"Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God"
D&C 88:119
When I was growing up I remember my dad always saying..."a place for everything and everything in it's place." It used to bug me as a kid but now I understand how awesome it is to have my place in order. It only took me almost four years after being married and living on my own to have my home completely set up. In each place I have I usually have a dumping room. In the place I'm in now we have 3 bedrooms and I used on of the bedrooms (aka our home office) as a dumping ground for everything I didn't know what to do with. It did not make me happy and we couldn't use our office as an actual office so I've had a goal to organize it along with the rest of our house.
A couple of weeks ago my husband Chad and I decided to focus on getting our whole home in order. We spent every minute we could on de-junking and making a place for everything in our home. It took us the whole week but it was so worth it. Everything in our home goes in a place that makes sense. Now that our systems are set up, I don't feel like I'm constantly cleaning up messes any more. I'm just putting things back in their place and my house always feels clean. My office that was cluttered and chaotic is now clear and orderly. I love spending time in each place of my home.
Here is the before and after of my office...well I guess it's during and after because I took the pic while we were organizing everything in the office.
Getting Motivated
There are a lot of things that can make it hard to feel the motivation to create order in your home. I live in a very transient stage of life right now. In the almost four years of being married, I have moved 6 times!! I had the mentality of, why keep a place nice if I don't own it? Or I'm not going to be here that long anyway. Also all the places we have rented are older apartments and that wasn't too motivating for me to keep it nice either. I had the idea that I would keep my home nice someday when I had a nice home.
I heard this sweet story that made me realize how important it is to make each place I live from now on a home. The story is about a father who took his little girl out for ice cream. While choosing flavors the little girl asked if she could get a cone with two scoops. I father lovingly told her that one scoop was enough so the daughter asked again for two. The father told her a second time that one scoop was enough. The little girl begged her daddy for two so he finally gave in. The little girl's ice-cream cone was piled high with two big scoops and she was so excited. She gave that top scoop a big lick and it toppled over and fell onto the floor, leaving the girl with one scoop.
Wherever you are at in life, start with what you have. I believe you can make any place you live into a happy, orderly home that you, your family, and all others who enter can feel joy in.
Tips to get it done
Focus on one place at a time. This process can be very overwhelming! It really helps to get one room done at a time. Each time you get a room done it motivates you to go to the next area. I didn't start with my office because if I started there I would just get overwhelmed and not keep organizing.
Get rid of things you no longer use. My friend told me about an awesome book she read called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up by Marie Kondo. In this book the author says to go through each item in your home and ask "Does this spark joy?" If it doesn't then give it away!! I did this with my closet and got rid of so many clothes I haven't worn for years. It's amazing the things we hold on to. Another tip I learned about giving things away is if it's a sentimental item that you no longer need, imagine that item bringing joy to someone else.
Work on it as a family. My husband and I had so much fun working on this together! He had so many great ideas of where and how to set things up in our home. It takes each family member to create a strong home. If you have family members who aren't willing to help don't give up! When I was first married I used to get after Chad for being messy and I've found that nagging never works! I also realized that most of the time I was being just as messy as he was. If you want better results start by changing yourself and everyone else will see your results and want to change too.
After your home is organized, keep it that way!! After I use something, I put it back into order when I am finished. I like to put Oaklee's toys back into her basket every time she is finished playing with them. After every meal I put the kitchen back into order and all the dirty dishes go into the dishwasher. Another thing that I've found works is trying to use things in the place they should be used. Now that our office is set up, we try to leave our laptops in the office. So when I'm blogging, or emailing or whatever, I do it in my office. We used to eat a lot in our family room but now we eat at our table in the kitchen. This helps to keep things clean but also gives me focus on I'm doing in that particular moment. So eating at the kitchen table keeps me focused on my family and not the tv or when I'm playing with Oaklee in the family room I'm not distracted by my laptop.
This is a tip my mom taught me. If your bed is made, your house is clean. If you make your bed in the morning it sets the tone for the whole day. If you take care of that one thing it tells yourself that you can take care of everything else for the rest of the day.
