As the year ends, you’ll want to create an end of year bucket list to ensure that you accomplish everything important to you at the beginning of the year. This type of bucket list can be something that you create after a critical event in your life or it can be stable throughout the year. The most important thing is that you base your bucket list on what resonates with you on an emotional or physical level.
Some people may make creating an end of year bucket list a formal process complete with spreadsheets or typed documents, while others may make this project more informal by simply considering things they might want to do and then doing them as they see fit. Whether you fly by the seat of your pants or you have specific steps involved in making your bucket list for the end of the year, there’s no right or wrong way to do it. The best way to make a list like this is by employing methods that tend to work for you and then seeing them through.
Do I Need a Bucket List for the End of the Year?
As you read this article, you may wonder if a bucket list for the end of the year is necessary. After all, you might think of a bucket list as something that you complete throughout a lifetime instead of a mere 365 days. Although it’s not necessary to have a bucket list for the end of the year, it can be a fun way to formalize meeting the goals that you have for the end of the year and set yourself up for success in the new year.
In our culture, it’s common for people to create New Year’s resolution lists that detail all the things they hope to accomplish in the new year. When you wait until January 1st to start doing things on your list, you may find that you lose motivation quickly as you return from work after the holidays and return to “real life.” If you find yourself losing steam in projects and experiences that are a part of your New Year’s resolution, you may find it easier to complete the items that you list on a bucket list at the end of the fourth quarter because you’ll feel more pressure to get them done before the ball drops on that first day of the next year.
Host an Event
As a party animal, you may want to commemorate your end of year bucket list with an event that invites all of your friends, family members, co-workers, and other community members. While everyone thinks about planning a New Year’s Eve party, it can be more exciting to host an event earlier at the end of the year so that you don’t conflict with other people’s events or schedules. This can make it easier to book services like DJ services without spending an arm and a leg to get them to devote their busiest day of the year to you.
While you can host a regular party to celebrate the start of your annual bucket list, you can also host events that feel meaningful to you as part of your bucket list. If you’ve always been fascinated by the art of throwing a proper tea party or you’ve been wanting to start a business that involves leading art classes in your favorite medium, you can get a head start on these things before the new year by hosting these events and getting the word out as part of your bucket list for this season.
Design a Garden
Depending on where you live, it may be too cold to actively plant a garden as part of your activities for an end of year bucket list, so you may need to settle for planning a garden instead. For those who love to design projects, this part of the process may be more exciting than calling excavation companies to dig up the land to prepare it for gardening. You can either design a garden on paper and indicate where you’d put different plants or structures or you can consult with professionals who work on landscaping project opportunities to plan your garden more professionally.
There are several reasons why you might make designing a garden part of your yearly bucket list. You may want to reliably feed your family fruits and vegetables throughout the year without paying for expensive produce at organic grocery stores. You might also want to have fruits and vegetables that are so beautiful and successful that they earn you prizes at the county fair. If you’re planting a flower garden, you might also simply want to beautify your outdoor space near your home. The “why” behind designing a garden will dictate what you include and how you plan it as you’ll see when you begin designing it.
Invest in New Furniture
If you’ve been having a hard time sleeping on an old mattress or you don’t have enough seating space for your family and friends to sit comfortably when they get together, you may want to make purchasing new furniture an element of your end of year bucket list. Before you buy any old mattress, you should research which one is the best mattress store near you or look into online retailers that may have your preferred style of mattress at a better price than local competitors. Since some companies will have furniture sales around certain holidays like Black Friday or after Christmas, you should investigate the best times to purchase furniture so you can save money on big-ticket items and avoid financing plans that may have unwanted interest.
When you’re buying new furniture, you’ll want to have a plan for where you’ll put the old furniture. While you may think that you’ll have room in your house for every piece of furniture from the old stuff to the new ones, you’ll probably have less space than you may think in your home once the new furniture arrives. When you get new furniture, you’ll also probably need extra space to build the furniture or have contractors construct the furniture, so you should account for that need for extra space and have a game plan of where you’ll shift existing furniture.
