2026 is all about intentional living – how I want to live better with less, gain more time, more energy and more headspace

Amanda Jones is one of Ideal Home's new Open House contributors, sharing her thoughts on sustainable living and decorating a home in way that is good for the environment. See the rest of her articles here.

The end of January, where so many of us are starting to get a little frustrated with how our New Year resolutions are going. Are you still sticking to them, or did you give up on week two? I no longer set resolutions, I tried for years, but they usually made me feel a failure. I always hoped that if I set a load of them on January 1st, my life would suddenly be much calmer, and organised by the 31^st!

Obviously, for some they work, but for me, and many others, they don’t. I do however set myself intentions and challenges throughout the year, to fit into my life, my interests, and how I want my life to flow. It’s less about how I want things to look, and more about how I want my life to feel.

Fifteen years ago, I was diagnosed with a chronic and progressive health condition, and it completely changed how I had to approach my life. It made me analyse what was important to me.

There was no cure, and very little treatment available, one was going to come and save me. If I wanted to live my life as best as I could, I had to come up with my own solutions.

My life before my diagnosis was complicated, my life after is just as complex, but by approaching life slightly differently, and making adaptations in how I manage my home, I’ve made certain aspects of my life much more manageable.

I am by nature a perfectionist, always pushing myself to improve on everything I did. I’ve learnt over the last decade or so, that ‘good enough’ really is good enough. Whilst I no longer need perfection in my life, I do want to live intentionally. Being intentional has enabled me to make the most of the precious little energy I have.

People live increasingly busy lives, juggling work, childcare, relationships, maybe caring for elderly parents. There is much pressure on us just to get through each day. Even if you don’t have chronic health needs, simplifying your home, and living more intentionally, will bring many benefits to your quality of life. Simplifying your home, and routines, decluttering your belongings, could just be the counterbalance you need to your busy life.

One area that has made the most impact, has been to change my spending habits. To manage my health, I decided to finish my highly demanding and stressful job, and as the main income provider, this made a huge impact to our income. We needed to budget very carefully and spend mindfully.

Obviously, we still have bills to pay, and things that needed to be bought, (fortunately we were mortgage free) but over the years I have broken the habit of impulsive spending and find my dopamine hits elsewhere. This is extremely freeing, emotionally, as well as financially, no longer feeling the need to chase the ‘next thing’.

Spending mindfully, simplifying my routines, decluttering my home, has enabled me to juggle things in my life, (well maybe not drop so many balls at least). Over the next few months, I intend to share with you some of the life hacks I’ve picked up over the last decade of living with intention. I will share how I changed my spending habits, how I reduced what I had in my home, how we CAN live well on less, with less.

If 2026, you resolved to finally sort out your home, or stop your mindless spending, this might be just the series for you.