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September might secretly be the best reset month of the year. January gets all the attention, but September is when real life actually starts again. The kids are back in school, sports are taking over the calendar, the weather is about to change, and somehow the holidays are close enough to start thinking about without being close enough to cause actual panic.
Which makes this the perfect little window for a September reset.
Not in a “new season, new me” kind of way. We’re Señoras. We don’t need a new personality. We just want to handle all the random little things that Future Us will otherwise be dealing with at the absolute worst possible time.
So consider this your September reset checklist. Do all 20, do five, or pick the ones that immediately made you think, “Ugh, yes, I need to do that.”
1. Delete 5,000 Photos From Your Phone
I cannot be the only person with 14 nearly identical pictures of my child doing the exact same thing. September is a good time to finally go through the camera roll and delete the blurry photos, accidental screenshots, videos of absolutely nothing, and the 300 pictures your kid took when they borrowed your phone. Don’t turn this into a three-hour project. Do it while you’re watching TV or waiting at practice, and favorite the photos you actually love while you’re in there.
2. Cancel the Subscriptions You Forgot You Had
This is your reminder to look at your credit card statement and find out what you’re apparently still paying $9.99 a month for. The meditation app you used twice? Goodbye. The free trial that has quietly been charging you since February? Absolutely not. I swear there is always at least one subscription lurking in there that I completely forgot existed. Cancel a few and enjoy your tiny financial victory.
3. Make a Fall Car Kit
My car is basically a second home at this point, so it needs supplies. Throw a little bag in the trunk with tissues, wipes, chargers, an umbrella, hair ties, emergency snacks, hand sanitizer, and whatever else your family is constantly asking for when you’re 20 minutes from home. And while you’re back there, this is also your opportunity to remove the random collection of things that has accumulated since summer.
4. Figure Out Your Fall Uniform
I don’t need a capsule wardrobe. I need three outfits that look cute and require approximately zero thought. Figure out your version of that now. Maybe it’s jeans, a button-down, and loafers. Maybe it’s leggings, an oversized sweater, and sneakers. Put the whole outfit on, make sure you actually like it, and take a mirror picture. Congratulations, you now have something to wear on those mornings when you’ve tried on six things and suddenly hate every item of clothing you own.
5. Replace One Thing in Your House That Annoys You Every Day
You know the things I’m talking about. The pan everything sticks to. The sad bath towels. The pillow you’ve hated since 2022. The phone charger that only works if you hold it at a very specific angle and don’t breathe. We get so used to these tiny daily annoyances that we stop noticing how annoying they actually are. Walk around your house and pick one. Replace it. Your life is now 2 percent better, which frankly is enough for today.
6. Get Summer Out of Your Car
At some point, the pool bag needs to leave. Take out the sunscreen, goggles, beach towels, camp papers, random sandals, melted crayons, and whatever else has been living in there since June. Give the car a vacuum if you’re feeling ambitious. If not, removing the trash and shaking out the floor mats absolutely counts.
7. Deal With the Return Pile
We all have one. Mine likes to move between the bedroom, entryway, and trunk of the car as if changing locations somehow counts as progress. Gather every return in your house, put it in one place, and give yourself a deadline. Return it, mail it, or accept that you now own it. We are no longer driving around with the same shopping bag in the trunk for six weeks.
8. Unsubscribe From the Emails You Never Read
I am not suggesting that you achieve Inbox Zero because I care about your mental health. Instead, spend September unsubscribing in real time. Every time an email pops up and your first thought is, “Why am I still getting these?” hit unsubscribe immediately. That’s it. By October, your inbox will already feel a lot less chaotic without you ever having to dedicate an entire afternoon to organizing email.
9. Make a School-Year Cheat Sheet
Why is the information we need always buried in an email sent three weeks ago with a subject line that tells us absolutely nothing? Make one note on your phone with the things you are constantly looking up: school dates, teacher information, sports schedules, early dismissals, uniform days, portal names, and anything else your family needs. No more standing in a parking lot searching your inbox for the Friday spirit wear schedule.
10. Put Everyone’s Current Sizes in Your Phone
This takes five minutes and makes shopping so much easier. Put your kids’ current shoe and clothing sizes in your Notes app, along with your partner’s sizes if you shop for them and your own measurements if they’re useful. Because somehow I can remember something embarrassing I said in seventh grade but cannot remember what size shoe my own child currently wears when I’m standing in a store.
