25 Things You Want to Do (In Your Home) Before Next Year

While in the San Francisco area, I was lucky enough to get to spend a day at Google. My host for the day, who was - and is - an extremely nice and intelligent man, excitedly showed me all around the Google headquarters. I saw everything stereotypically Google, the sleep pods, micro-kitchens, massage rooms and swimming pools, but the thing that stood out the most was not what he showed me - but what he said at the end of the day.

Being a very polite man, he asked me if he could offer me some advice. "Of course," I said.

"Meghan, you should write down the 100 things you want to do before you die," he said.

That's not exactly what you expect to hear while at Google. But rather than look dumbstruck, I proceeded to tell him that I had to do that for a class when I was a freshman in high school, and I'm sure the things I wrote were completely unrealistic and irrelevant to today.

"I think one of the things I wrote was to tame a wild stallion. They were totally ridiculous," I said.

He looked at me completely serious with not the hint of a smile on his face and said, "What's so ridiculous about that?"

I was completely taken aback. Not ridiculous? But he was right.

Anything is possible. No dream or idea is ridiculous. He taught me the importance of taking my aspirations seriously and treating them like real goals rather than daydreams.

I'm still working on my 100 things. When I finish, I'll let you know.

Creating my list made me think about our homes. We talk about how we want to remodel our kitchens or redecorate our bedrooms, but we rarely write down our aspirations for our homes. So rather than writing down the 100 things you want to do before you die, why not write down:

The 25 Things You Want to Do in Your Home Before Next Year

Your list will be very revealing and can contain absolutely anything. Remember nothing is unreasonable. I'll even help you get started with some ideas.

1. Have everyone gather in one place - other than the kitchen - where we all relax together rather than going to different rooms at night.
2. Make a charity box where I can put the things I no longer need. Then actually take the box to charity.
   
3. Start a food fight and not worry about what will be ruined.
4. Create a space for after dinner dancing equipped with good music and low lighting, and use it more than once.
   
5. Grow a plant. Make sure it survives longer than a week.
   
6. Hang a full-length mirror and not be afraid to look into it.
7. Host three dinner parties that are such a hit people I don't know want to be invited next time.
   
8. Look through my pantry and not find stale food.
9. Make a real fire. Maybe even roast s'mores.
10. Create a craft area, and actually make something.

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