The Sunday Reset: How to Start Each Week with a Fresh + Pretty Home

Inside: Who wants to start the week with a cluttered makeup drawer and sticky fridge handles? Not you. Here’s how to do a Sunday reset that embraces light planning and cleaning for a beautiful week.

Why You Need a Sunday Reset

Ever woken up on Monday, and you’re already behind? The kids forgot to unpack their backpacks and lunches… gross. You didn’t realize you were out of cat food, and now you’ll have to make an annoying last-minute stop. And worst of all, nothing is planned for dinner.

A few hours over the weekend can make sure you never, ever feel like that again. Ever.

When you take time on Sundays to tidy and organize your home, you feel better all week. Walking into a clean, clutter-free space helps relieve stress and clear your mind. You know this. A pretty and tidy space just feels better.

And , once you get in the habit of this you might find that you actually enjoy this process. There’s something nice and restful about getting things in order for the week ahead.

Remember: we are not deep cleaning!

Light Cleaning

The Sunday reset isn’t about deep cleaning – it’s about light tidying and maintenance. This includes things like:

• Quickly tidying up clutter and making beds
• Wiping down kitchen and bathroom counters
• Touching up floors by sweeping, vacuuming or mopping
• Doing a load or two of laundry
• Emptying trash bins and taking out recycling
• Light dusting of surfaces

Nothing crazy, just the basics to create a clean slate.

Plan Ahead for Next Week

Nobody likes the feeling of having appointments sneak up on you. A few minutes on Sunday can help prevent this.

Part of your routine needs to be about looking ahead.

This includes:

• Meal planning and (maybe!) prepping ingredients to have breakfasts and lunches ready to go
• Laying out clothes for the workweek (having a pretty capsule wardrobe makes this easy!)
• Prepping kids’ lunches and backpacks for the school week
• Planning projects or tasks you want to accomplis

Meal Prep

Getting ahead on meal prep makes it so much easier to eat homemade all week long. Use part of your Sunday to do some quick kitchen tasks:

• Chop veggies and wash fruits for snacks
• Precook plain chicken or steak for salads later
• Make granola, muffins, or something else that will work for breakfasts.

I consider this an “extra” for when I have the time. If you never meal prep on Sundays, don’t worry about it at all.

Light Decluttering + Tidying

As a general rule, if you have to make an area look worse (such as taking all the books off a bookshelf, emptying a drawer, etc), it’s too much for a Sunday reset. Keep it light!

• Clear off kitchen counters put away anything sitting out
• Delete random files on your computer desktop
• Gather up clutter from living spaces and return items to their homes
• Do a quick pass through each room and put stray items back in place
• Put away any laundry sitting out
• Quickly tidy your office space if you work from home

Think of what surface level stuff you can do to make your spaces look neat and calm.

Laundry Catch Up

This is not an in-depth do all your laundry situation. Just make sure you’re ready for the week. If not, get that load done now.

Don’t worry about deep cleaning things like curtains, rugs, or rarely worn items. A little laundry maintenance will get you through the week feeling put together.

FAQs

My Routine (Keeping it Realistic)

I don’t do everything on this list, and neither should you! This should be a 2-hour routine, tops.

Here’s my Sunday reset list:

• wash master bedroom towels and sheets
• finalize next week’s meal plan
• write down next week’s meals/ appointments/ schedule and put it on the fridge
• organize the fridge and wipe it down so it’s pretty inside
• tidy living room and clean coffee table
• make overnight oats for the week
• make kids’ lunches for the week

That’s it!

Tips for Success:

Here are some actionable tips for making the Sunday reset a success:

• Schedule it in your calendar to treat it like an important appointment. You have to make this a priority.
• Involve family. They should help you!
• Tackle one area or task at a time to avoid feeling overwhelmed.
• Set a timer for each task to stay on track.
• Put on some upbeat music to make chores more enjoyable
• Focus on quick tidying tasks – don’t worry about deep cleaning. EVER!
• Remind yourself of the benefits you’ll gain from a calm, ordered home
• Allow yourself grace – don’t worry about perfection!
• Stick with a simple routine that you can easily do every week. A long unfinished list gets you nowhere.

Doing this may feel like an extra chore at first. But over time you’ll realize that’s one of those things that makes your life easier, even if it seems harder in the beginning.

You deserve to start each week feeling calm and with a pretty house.. The Sunday reset helps make that possible.