Sunday reset: a weekly reset for the home, the week, your people and rest

A Sunday reset is a short stretch at the end of the week when you close one week and get the next one ready. You do it because it makes Monday lighter, and you can skip it whenever you like. The routine here has four parts: the home, the week ahead, your people and your rest. After them come a checklist to copy, a reset for weeks that end on another day and a Sunday routine for two people who share a home.

An example: Anton sat down on the sofa next to a stack of laundry he had just folded. He opened his paper notebook on his knee and wrote three short lines. The first said what he'd do on Monday morning before anything else. The second was the name of his old friend Ivo, with "call Tuesday" next to it. The third said "Wednesday evening: nothing," and he underlined it twice. It had taken about forty minutes, and the rest of Sunday was his.

What a Sunday reset means

The word "reset" makes it sound bigger than it is. A reset day has nothing to do with starting your whole life over. It's the small work of tidying up the end of one week, so the next one starts with less in the way.

Neither the hour nor the amount makes a reset better. One at nine at night is as good as one at nine in the morning. A reset that only covers the home is still a reset, and a Sunday with no reset at all can still be a very good Sunday.

The fun part of the day is a different list, and things to do on the weekend has ideas for Sunday itself and for Sunday night.

Part one: a house reset

A house reset puts the home back into a state you're glad to walk into on Monday evening. It's much smaller than a deep clean. Pick the ones that matter in your home:

• One lap with an empty basket. Walk through every room and pick up whatever lives somewhere else. Then walk the same lap again and drop each thing where it belongs.
• Laundry all the way into the drawers. Folding is only half the job. The load is done when the stack has left the sofa.
• The bins. Take out the trash and the recycling and put a fresh bag in each one, so the week starts with empty bins.
• The floors. Pick everything up off the floor, so the broom or the vacuum has a clear run through the rooms you use most.

The ten-minute version

On a tired Sunday, ten minutes is a real house reset. Do the basket lap and the bins, and stop when the ten minutes are up, even halfway through a room. The home won't be perfect, and it doesn't have to be.

A whole house reset, once a month

Once a month, give one room the slow version. Wipe inside the kitchen cabinets, dust the tops of things nobody looks at and move the furniture to sweep underneath. Over a year, every room gets its turn without one huge weekend of cleaning.

Once a year, often in spring, the whole home gets the big version, and these spring cleaning tips take it room by room.

Part two: the week ahead

This part needs a pen, a sheet of paper and your calendar. A plan on paper lets you see the whole week at once.

• Read the calendar from Monday to Sunday. Do it once, start to finish, and notice the crowded day before it surprises you on Wednesday.
• Sort the week into three short lists. "Has to happen," "would be nice" and "not this week." The third list is the one that makes the first two fit.
• Decide the first thing on Monday. Write it at the top of the page, so Monday morning starts with one choice already made.
• Mark one empty evening. Find an evening with nothing in it and write "nothing" there in pen. That counts as a plan too.

A week planned on Sunday can make the first hour of Monday easier, and morning routine has small things to put in that hour.

Part three: your people

A week goes better with a few people in it, and Sunday is a good moment to make sure they are. Three small moves are enough.

• One call. Phone someone you'd usually only text, like a cousin or an old roommate.- One message. Write to someone you thought of this week and tell them why: "I walked past the bakery where we used to meet and thought of you."
• One plan with a friend. Put one meeting into the coming week with a day and a time. "We should get together sometime" becomes Thursday at seven.

Part four: your rest

The last part is something done for nothing. There's no result and nothing to cross off, and that's why it rests you.

• Fold a paper plane and see how far it flies down the hall.
• Play an instrument with no plan to get better at it.
• Draw whatever is on the table, slowly and badly.
• Lie on the floor with your eyes shut and count every sound in the house.

If rest is the only part you have energy for, do that part and leave the rest for next Sunday. Choosing rest over a reset doesn't make you lazy, and how to stop being lazy explains why that word is so often the wrong one.

