And it went like…
So remember how I told you in the last post that I decided to declutter and organize our entire house?? Well today I’m going to explain how we got to that point and give you a few recommendations that might be helpful as you kick start or continue your decluttering and organization journey!
After today’s post, I’m going to do a room by room tour of our entire house, sharing with you all that I’ve learned along the way. I hope you will glean something from each post, even if it’s a small takeaway. My heart is that you would feel encouraged and motivated to love the people in your home in a really practical way…by caring for your home.
So after I had baby #5, my body really struggled. So, I spent a lot of time in my recliner caring for that sweet girl and quietly watching a decent amount of TV. Now, a girl can only take so many Pure Flix romance movies, before it’s time to find something else. (Or maybe I watched almost all of them, but that’s irrelevant.) So, I stumbled across The Minimal Mom and I was hooked!! Not only would I binge watch her decluttering and organizing her house, but when I finished watching and got the baby down, I wanted to go declutter and organize my house!
Seth and I are not big on stuff, we never have been really. But when you have 5 kids 10 and under, you quickly acquire a lot of stuff if you aren’t constantly editing your possessions. We did move houses (or states) every two years for the first 10 years of marriage though, so that naturally helped some with the editing. This is the first house we have lived in more than 2 years and the funny part is, we were only initially supposed to live here a few months! (I should tell that story at some point.) Anyways, we’ve always said that we would totally be down for minimalism if it wasn’t for having kids…and his love for books…and my love for crafting. So, I mean, we probably, maybe, definitely, sort of, could possibly be minimalists. Needless to say, decluttering and even organizing is not a new activity for our family. But it’s never looked like this. Every single cabinet, closet, and drawer received attention as we did a complete overhaul of our stuff.
This year, through certain circumstances, we had an influx of stuff coming into our home (think educational manipulatives and games). Initially, there was just pure excitement and gratefulness to have access to these things for our kids, after years of being on an extremely tight budget. Then, it quickly became overwhelming and I started to feel like a stuff manager. More so, our kids couldn’t access or even remember everything we had for them. Combine that with postpartum hormones, and it was game on. I wanted my home to feel peaceful and my mind to feel calm!
I wanted to trade the chaos for calm.
Now, when you have 5 kids(or any number of kids), there will always be moments of chaos, but it doesn’t have to be triggered by disorder in your home from too much stuff or lack of good systems.
Seth and I spent many nights wrapping up an organization project at 12:30am, because when else do you pull the entire contents of your kitchen out when you have young kids who are home constantly?? And we’d wake up the next day exhausted, but every single project was worth it. I remember hearing Dawn, The Minimal Mom, reference reaching a certain point where you really start to experience change and then the momentum just propels you forward. I remember feeling that. I was absolutely hooked. My brain loved, nay craved, the order and everything having a place. Having order around me, meant I was better able to respond to my kids throughout the day and handle what came our way.
We recently went on a trip with family, actually we went on two trips in the last two months, and do you know what I missed most each time we were away? Having a place for everything.
I remember two friends sharing with a group of us moms early in my parenting journey that everything needed to have a home. And for the most part, we did that. But our things outgrew their homes, and within each “home” there was no order. If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend taking this quiz by Cas, the Clutterbug. (You might also enjoy her videos and resources! They just didn’t resonate with me as much, personally.) But the quiz showed me I was a lady bug! This means that I don’t want to see items I use everyday and I often shove and hide things. It was spot on. My home would look really tidy if you came over in a good moment, but don’t you dare open that drawer, or that cabinet..oof! The recommendation for lady bugs is to use a macro organization system, so big bins and baskets with easy to maintain systems. In retrospect, I’d been doing this in certain closets and spaces for a while, but this time I tried to apply it to my entire house and was such a game changer! So go take the quiz after you read this and find out what your results mean for you and your family!
I’m gonna wind down before I spill all the good stuff, but here’s what made a difference this time around:
We did the entire house over the course of a few months, not just a closet here or a closet there.
I focused on Macro Organization Systems that were easy to maintain.
We finally purchased and used a label maker. This was a game changer because it helps Seth and the kids quickly know where things go.
Excited to show you what those things practically look like! Thanks for reading, sweet friends! I’m genuinely pumped to walk you through our home and I’m so hopeful it will encourage you to create some real change in your home, too!
Homework: Go take the quiz and then pay attention to the systems you already have in place, the ones that work and the ones that don’t. Maybe jot them down somewhere you can refer back to later. And no shame if you don’t have any systems in place…we’ll get there. (But also, you probably do have systems, they are just informal…for example: I take my dirty clothes off and throw them on the floor. That’s a system, folks, just not a very helpful one.)
Next Stop: The Bathroom
P.S. You can find links to my favorite recommendations here. I’ll consistently update it any time I recommend something in a post.
