Year-End Reset For A Calmer 2026

The last weeks of the year can feel like a blur of loose ends and good intentions, so we’re stripping the noise back to three moves that actually change daily life: get honest with your budget, declutter your home like you mean it, and design your next year with intention and faith. If your months keep landing in the red or your rooms feel smaller than they are, these simple steps restore breathing room without adding pressure.

We start with money clarity. A weekly budgeting rhythm shows you where cash truly goes, what to cut, and what income you need to bridge the gap. Then we head into a real whole-home reset. Not a quick tidy, but a purge that frees space, calms the family, and makes a three-bedroom home work without the weight of a bigger mortgage. We touch on practical rules for keeping what serves you, rehoming what doesn’t, and creating easy systems for shared kids’ rooms so evenings run smoother.

From there, we shift to vision. We map an ideal day, turn it into monthly targets, and share how we set specific, aligned goals that respect our values and, for us, our faith. You’ll hear a short story about provision that reshaped how we plan, and why our word for 2026 is "Breakthrough". This spans across finances, family rhythms, and the kind of experiences we want to create while the kids are still little. The bottom line is intentional living: small, consistent actions that compound into a calmer home and a steadier year.

If you’re ready to trade overwhelm for direction, press play, take what helps, and start with one room, one bill, or one habit. Subscribe for more practical organisation, share this with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a quick review to help others find the show. Your next step toward a lighter 2026 starts today.

Chapters

• 0:18 Welcome And Year Wrap
• 1:35 Three-Step Plan For 2026
• 1:41 Know Your Numbers
• 3:48 Facing Red Months And Clarity
• 6:48 Whole-Home Declutter
• 12:05 Right-Sizing Home And Values
• 16:25 Resetting Spaces And Routines

Transcript

Mel: 0:18

Welcome to Beyond Organised, the podcast that helps you simplify your life and amplify your purpose. I'm Mel Schenker, life coach, speaker, founder of She's Organised, but, more importantly, a wife and mum of four little kids. If you've ever felt overwhelmed, like you're constantly juggling everything but never quite catching up, this is the place for you. Here we go beyond just the tidying up and creating systems. We're talking about real life strategies that bring order to your life, but also we talk about the things beyond the organising, the things that really matter, like your parenting relationships and so much more. So grab your coffee and let's dive in.