A Sunday reset checklist

Copy this list onto paper or keep it in your head, and cross out any line you don't need.

• Walk one lap with a basket, then a second lap to put things away.
• Fold the laundry and put it in the drawers.
• Take out the trash and the recycling, and put fresh bags in.
• Clear the floors.
• Read the calendar from Monday to Sunday.
• Sort the week into has to happen, would be nice and not this week.
• Write down the first thing on Monday.
• Mark one evening "nothing."
• Make one call.
• Send one message.
• Put one plan with a friend into the week, with a day and a time.
• Do one thing for nothing.

On a short Sunday, the first, seventh and last lines are plenty.

A weekly reset when your week ends on another day

Plenty of people don't work Monday to Friday. If your days off are Tuesday and Wednesday, your reset day is Wednesday. The routine stays the same, and only the day moves. Do it on the last free day before your working week starts, and call it a weekly reset or a week reset, whichever you like.

If your days off change every week, tie the reset to your last free evening instead of a day of the week. Some weeks feel like two short weeks squeezed into one, and two small reset days, one in the middle and one at the end, can work better than one big one. On weeknights the same idea shrinks to a few minutes, and things to do after work has a short routine for weeknight evenings.

A Sunday routine for two people sharing a home

When two people share a home, a Sunday routine goes smoothly when each of them knows which part is theirs.

• Split the parts. One does the house reset, the other takes the week ahead, and you swap next Sunday.
• Read the week out loud. Take five minutes each on what's coming, so nobody is surprised by the other's late night on Thursday.
• Do the people part apart. Each of you calls or writes to your own people. Your partner doesn't need to be on the call with your old roommate.
• Rest in the same room. Each of you does a thing for nothing, and neither has to join the other's.

A Sunday for two may have one person who wants the reset done by three and one who needs an empty afternoon first. Both are fine, and the types below show why. On your own, every part is yours to plan, and living alone covers the rest of a week with nobody else in the house.

A fixed list or an empty afternoon, by type

Some people run the reset from a list, at the same time every week. Others need an empty afternoon first and do it later or in pieces. Some like it alone and some want company. Here are eight of the 16 types and how they reset:

• Harmonizer resets by how the rooms feel. The list stays in their head, and the goal is a living room that's nice to walk into on Monday evening.
• Analyst writes the checklist once, improves it every few weeks and wants to know why each line is on it.
• Inspector does the same steps at the same hour every Sunday and walks the basket lap in the same direction each time.
• Dreamer needs the empty afternoon first. Rest comes before anything else, and some Sundays the ten-minute version is all there is.
• Strategist treats the week ahead as the main event and often looks at the whole month while the calendar is open.
• Guardian cares most about the people part. The call to one close person happens whatever else gets skipped.
• Organizer likes a list with a clear last line and stops the moment it's crossed out.
• Encourager wants company for it, so a friend comes over for the last hour or a roommate gets talked into racing the basket lap.

These are leanings from type theory, and real people mix them. Use them to think about your own Sundays, and never as advice about you or anyone you live with.

Find out which kind of Sunday suits you

Typeza shows your type and what tends to recharge it. It also shows how you fit with the people you share a home with, like the partner who wants the reset done by three while you're still on the sofa. Start with the free personality test, then pass your result to the roommate or partner who'd plan Sunday differently.

Questions people ask

How long does a Sunday reset take?

As long as you want to give it. Ten minutes covers the basket lap and the bins, and an hour covers all four parts at an easy pace.

What is a monthly reset?

It's the Sunday reset done once a month, with more time for each part. In the home, one room gets the slow version from the whole house reset. Instead of the week ahead, you look at the whole month on paper and mark the busy weeks before they arrive. Then you write down who you'd like to see that month, with a day next to each name.

Written by Virko Kask, founder of Typeza
Written with the help of AI tools.