Be you-tiful,
Cheryl
D&C 88:119
When I was growing up I remember my dad always saying..."a place for everything and everything in it's place." It used to bug me as a kid but now I understand how awesome it is to have my place in order. It only took me almost four years after being married and living on my own to have my home completely set up. In each place I have I usually have a dumping room. In the place I'm in now we have 3 bedrooms and I used on of the bedrooms (aka our home office) as a dumping ground for everything I didn't know what to do with. It did not make me happy and we couldn't use our office as an actual office so I've had a goal to organize it along with the rest of our house.
A couple of weeks ago my husband Chad and I decided to focus on getting our whole home in order. We spent every minute we could on de-junking and making a place for everything in our home. It took us the whole week but it was so worth it. Everything in our home goes in a place that makes sense. Now that our systems are set up, I don't feel like I'm constantly cleaning up messes any more. I'm just putting things back in their place and my house always feels clean. My office that was cluttered and chaotic is now clear and orderly. I love spending time in each place of my home.
Here is the before and after of my office...well I guess it's during and after because I took the pic while we were organizing everything in the office.
Getting Motivated
There are a lot of things that can make it hard to feel the motivation to create order in your home. I live in a very transient stage of life right now. In the almost four years of being married, I have moved 6 times!! I had the mentality of, why keep a place nice if I don't own it? Or I'm not going to be here that long anyway. Also all the places we have rented are older apartments and that wasn't too motivating for me to keep it nice either. I had the idea that I would keep my home nice someday when I had a nice home.
I heard this sweet story that made me realize how important it is to make each place I live from now on a home. The story is about a father who took his little girl out for ice cream. While choosing flavors the little girl asked if she could get a cone with two scoops. I father lovingly told her that one scoop was enough so the daughter asked again for two. The father told her a second time that one scoop was enough. The little girl begged her daddy for two so he finally gave in. The little girl's ice-cream cone was piled high with two big scoops and she was so excited. She gave that top scoop a big lick and it toppled over and fell onto the floor, leaving the girl with one scoop.
Wherever you are at in life, start with what you have. I believe you can make any place you live into a happy, orderly home that you, your family, and all others who enter can feel joy in.
Tips to get it done
Focus on one place at a time. This process can be very overwhelming! It really helps to get one room done at a time. Each time you get a room done it motivates you to go to the next area. I didn't start with my office because if I started there I would just get overwhelmed and not keep organizing.
Get rid of things you no longer use. My friend told me about an awesome book she read called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up by Marie Kondo. In this book the author says to go through each item in your home and ask "Does this spark joy?" If it doesn't then give it away!! I did this with my closet and got rid of so many clothes I haven't worn for years. It's amazing the things we hold on to. Another tip I learned about giving things away is if it's a sentimental item that you no longer need, imagine that item bringing joy to someone else.
Work on it as a family. My husband and I had so much fun working on this together! He had so many great ideas of where and how to set things up in our home. It takes each family member to create a strong home. If you have family members who aren't willing to help don't give up! When I was first married I used to get after Chad for being messy and I've found that nagging never works! I also realized that most of the time I was being just as messy as he was. If you want better results start by changing yourself and everyone else will see your results and want to change too.
After your home is organized, keep it that way!! After I use something, I put it back into order when I am finished. I like to put Oaklee's toys back into her basket every time she is finished playing with them. After every meal I put the kitchen back into order and all the dirty dishes go into the dishwasher. Another thing that I've found works is trying to use things in the place they should be used. Now that our office is set up, we try to leave our laptops in the office. So when I'm blogging, or emailing or whatever, I do it in my office. We used to eat a lot in our family room but now we eat at our table in the kitchen. This helps to keep things clean but also gives me focus on I'm doing in that particular moment. So eating at the kitchen table keeps me focused on my family and not the tv or when I'm playing with Oaklee in the family room I'm not distracted by my laptop.
This is a tip my mom taught me. If your bed is made, your house is clean. If you make your bed in the morning it sets the tone for the whole day. If you take care of that one thing it tells yourself that you can take care of everything else for the rest of the day.
Be you-tiful,
Cheryl
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