11. Update the Important Emergency Stuff
This one isn’t particularly glamorous, but it’s very Señora to have your life handled. Make sure the school has the correct emergency contacts, your phone’s emergency contact is current, and anyone who regularly watches your kids knows who to call and where to find the information they might need. Five boring minutes now is worth it.
12. Think About Your Holiday Beauty Appointments
I know. It feels early. But you know what’s going to happen: Halloween will arrive, you’ll blink, and suddenly every good hair appointment before Christmas will be gone. If there are things you know you’ll want done—hair, brows, dermatologist, facial, whatever—start thinking about them now. You don’t need to schedule an entire holiday beauty tour. Just don’t wait until December 18 and then act shocked that everyone else also needs their roots done.
13. Decide What You’re Doing About Holiday Photos
Are we doing a holiday card this year? Using vacation pictures? Booking family photos? Making the children wear coordinated sweaters while everyone pretends to enjoy themselves for 17 minutes? You don’t have to actually make the card yet. Just decide whether you’re doing one and whether you need photos. This prevents the annual December realization that the last decent picture of the entire family together is from Easter.
14. Start a Gift List for Yourself
Yes, yourself. Open a note and start adding things you genuinely want, because the minute someone asks what you want for Christmas, you will inexplicably forget every object you’ve desired all year and say, “Oh, I don’t know.” Then you’ll remember 11 things on December 26. Start the list now. You’re welcome.
15. Check the Boring House Stuff
This is your reminder that houses have approximately one million things we’re apparently supposed to maintain. Check the air filters, smoke detectors, outdoor lights, heating system, gutters, fire extinguisher, and whatever else applies to your house. You do not have to become an HVAC technician. The goal is simply to catch the annoying stuff before it’s cold, raining, or Thanksgiving morning when something inevitably decides to stop working.
16. Pick Five Emergency Dinners
Not recipes you’re excited to make. Not the beautiful salmon bowl you saved on Instagram. I mean meals you can make when it’s 6:30 p.m., everyone is hungry, someone has practice in 40 minutes, and your brain has officially closed for business. Pick five dinners your family will reliably eat and keep the ingredients around. Breakfast for dinner absolutely counts. So do quesadillas. We’re feeding people, not auditioning for Food Network.
17. Make a “Things We’re Waiting For” Note
This is one of my favorite ways to clear mental clutter. Make a note for all the random things you’re currently waiting on: the refund, the doctor’s office callback, the contractor estimate, the reimbursement, the package, the school response. These little open loops somehow take up way more brain space than they deserve. Write them down, check the list once a week, and stop trying to carry all of it around in your head.
18. Finish One Thing Before Starting Another Thing
I know a new project is more exciting. Unfortunately, the half-finished project sitting in the corner would like a word. Pick one thing that’s been 80 percent done forever and finish it this month. The closet. The gallery wall. The photo album. The business project. Whatever it is. September does not need 12 exciting new beginnings. Sometimes the reset is finally finishing the thing you’ve been looking at for six months.
19. Pick Your Fall Main-Character Activity
This one is purely for fun. Pick something that makes fall feel like your season. Tennis lessons. A standing coffee date. Walking in the morning. A ceramics class. Going to the movies by yourself. Learning Italian. Whatever sounds good to you. It does not have to make you healthier, richer, smarter, more productive, or better at anything. You are still allowed to have hobbies simply because you enjoy them.
20. Give Yourself One Completely Unnecessary Upgrade
This might be my favorite part of the whole September reset. Buy the good pajamas. Put the fancy hand soap in the downstairs bathroom. Get yourself the coffee mug you keep picking up and putting back. Buy flowers on Fridays. Finally get the candle. It doesn’t have to be expensive—it just has to make an ordinary part of your life feel a little nicer.
Your September Reset Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect
The point isn’t to emerge from September as an entirely different woman with a perfectly organized home, an empty inbox, and matching storage containers.
We just want fewer things hanging over our heads. Fewer tiny annoyances. Fewer moments in November when we think, “Why didn’t I do this two months ago?”
Pick a few things from this September reset checklist every week, handle what you can, and make your everyday life a little easier before the busiest part of the year begins.
And definitely get the candle.
Very Señora.