish it. For instance, if your project is “repaint the living room,” your steps might include tasks like “buy tarps and supplies,” “tape off the edges,” and “do the first coat of paint.” Assign a date and time to each of those tasks, spreading them out as much as you need to—like writing down how you’ll buy supplies on your way out for lunch on Monday, then tape off the edges Tuesday night.

It’s true we’re halfway through the year, but now with a plan in place, you’re also halfway to finishing your most important project.

What will you choose to make a plan for?

You can catch up with weekend projects right here. Share your progress with us and others by posting updates and photos on Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag #atweekendproject.

Remember: This is about improvement, not perfection. Each week you can either choose to work on the assignment we’ve sent you, or tackle another project you’ve been meaning to get to. It’s also completely okay to skip a weekend if you’re busy or not feeling the assignment.