If you have a lot of old furniture, you can try donating it to a local charity or a shelter to see if they would have any use for it. Some non-profits may also take furniture donations if they have a specific need for a piece of furniture or set of furniture at that time, so you shouldn’t get discouraged if they don’t need it right now. You can always see if any of your other friends or family members are interested in taking the pieces off of your hands or you can put them up for sale in a garage sale or online platform like a marketplace on the internet.
Participate in Spring Cleaning
There’s nothing more refreshing than cleaning out your house and clearing it of old dust and debris before the new year. If you’re starting your bucket list for the end of the year in the spring, you can try getting your cleaning done around when spring cleaning happens. If you haven’t participated in that type of cleaning on the traditional timeline, don’t worry. You should be able to clean your house on a deep level whenever it’s convenient for you.
As you clean your home, you should also clean your yard and surrounding spaces on the property. If you have an old car that’s rotting on your lawn, you might be able to go somewhere to trade it in for cash for junk car. You can also make a part of your end of year bucket list by cleaning out vehicles and other spaces where you might be inclined to ignore the mess until it becomes impossible to ignore.
Try a New Sport
Getting in shape is a popular resolution that people make in the new year, so why not get a head start and go to a golf course with a golf cart rental before the end of the year? It’s never too early or too late to put trying a new sport on your end-of-year bucket list. Whether you decide to practice a solo sport like swimming or you want to get on a team for a sport like pickleball, you’ll find that it’s incredibly rewarding to pick up a physical activity if you’ve spent a few years neglecting your physical activity.
Learn a New Language
When you want to travel as part of your end of year bucket list, you should make sure that your language chops are as solid as they need to be to go to the countries or places where you intend to travel. Even if you don’t plan on leaving your town, you can still benefit from picking up a new language either by practicing the language through an app or taking French classes and other courses at your local university. Some libraries also offer language learning classes for free or low fees, so you should keep an eye out for advertisements for these kinds of classes if you have an interest in the subject or reach out to your library directly to figure out if they offer these classes regularly.
When you’re learning a new language, you’ll also want to have conversation partners so you get used to speaking the language before you try speaking it with other people. As you learn a new language, you can do a language exchange with a native speaker of your preferred language who wants to improve their proficiency in the languages you speak fluently or natively. For example, if you want to get better at speaking Japanese and you speak English natively, you can find a Japanese conversation partner who wants to learn English so you can both appreciate the benefits of this partnership in language acquisition.
Give Your Garage a Makeover
For many of us, a major component of an end of year bucket list is a DIY home improvement project. If there’s a part of your house that you’ve been letting slide for a while like the garage, it’s time to get serious about improving the state of it and schedule important appointments like getting contractors to apply an epoxy floor coating. While you might be tempted to put off these improvements until the new year, there’s no time like the present to make your home more functional and presentable.
If you intend to sell your home within the next year, you’ll need to make every part of the house look presentable and meet the expectations of an inspector. A garage is a part of the home that gets overlooked often because it’s easy to shove unwanted items in the garage or pull in and out of it with our car and then keep it out of sight and out of mind. While the garage might not seem like the most important part of the home, it matters more than you may think to folks who are considering buying a house.
Install a Pool
One of the most fun things you can do as part of an end of year bucket list is installing a pool so you can enjoy it next summer. Since it can take a while for a pool deck coating company to have availability, it can be a good idea to call them in the seasons when they may be less busy, so you have a better chance at getting an opportunity for them to come and work on the part of the pool in which they specialize. Although it’s technically possible to do inground pool installs yourself, we would recommend getting a professional to help with this project unless you have plenty of experience and manpower.
When you’re creating an end of year bucket list, you should include what matters to you. If you’re active, you can start a new sport. Artsy folks can pick up a new craft and people who value home improvement can dive into a home project. The only rule is to make it relevant and doable to you.
