New Year | the pixel boutique | blog, web & print design

In the past week, I’ve cleaned out 4 closets and filled 3 Goodwill bags. What is it about the holidays and the new year that compels us to take stock and organize? I love it. Spring (or in this case “Winter”) cleaning is totally my thing. Love it.

Just like I catch myself neglecting my linen closet during the year, I find I often do the same with certain areas of my blog. Maybe now is a good time to take stock of your blog and do some sifting and sorting. Here are a few areas to thing about…

1. Sidebars: Have a couple out of date meme buttons still hanging around? Or even some sponsored button ads? Its easy to loose track of buttons in the sidebar. Less is more…dont waste precious real-estate with outdated buttons or text.

2. Affiliate Ads: If you are a part of affiliate ads like Share A Sale or Commission Junction, you can manage what ads you show when depending on the time of year or current campaign of the companies you advertise for. Remember to check on them and make sure your affiliate buttons and links are still up to date.

3. Static Pages: How up to date is your About page? Or your Disclosure Statement? Maybe you’ve been wanting to add a new page on update one. Dont forget your static pages (trust me…I’m preaching to the choir right now.)

4. Platform Updates: All the major blogging platforms perform regular updates and upgrades to their software. It isnt a good idea to ignore these alerts. You want to stay up to date with these so you don’t have issues with compatibility down the road. I know…it seems like there’s an update every 5 minutes (especially if you’re on WordPress). But it usually only takes a minute and a few clicks for most people.

5. Plugin Updates: Same thing here…if you’re on WordPress, occasionally check your plugins and make sure they are up to date with the latest published version.

6. Comments: Now is a good time to check your spam and pending comments. If you’re using Akismet for WordPress (and if you’re not, you should be!) it does a very good job of catching spam comments for you. Empty it out every once in a while after doing a quick scan for the occasional valid comment that slipped in. No need to take up this extra space on your database.

So what about you…what’s the hardest part of keeping things up to date and neat and tidy on your blog?

“Fall down seven times…get up eight”

Do you make New Year resolutions?

Yes, always!

Sometimes

Only if someone like you forces me to come up with something

Never

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Ask anyone in my family, including my extended family. Every New Year’s Eve, I make everyone go around the table after dinner and state their New Year’s resolutions. And if they don’t have any, I make some up for them.

Maybe I’m weird. But I’m a sucker for fresh starts. Newness. A clean slate. A restart.

I make resolutions every year. And I break them every year (usually around February). But that doesn’t deter me from making them again the next year. Not a bit. I’d rather start something and not fully accomplish it than to not start anything at all.

So for 2010, I have come up with “My 10″…a list of some serious, some practical, some ridiculous things that I want to accomplish. And maybe, just maybe, I can come back at the end of the year and report completion and accomplishment. And if I don’t? At least I got to try 10 new things.

1. Project 365. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time…to take a picture of something representative of my life every day. At the end of the year, what a story it will tell! (Check out Project 365 for more info and tips).

2. Be more organized. This is a repeat offender. Typically, I’m a very organized, neatnik person. But three kids, one hubby and a dog…and all that they entail…overwhelm me sometimes. This year, I am going to use more tools like:

Post-It Labels – they’ve got some really cool new products
My bank’s online banking tools…to avoid being so “surprised” at the end of the month
Good ol’ delegation…and a chore chart

3. Get a Roomba. My home is 85% tile and it takes forever to clean. In line with #2, I want to make better use of my time by cleaning less. Ok, not less, just smarter. I’ve heard rave reviews about the Roomba…have you?

4. Be a better friend. By calling a friend when she is on my mind, inviting her over for coffee, going for a walk or meeting her for lunch. A simple gesture goes a long way…for both of us.

5. Run 3 5k races. I’ve done one a year for the past two years. Time to step it up.

6. Read with my kids every school night. I read to my kids when they were little. But now that they’re older, I see the benefit in reading with and to them…still. It is a whole-family activity that I want to continue through the next year. Right now we’re reading The Last Olympian.

7. Stop the late night snacking. I’m a natural-born night owl and I like to stay up and work or watch TV after the house is quiet. A quiet house + TV = Eating (and not healthy stuff like spinach and tofu). I need to break this bad habit.

8. Be “Early to bed, early to rise…” To help with #7, among other things.

9. Try “Once a Month” Cooking. I think I would dig this. I like doing things “in bulk”. Any cookbook recommendations?

10. Take my boys to Disneyland! Yes, that’s right. We have yet to take our boys (8, 10 & 13) to the happiest place on earth (does that make us totally unAmerican, or what?). Hopefully, 2010 will be our year!

No matter what resolutions you make or break, here’s hoping your 2010 is prosperous, healthy and happy!