Mel: 0:59

Hello, my lovely listeners. I cannot believe this is the last episode for the year. Where has 2025 gone? It's unbelievable, but I'm so glad you're here. And I don't know if you've been listening since the very beginning, back in April, or whether you're new here. I just want to say welcome and thank you for making this year so good for me and for everyone around. I'm really looking forward to next year and what next year has to bring. So we're all busy, we've all got things to do, particularly at this time of year. I'm just going to run through the three things that I'm doing this week to set me up for 2026. So the first thing that I'm doing is I'm going through my budget. So I have a spreadsheet that I get from Smart Women's Society. I'm not an affiliate as of recording this. It's just something that I like, this spreadsheet is amazing in my mind. It's so comprehensive. So if you're a spreadsheet person, I encourage you to check out Smart Women's Society, their ultimate wealth dashboard. They've got this incredible spreadsheet that really is quite detailed. And at the end of the day, you don't have to do too much work. I input what has been spent throughout the week. I do that throughout the year. But most of the setup in terms of the budget and everything, I do now, like I do now. And I only tweak it a little bit throughout the year if things change. So it's really good. Um, and I go through that to get an overview. And look, you know, most months for me right now are in the red. It doesn't look great, but at least I know where I'm sitting and, you know, try and work out where we can cut costs, but also work out how much more money I need to make to not be in the red at the end of the month when it actually comes to pass. So it's it doesn't matter where you're at, where you're starting from, how much debt you might have, anything like that. It's good to know your numbers. It's good to know where you're at. And I know if this is something that's quite new for you, it can be really overwhelming, especially when you've been burying your head in the sand and you actually sit down and do the numbers, and it can be scary. But trust me, if you're actually going through and being diligent, and especially if you are a Christian, if you're someone that does listen to God, then He can do more with you as well if your head is not buried in the sand. So I do encourage you to sit down and do your numbers. So I did most of mine last night, actually, but um, I will be just touching up and going through that again, just ready for the new year. Now, the second thing that I'll be doing, so in the last episode, and what you would have heard was I was decluttering a little bit when it came to making space for the kids' toys and all the new things that were coming in. I do try to do a more detailed declutter in the lead up to it. Uh, but this year, just did not have time with running the business and everything else. It was just wasn't gonna happen this year with a baby and all that. So I did what I could before Christmas, which has helped because with the few things that have come in, we've it's all sorted. But now I need to go through and do the rest of the house. Now it can seem like a pretty big task and a bit overwhelming for a lot of people. For me, I'm excited. I'm like ready to go. I'm gonna get stuck into my daughter's room today because my baby has been sleeping in our walk-in robe. And so I'm gonna end up moving him into her room tonight, hopefully. And um, yeah, we're gonna get that sorted. So I haven't done a proper declutter, like full massive purge, you know, a lot of hard rubbish, a lot of donations, all that kind of stuff since well and truly before my youngest son was born. It's been a couple of years. Life really has gotten away from me. And even someone as organized as me, you know, it does tend to escape from time to time. And yes, I've been able to, I've done it so many times over the last 12 plus years. I've done it a lot of times. So it has been a matter of maintaining as best as I can over the last couple of years, but even then, things have crept up, and I'm excited to just go through it all and just go back to reset mode because you know, we are in a three-bedroom home, and this is our home. And we were talking over the last few weeks whether we move something bigger or not, and that generally requires more debt in terms of a home loan and all this kind of stuff. And we just don't want to be in that position. We want to keep paying down this house as much as we can and just not be stretched anymore than, well, what we kind of are. So I want to go through and do a big clean out. And ultimately, if we can get rid of a lot of the stuff that we've got, the stuff that we just don't need, um, we could pretty comfortably live in this house for a number of years, um, having the, you know, two kids in each room. They seem to be, especially the older two, love sharing. So um, I mean, they talk a lot. They talk a lot when it's time to sleep, but that's also forming their childhood memories too. So I don't mind so much in the holiday time, but I will be going through and doing a big purge. You might see on social media in coming weeks some completed spaces from around my home. So you can get an idea and some inspiration, and I'll talk through sort of what I did and all that kind of stuff. So you'll probably see stuff like that pop up over the next few weeks while I have time off from my part-time job, and I've also taken a step back from the business to have a break. Really, I I need a break. So, um, but I will keep this podcast going because this is this is enjoyable for me. Yeah, the net the second big thing is a massive declutter and purge, and it's a great way to start the year, starting it fresh, motivated, excited, sort of ready to go. Most people are motivated to try new things like new fitness and health routines and all that kind of stuff. For me, I do enjoy starting the year fresh with my home just fully reset in order. It's yeah, you can breathe and you're setting yourself up well for the year ahead. And now the third thing, now this is something that I'm gonna do that's a little bit different, I guess. It's a journey that I've been on when it comes to God's provision and prosperity and and what that all looks like. Because, you know, I've been doing this business, she's organized, running this podcast, doing all these things out of pure obedience to what the Lord has asked me to do. Uh, I'm enjoying it, I am, but it's not financially fruitful yet. Um, and I know that for a lot of businesses in the first few years, they don't run a profit, all this kind of stuff. But I do believe that this is something that the Lord has asked me to do and does want to bless me with, so then I can be a bigger blessing to you, to everyone out there that is gonna get something from this. So I'm going through with my husband and actually mapping out how this year is gonna look in terms of our ideals. Now, for some people, that is like manifesting and all this kind of stuff. Now, I'm not a fan of the whole manifesting thing, I will admit, because I don't want to make something that's in my will a reality. I want something in God's will to become reality, and he can see infinitely more than anything that I can imagine in my mind. I'd rather be honing in on what he's trying to do. But I want to get down to the specifics because quite a number of years ago, when we had credit cards and everything, and we had one credit card left, and there was about $9,682 or something like that on there at the time. And we really wanted to clear it. And it had taken us, I don't know, a couple of years to clear the tens of thousands of debt that we had before that. But we're down to the last card, last lot, under 10k. We were like, okay, we can do this. This