As the year ends, you’ll want to create an end of year bucket list to ensure that you accomplish everything important to you at the beginning of the year. This type of bucket list can be something that you create after a critical event in your life or it can be stable throughout the year. The most important thing is that you base your bucket list on what resonates with you on an emotional or physical level.
Some people may make creating an end of year bucket list a formal process complete with spreadsheets or typed documents, while others may make this project more informal by simply considering things they might want to do and then doing them as they see fit. Whether you fly by the seat of your pants or you have specific steps involved in making your bucket list for the end of the year, there’s no right or wrong way to do it. The best way to make a list like this is by employing methods that tend to work for you and then seeing them through.
Do I Need a Bucket List for the End of the Year?
As you read this article, you may wonder if a bucket list for the end of the year is necessary. After all, you might think of a bucket list as something that you complete throughout a lifetime instead of a mere 365 days. Although it’s not necessary to have a bucket list for the end of the year, it can be a fun way to formalize meeting the goals that you have for the end of the year and set yourself up for success in the new year.
In our culture, it’s common for people to create New Year’s resolution lists that detail all the things they hope to accomplish in the new year. When you wait until January 1st to start doing things on your list, you may find that you lose motivation quickly as you return from work after the holidays and return to “real life.” If you find yourself losing steam in projects and experiences that are a part of your New Year’s resolution, you may find it easier to complete the items that you list on a bucket list at the end of the fourth quarter because you’ll feel more pressure to get them done before the ball drops on that first day of the next year.
Host an Event
As a party animal, you may want to commemorate your end of year bucket list with an event that invites all of your friends, family members, co-workers, and other community members. While everyone thinks about planning a New Year’s Eve party, it can be more exciting to host an event earlier at the end of the year so that you don’t conflict with other people’s events or schedules. This can make it easier to book services like DJ services without spending an arm and a leg to get them to devote their busiest day of the year to you.
While you can host a regular party to celebrate the start of your annual bucket list, you can also host events that feel meaningful to you as part of your bucket list. If you’ve always been fascinated by the art of throwing a proper tea party or you’ve been wanting to start a business that involves leading art classes in your favorite medium, you can get a head start on these things before the new year by hosting these events and getting the word out as part of your bucket list for this season.
Design a Garden
Depending on where you live, it may be too cold to actively plant a garden as part of your activities for an end of year bucket list, so you may need to settle for planning a garden instead. For those who love to design projects, this part of the process may be more exciting than calling excavation companies to dig up the land to prepare it for gardening. You can either design a garden on paper and indicate where you’d put different plants or structures or you can consult with professionals who work on landscaping project opportunities to plan your garden more professionally.
There are several reasons why you might make designing a garden part of your yearly bucket list. You may want to reliably feed your family fruits and vegetables throughout the year without paying for expensive produce at organic grocery stores. You might also want to have fruits and vegetables that are so beautiful and successful that they earn you prizes at the county fair. If you’re planting a flower garden, you might also simply want to beautify your outdoor space near your home. The “why” behind designing a garden will dictate what you include and how you plan it as you’ll see when you begin designing it.
Invest in New Furniture
If you’ve been having a hard time sleeping on an old mattress or you don’t have enough seating space for your family and friends to sit comfortably when they get together, you may want to make purchasing new furniture an element of your end of year bucket list. Before you buy any old mattress, you should research which one is the best mattress store near you or look into online retailers that may have your preferred style of mattress at a better price than local competitors. Since some companies will have furniture sales around certain holidays like Black Friday or after Christmas, you should investigate the best times to purchase furniture so you can save money on big-ticket items and avoid financing plans that may have unwanted interest.
When you’re buying new furniture, you’ll want to have a plan for where you’ll put the old furniture. While you may think that you’ll have room in your house for every piece of furniture from the old stuff to the new ones, you’ll probably have less space than you may think in your home once the new furniture arrives. When you get new furniture, you’ll also probably need extra space to build the furniture or have contractors construct the furniture, so you should account for that need for extra space and have a game plan of where you’ll shift existing furniture.
