If you have been on social media at all over the last few months, you will be familiar with the concept of the Sunday reset – the aesthetically pleasing process of refreshing your home and your mind ready for the week ahead.
If, like me, you like your Sundays to be a little more relaxing, this can seem incredibly stressful. However, I have navigated a smart way to make this a productive and mindful activity, perfect for boosting well-being at home.
This is the three-section method I use to perfect my Sunday rest without piling on the stress, so I am not ending my week cleaning while overwhelmed.
How to perfect your Sunday reset
It should go without saying that the best way to make the Sunday reset less stressful is to clean a little and often throughout the week so that the major tasks such as cleaning the kitchen and cleaning the bathroom are already dealt with. This way, the tasks left for Sunday are like the icing on the cake, rounding off my chores without feeling overwhelmed.
Much like my cleaning non-negotiables, I break my Sunday reset down into three sections:
1. Morning – tackle at least three chores
Although it is possible to set out your cleaning schedule to enjoy a chore-free weekend, I can never seem to get everything done. Instead, I try to leave the less overwhelming tasks to Sunday to help encourage me out of bed and stop my doom-scrolling.
Most Sunday mornings are dedicated to changing my bedding and making my bed look cozy, doing laundry (a task I find oddly therapeutic), and picking up clutter and mess from surfaces around my home, returning them to their right spots. A pro cleaning tip is to use the now empty laundry hamper to collect everything to carry back to their rightful homes – taking a little inspiration from my Ski-Slope organizing method.
The beauty of these tasks is that they take me less than one hour to get them all done (or at least started in the case of laundry), meaning that I can still go out and spend one of my days off well.
When picking out your own Sunday chores, try to choose options that give your home that clean feeling without making you feel bogged down in work. It could be your goals are to ensure all the laundry is put away, the carpets are vacuumed, or that the living room sofas are vacuumed and plumped. The goal is to give your day structure while making your home look cozy and more pleasant to relax in.
2. Lunchtime – spend some time planning
The next Sunday section involves tackling life admin and usually falls around lunchtime. I will sit down with some food, a comforting drink, and my planner to fill in my diary and schedule with anything I have coming up over the next seven days. Doing this weekly allows me to keep track of important tasks and prevents me from forgetting even the smallest of events. I will also make a meal plan and a shopping list, too.
I typically avoid making any set to-do lists for specific days, as I don't know what each day will throw at me. Instead, I might write a general list of things I know I need to address at some point that week, such as making an important phone call – I find making a 'ta-da' list throughout the week more productive.
If you like to do the different days, different room housekeeping schedules, this could be the ideal time to plan out your chores for the week or create a cleaning card system to make cleaning a house when you’re too busy a little less overwhelming.
3. Evening – rest and reset
The final step for any Sunday reset is to rest and enjoy my evening to help fend off the ‘Sunday scaries’ – that slightly low feeling we get when we realize the weekend is over and normalcy has to resume in the morning.
Usually, this involves making my home smell nice with relaxing scented candles and turning my lighting down to a soft glow before indulging in my favorite cozy game.
Even on Sunday I typically do my closing shift routine just before bed to help ensure everything is closed down and prepped for the morning, such as finishing off any dregs of washing up and plumping my sofa.
FAQs
What are the benefits of a Sunday reset?
A Sunday reset is beneficial for several reasons. For starters, it helps you to prepare for the week ahead while simultaneously closing the door on the past week. This can help to boost your mood and improve your productivity. The Sunday reset is also useful for giving an otherwise universally ‘lazy day’ some structure to help combat procrastination so you feel more in control of your week, boosting your confidence, shooing away the Sunday scaries, and giving you the motivation to keep your home neat day-today.
Do I have to do a Sunday reset?
You don't have to do a Sunday reset, but it can help to keep your home in order for the week ahead and clean up any lingering messes from the previous weeks so that they do not become overwhelming. If you like to have a choreless weekend, you can move your reset to any day of the week where you have some spare time so long as it doesn't add significant stress onto the end of a day before bed.
It is important to differentiate a soft Sunday reset from a catch-all day. These days are designed to tackle every chore you didn’t manage to do during the week, no matter how big it is. While a catch-all day may have to fall on a Sunday to keep your home hygienic, it is worth trying to avoid it so you are not ending your week pent-up and stressed.
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