is how much we need. And we actually said to God, uh, because we had a fair bit in crypto and things like that at the time. My husband does a lot of crypto mining and all that kind of stuff. But we said, okay, God, this is the number we need. We need the crypto to get to this amount. And if it gets to that, then we're gonna cash it out and clear the credit card. And within about a week, it just all of a sudden shot up. We kept denying it. It shot up, it got to that amount, and we were tempted to keep it in there a bit longer to see if we could get more, but we both said to each other, no, no, no, let's not get greedy. This is the amount that we asked the Lord, and it's happened, which we were surprised that that kind of happened. So we took it out, and literally the next day it crashed. It went to like half the value the next day. And we cleared the card and it was done. And so I know you might not be in a position where you've got shares or crypto or anything like that, that you can just, you know, cash out and clear debt and all of that kind of stuff. But I do believe that God wants us to be smart in how we manage our money and all of that too. But he also wants us to be specific and to partner with him. So we're gonna sit down, be rather specific on the things that we actually need to cover the bills and all of that. So we can be specific in what I need for the business to bring in and all this kind of stuff. Um, but also to cover the things that we want. Like in a few years' time, we would like to have a bigger house and to be able to fit into it. Now it's not so bad now, the kids are little, but it is hard in a three-bedroom home with one living space and it's a lovely home. Like we built it to the the way we want it, but we pretty much had already outgrown it by the time we moved in here. So we just want to go through and get intentional with where we want to see our future, and we're partnering with God in that. So we're not manifesting anything, we're just being strategic and planning with God and what it is he's trying to do for us, but also with us and direct us. Whether you're a Christian or not, I do encourage you to at least sit down and map out where you're at in life. So not just financially, but in your work, in your family life. Maybe you want to have more time to do more things with your family instead of working so hard that you never get to see your family. You know, all this kind of stuff. Actually sit down and go, what would my ideal day look like? Break it down to the day and go, okay, I would love it if I could wake up before the kids, have my coffee in peace, and not be rushing out the door to school, drop-offs and then work and all this kind of stuff. You know, I'd love to be able to afford to work part-time, maybe. Whatever it is, just map out what your ideal day is. Maybe you want to work more and you want to have better care for your kids with your mom or look, honestly, it could be anything. Allow yourself to dream again. I think as adults, we we almost forget to dream because we're we're afraid of disappointing ourselves more than anything. But allow yourself to dream again. Dream, brainstorm, have ideas of where you'd like to see because we're in a position where we've been a bit feeling stuck, but ultimately we could pull the kids out of school, we could sell the house, we could do other things if we really wanted to, but we don't. We want to stay here. We want the kids to stay in the good Christian school they're in. We want all of that. So we just need to find a way to make it work. It is a juggle, it's a balance. We've sacrificed on a lot of things over the last couple of years, and we haven't got anything left to sacrifice unless if it's some big moves. Um, so now we are just trusting God to help with the rest. And but we want to partner with him and be obedient to what he's asking us to do. And that's pretty much it. So the three main things that I'm doing this week is going through the budget, doing the declutter. Mind you, the declutter will probably take a few weeks, um, doing it every day, and also sitting down and actually dreaming with the Lord, actually going, what do we want our year to look like? And one extra bonus thing that I'll mention what I do at the start of every year, or really the end of the previous year, is I listen to the Lord and actually go, well, what word do you have for 2026? So in previous years, I've had words like provision, strength, a few things. And those words have actually carried me through. Um, and it's not always been a good year, but those words I've I've held on to as hope and encouragement. And the word that I have for 2026 that I will also be encouraging with my community is breakthrough. I really do feel like the Lord is going to give a breakthrough, not just with my finances, not just with my business, but with my kids, with discipline and things with my kids, with having more time to make memories and do more experiences with my kids. Because even though we can go to the park and things that are free, we haven't been able to afford any experiences. We don't go to the zoo, we don't go to the swimming pool, we don't go anywhere because we we haven't had the financial means to do so. Look, I'm not saying it's gonna be a big dramatic change, but I would like to have some more experiences with the kids whilst they're young. So breakthrough can mean a lot of different things. It could be to do with your relationships with your, with your partner, with your children, your parents. Breakthrough is a big word, but I do believe this is a word that is gonna help a lot of people in 2026. When it comes to my business, particularly with the She's Organized Hub, the coaching community that I've got, I really do believe that in 2026 there's gonna be a breakthrough for so many women in there when they've been stuck in this cycle of disorganization and frustration and exhaustion and all of that, there's gonna be a breakthrough with that because I know I've set everything up, particularly going into the next year. When we relaunch mid-January, I've set everything up to facilitate that. So I'm I'm really excited. I'm really excited for what next year has to bring. And if there isn't a word that you can necessarily think of to encourage you for 2026, then perhaps breakthrough is that word for you. So I encourage you to get planning, get organizing, doing these little things to really set yourself up strong for 2026. So you can actually live every day in the purpose that you want to have, that you feel called to have, so you can actually enjoy your daily life and not just wait for the next holiday or the next exciting thing that you can actually enjoy every single day. So thank you for listening to me this year. I really appreciate you. If you do love hearing the things that I share and the guests that I have on here, please tell your friends. Please share it with the people around you and also leave a review because the more reviews I get on this, the more visibility it's seen to you, and the more people I can help. And that's ultimately my goal. I want to help you. I want to serve you, I want to get you moving forward in life, not stuck in this negative cycle of bad thinking and behaviors and all of that. I want you moving forward and just making the most of life because we only have one life to live. So let's make it a really good one. So thank you for this year, and I'll talk to you next week.

Mel: 18:01

If you like this episode, don't forget to hit subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. And if you want to continue the conversation, you can connect with me on Instagram @shes.organised or for some free resources, head over to beyondorganised.com/ toolkit. Remember, organising is a tool to live the purposeful life of beyond it. See you next time.