Don’t let 2020′s bad feelings linger. Here’s how to start afresh.

What a year 2020 was. The nice, even number — one that we associate with perfect vision — was full of so much promise, but perfect it most definitely was not. We now look to the new year with hopes of starting afresh and ridding our homes and lives of last year’s bad vibes.

Here are a few suggestions to help you get yourself and your home in a better place for the coming year.

If you are like Jodi Dady, a New York-based art adviser, you spent the bulk of the pandemic in your kitchen, not only cooking three meals a day but also looking for new ways of preparing food. Like Dady, you might now find yourself with more small kitchen appliances than you had a year ago and nowhere to store them. Whether it’s an air fryer or a crepe maker, these gadgets have become more necessary than the many coats, shoes and suits we wore pre-pandemic. Dady cleared out a closet and donated most of her unused items to charity. She then installed cubbies and created shelves for small appliances, cleaning supplies, and other household items.

Cookbook author Jenny Rosenstrach of Westchester County, N.Y., also shifted items around. She created a space in her basement to house the “once in a while” kitchen items, such as the lobster pot, large serving platters and turkey baster. “It’s been miraculous in terms of freeing up space in my kitchen,” she says.

At this point, we have all been well-educated on good hygiene: Wash your hands, and keep surfaces as germ-free as possible. One way to marry those two practices is to go touchless, especially in such high-germ areas as the kitchen and bathroom.

I recently installed Kohler’s Purist touchless faucet in my kitchen. I also bought a rechargeable soap dispenser with a sensor and a touchless, motion- and voice-activated trash can, both from Simplehuman. I am hoping that, with those in place, there will be fewer germs lingering on surfaces, which will translate to less bad energy and worry.

Audrey Van de Castle is an avid DIYer in Baltimore. As the manager of Stanley Black & Decker’s maker initiatives, she works with fellow employees and consumers to foster creativity and encourage a hands-on approach to their homes. Van de Castle says home-improvement projects are empowering.

“Even if it doesn’t turn out the way you expected, tackling a project is still something you can be proud of and have control over,” she says.

Feeling in control is the perfect antidote to the lack of control many of us have had during the pandemic. For easy, transformative projects, Van de Castle suggests painting walls, hanging pictures (particularly of friends and family, whom you probably haven’t seen for almost a year), installing shelves in kitchens and closets to provide more vertical space for organizing, and changing out old light fixtures.

Dawn Goldworm of New York is a professional nose. As the cofounder of 12.29, an olfactory branding company, she has created iconic scents for such brands as Valentino and Nike.

Her recommendation for clearing the 2020 air is to first swap out your cleaning products. “People don’t realize the profound effect cleaning products have on the smell of their homes” she says. Get rid of any scent triggers that are going to remind you of 2020. To start, she says, stop using so much bleach, and just use a good-smelling soap.

“Cleaning products have a huge variety of scents, so pick one that you enjoy that makes you feel happy when you use it,” she says. The same goes for laundry detergent, candles and hand soap.

The new year is always a great time to consider clearing out the old and starting fresh, but this year the focus should be on returning to a routine, says Tina Robinson, a New York-based professional organizer and the founder of the Simple Home Project.

"In 2020, we all lost our normal routines," Robinson says. "Everybody had to adjust to a new way of living, whether it's working from home or home-schooling, so I feel like our routines got off track. We need to reset."

A good place to start fresh is in the bathroom, where, over the last year, you probably abandoned all routines while morning, afternoon and evening blended together, Robinson says. This is particularly true of very busy people such as her client Laura Kim, the creative director of both Oscar de la Renta and Monse. For Kim, Robinson started by removing all expired medications and beauty products, then grouped like items — hair care, cosmetics and skin care — together, further dividing them by morning and evening routines.

Most important, Robinson cleared Kim’s countertops, which Robinson says is more visually appealing and translates to a clearer mind-set and more positive way to begin and end each day.