If you have a lot of old furniture, you can try donating it to a local charity or a shelter to see if they would have any use for it. Some non-profits may also take furniture donations if they have a specific need for a piece of furniture or set of furniture at that time, so you shouldn’t get discouraged if they don’t need it right now. You can always see if any of your other friends or family members are interested in taking the pieces off of your hands or you can put them up for sale in a garage sale or online platform like a marketplace on the internet.
Participate in Spring Cleaning
There’s nothing more refreshing than cleaning out your house and clearing it of old dust and debris before the new year. If you’re starting your bucket list for the end of the year in the spring, you can try getting your cleaning done around when spring cleaning happens. If you haven’t participated in that type of cleaning on the traditional timeline, don’t worry. You should be able to clean your house on a deep level whenever it’s convenient for you.
As you clean your home, you should also clean your yard and surrounding spaces on the property. If you have an old car that’s rotting on your lawn, you might be able to go somewhere to trade it in for cash for junk car. You can also make a part of your end of year bucket list by cleaning out vehicles and other spaces where you might be inclined to ignore the mess until it becomes impossible to ignore.
Try a New Sport
Getting in shape is a popular resolution that people make in the new year, so why not get a head start and go to a golf course with a golf cart rental before the end of the year? It’s never too early or too late to put trying a new sport on your end-of-year bucket list. Whether you decide to practice a solo sport like swimming or you want to get on a team for a sport like pickleball, you’ll find that it’s incredibly rewarding to pick up a physical activity if you’ve spent a few years neglecting your physical activity.
Learn a New Language
When you want to travel as part of your end of year bucket list, you should make sure that your language chops are as solid as they need to be to go to the countries or places where you intend to travel. Even if you don’t plan on leaving your town, you can still benefit from picking up a new language either by practicing the language through an app or taking French classes and other courses at your local university. Some libraries also offer language learning classes for free or low fees, so you should keep an eye out for advertisements for these kinds of classes if you have an interest in the subject or reach out to your library directly to figure out if they offer these classes regularly.
When you’re learning a new language, you’ll also want to have conversation partners so you get used to speaking the language before you try speaking it with other people. As you learn a new language, you can do a language exchange with a native speaker of your preferred language who wants to improve their proficiency in the languages you speak fluently or natively. For example, if you want to get better at speaking Japanese and you speak English natively, you can find a Japanese conversation partner who wants to learn English so you can both appreciate the benefits of this partnership in language acquisition.
Give Your Garage a Makeover
For many of us, a major component of an end of year bucket list is a DIY home improvement project. If there’s a part of your house that you’ve been letting slide for a while like the garage, it’s time to get serious about improving the state of it and schedule important appointments like getting contractors to apply an epoxy floor coating. While you might be tempted to put off these improvements until the new year, there’s no time like the present to make your home more functional and presentable.
If you intend to sell your home within the next year, you’ll need to make every part of the house look presentable and meet the expectations of an inspector. A garage is a part of the home that gets overlooked often because it’s easy to shove unwanted items in the garage or pull in and out of it with our car and then keep it out of sight and out of mind. While the garage might not seem like the most important part of the home, it matters more than you may think to folks who are considering buying a house.
Install a Pool
One of the most fun things you can do as part of an end of year bucket list is installing a pool so you can enjoy it next summer. Since it can take a while for a pool deck coating company to have availability, it can be a good idea to call them in the seasons when they may be less busy, so you have a better chance at getting an opportunity for them to come and work on the part of the pool in which they specialize. Although it’s technically possible to do inground pool installs yourself, we would recommend getting a professional to help with this project unless you have plenty of experience and manpower.
When you’re creating an end of year bucket list, you should include what matters to you. If you’re active, you can start a new sport. Artsy folks can pick up a new craft and people who value home improvement can dive into a home project. The only rule is to make it relevant and doable to you.
