2020 in Review

Whew.

What.

Year.

I think we can all agree that 2020 has been a lot more…everything than any of us expected.

Despite all of the flaws and stresses of this year, I have plenty of really happy, lovely memories to look back on, and I’m so grateful for the extra time we got to spend together as a family.

This year our oldest turned 6 and our youngest turned two. We didn’t get to see the vast majority of our friends hardly at all thanks to the whole pandemic thing, but we got closer with our quarantine buddies, who quickly became family. We added a puppy to our family, cancelled a major vacation, took a couple smaller trips, and did our best to survive the insanity that 2020 rained down upon us.

At the end of every year, I really love to take a moment to look back and review all of our favorite projects, how we did on our goals, and just celebrate everything we accomplished!

It almost feels silly to review goals after the dumpster fire of a year we had, but it’s tradition so we’re going to do it anyways. Let’s see if we managed to accomplish anything we set out to do.

2020 GOals: How we did

Organize the garage: We did a pretty good job here! We tackled lots of various organizing projects this year in the garage, and it’s far from perfect but it’s honestly better than any garage we’ve had before so I’m not complaining! I shared some organizing ideas here, along with the DIY tool holder I built, and we even added a cute mural too!
Finish our master bedroom: Done and done! We added box molding around the room, made our own nightstands, and added some gorgeous furniture that makes me smile every time I walk in. There’s basically nothing left on my to-do list in here for the time being, and I’m thrilled with it.
Add a fireplace: Nope! We had a few different false starts on this goal this year – we kept getting prepped to start it and then changing our minds for one reason or another. The goal is to make this the first big project of 2021, and I can’t wait!
Take one small space from start to finish: Our laundry room! We made some huge changes in this space this year, and it’s a much more pleasant place to do laundry now, so I’m calling it a major win.
Plant some trees in the backyard: We planted just one, but it makes me SO HAPPY! I have dreams of doing a lot more landscaping in the backyard eventually, but I really want to put some solid thought into it first so we’re taking our time. We did unexpectedly end up extending our patio (we had planned on waiting a year or two for that), so that was an exciting replacement for more trees!
Hang some stuff on the walls: We definitely still have a few blank walls here and there, but I’d 100% say we knocked this one out of the park. Between the family photos going up our stairwell, the floating shelves in the living room, and my art ledge, I’d say we did a great job on this goal.
Swap out some lighting: Definitely didn’t do as much here as I would have liked, but we made some progress! We still have a ton of builder grade lights throughout our home, and one of my big goals for 2021 will be to choose new lighting for the dining room and living room. But, we replaced lights in all of our bedrooms, so I’m calling it this one done.
Get organized: Well, I’m gonna give myself a 50% on this one. We obviously set this goal because we had just moved into this house and had a lot of unpacking to do and systems to figure out, but we still have a long way to go when it comes to actually getting our house fully organized. But after the year we had…organization feels pretty low on my priority list, so I’m not gonna stress over this one!

I’m still working on nailing down what I want to have as our goals for next year, but I can tell you for sure we’ll be keeping it simple! I’ve really enjoyed the slowed-down pace of life this year, and as we look to a year where we (hopefully) get to begin resuming normal life a bit, I really want to hold on to the new routines we’ve fallen into this year. I want to stick with this slow, family-focused pace as much as I can, because it’s been pretty magical (when we aren’t all going crazy with cabin fever, of course) and I want to cling to these years with my tiny boys as much as I can!

In the spirit of celebrating whatever good we can find this year, let’s have a little recap of some of my favorite posts from the year.

This will be the last blog post I publish in 2020 – I’m taking some time to enjoy the holiday season with my boys, soak up as much family time as I can, and get some rest to gear up for a (hopefully huge and amazing) new year!

A look back at 2020

Below, I’m sharing a few of the posts in each category that were my favorites, or the most popular in 2020. Just click on the photo to go directly to the blog post!