Ah, if only it was as easy to organize your home as it is to organize your Pinterest boards, am I right?! My husband and I will be married for five years this coming September. Let me tell you, my housekeeping skills have been less than desirable for the last four years...Poor man. I have just STRUGGLED to get myself in order. It is still a work in progress but I finally have the hang of it.
Since making our move in August 2013, I chose to really step up my homemaking and organizing game and actually use the resources that Pinterest offers rather than just pin like a fiend and do my very best to organize my home. My mom gave me the book, Organized Simplicity for Christmas a couple of years ago and I started to read it and had to stop. I couldn't face the fact that there were things I needed to get rid of. I set the book down and didn't pick it up again for a while...
Personally, I am into watching documentaries and reality shows like the A&E show, Hoarders. Our pastor showed a clip of an episode a few years ago and it really got me hooked on it. It is so intriguing to me to see the struggle that people go through holding on to just garbage. I watched a few of the really "dirty" episodes where people hoard food and garbage and then I came to the more "tame" episodes of people holding onto things. As I watched, judging them for not caring enough about their families to let go, it hit me...I have hoarding tendencies...I was shocked! All my life, I have held onto just senseless things. I had papers from my elementary school days, why I was keeping them, I wasn't sure. Most of it had already been scrapbooked, I had no idea why I was holding onto the rest of it. Silly things like rocks that little kids would find and give to me, craft supplies that I found at garage sales that I just COULD NOT get rid of even though I would never use it for anything...
I was a hoarder.
No wonder our home was so full and there was no room for anyone to walk around, no surface space left. It was so frustrating, the anger that I was struggling with was just sparked by the small amounts of living space that we had. Don't get me wrong, I didn't have stuff piled from floor to ceiling or anything crazy like that. I had just garage saled so much that I thought we needed we didn't have storage space for everything. Not to mention that our home had nothing for storage space, we had two closets in the whole house and the basement was dingy and wet. I just couldn't grasp the concept of organizing and getting rid of unnecessary things.
It came time for our move and there was NO WAY I was going to be able to fit EVERYTHING into our new townhome. I HAD to get rid of some things. I was able to let some things go and we made our move but there was still so much overflow. We even lost things to the foreclosure and we still had an overflowing garage.
Since then, I have been working really hard to get rid of our extras. The boys were blessed with an OVERABUNDANCE of toys for their birthdays (what wonderful friends and family we have) and I decided to get rid of a lot of the toys that they just don't play with anymore since they received so many new, exciting toys. Christmas time was a good time for me to rethink the things that we have and changed my heart to getting rid of even more.
We have been blessed with so many hand-me-downs for the boys, toys, clothes and everything else you need for little ones and I was holding on to ALL of it. In January I picked up the book (Organized Simplicity) again and was inspired to get rid of a lot of the things I was holding onto. Since then I have gotten rid of a lot of the big HUGE toys that we've had for the boys, a lot of clothes that the boys just don't wear, things that I don't put them in and things they just don't need. I have cleared out my closet and gotten rid of the shoes that I never wear, the bathroom products that I don't like anymore and the games that we don't seem to play. Not to mention nick-nacks that hang around, cards that I've had for the last ten years and craft supplies that I really will never use. It has been quite a project, one that has taken many months, but it's finally coming into being a normal thing that my home is tidy when people come over. We have a kitchen table to use, I still can't seem to keep my counters clean, there are ALWAYS dishes there but it's getting better.
Spending so much time on Pinterest has really helped me to understand organized, and made me see what things would be good for me. I have printed a lot of the helpful schedules and ideas that I have pinned and worked them into the way that I clean and organize my home. Another helpful resource for me is the book Get It Together by Cindi Ferrini. It is a very, very simple way of making a daily schedule, planning a cleaning schedule and more! I highly recommend it!
I hope this was helpful and that through my rambling you were encouraged. I really feel satisfied with my progress and I know that it is honoring Christ to get rid of the excess things since in the end, the things will waste away and be no more but the things that I teach my children and how I raise my boys will be what lives on. I don't want to leave a legacy of clutter and things for the next generation to deal with, rather of simplicity, and God-honoring hearts.
Have a blessed day,
Kayla
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