1. Write a bona fide letter to someone who won’t expect it. Think of a person who really matters to you and recount one of your most hilarious moments together, thank her for guiding you through a difficult time, or just tell her that you want to get together more often.
2. Enlist everyone in the house, including the kids, to speed-clean one drawer. Set up a box for donations and another for trash. (Just be sure to survey your children’s pulled items, in case those pricey ballet slippers made their way into the Salvation Army bin.)
3. Empty your e-mail in-box. Delete and file. If your entire in-box is too overwhelming to tackle, focus on one day or one week of e-mails first.
4. Take digital photos of all the valuables in one room for insurance purposes. Keep the photos in a folder with original receipts or estimated values and serial numbers or warranties.
5. Toss all the liquor bottles in your bar that are less than one-eighth full (like that 1989 crème de menthe). If there’s more than a cocktail’s worth, try out a new drink, such as a stinger or an Amaretto sour. (See Easy Cocktail Recipes for how to make these drinks.) But remember: “Some low-proof liqueurs can spoil,” says Dale DeGroff, author of The Craft of the Cocktail (Clarkson Potter, $35, www.amazon.com). “Spirits of 80 proof will last for years in most cases, but liqueurs should be tasted if they have been stored for that long.”
6. Try one new food.
7. Donate to your favorite charity. Visit www.justgive.org and browse the nonprofit’s 19 different categories (such as “disaster relief” and “environment”), research a charity’s financials, decide where to give, and make a donation.
8. Send a year’s worth of blooms to yourself (or a loved one) through a floral site like www.calyxandcorolla.com, where you can order cut flowers or plants delivered monthly (cost: about $30 to $50 a month).
9. Buy a few lint rollers and hang one near every entrance to the house. No more frantic searching for the defuzzer at the last minute or getting caught in a meeting with Rover’s yellow hair all over your black dress.
10. Schedule a day off from work.
11. Program five essential numbers into your cell phone, like your doctor and your favorite take-out place, to avoid searching in address books and phone books for the same numbers again and again.
12. Swap music. Switch MP3 players with your spouse, child, or friend and listen to his or her favorite playlist. You’ll discover new artists, and you just might learn something about the person you swapped with. (Your macho husband likes ’N Sync?)
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