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In this article, we talk about 5 rules that will help you when decluttering and organizing your home to help keep it beautiful, cozy, and a place that your family will cherish. This is the first post in a series on decluttering and organizing tips.
I walked into my kitchen and threw my bag on the counter. My kids rushed over yelling, “Mama! Mama!” with smiles on their faces. But, I felt tense and aggravated.
Everywhere around me I saw a mess. I scanned the counters which had piles of papers, jackets, and bags. The sink had a pile of dishes. The floor in the living room had piles of blankets, toys, and pillows. Piles and piles of stuff everywhere.
I wanted to be present for my kids after a long day of work, but instead, my aggravation snapped. I began to fuss at the kids and my husband, saying “Why is everything such a mess?! Don’t you know I can’t do all of this while also working and being gone all day? Can’t you guys pick up a little!”
My kids’ faces were crestfallen. My husband, who had gone to pick up the kids for me at my request, seemed confused and defensive.
Everything was a mess, including me and my attitude.
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Don’t be ruled by your stuff
In our podcast on materialism, we talked about how our things can rule our lives if we are not careful. We spend so much time and effort gathering up all of our stuff and taking care of it that we end up missing out on our much larger purpose. We might not be wealthy by our standards. But, we are still allowing our things to be the lord of our lives.
We have to put our stuff in its proper place, both physically and in our hearts.
In our podcast on cleaning, we talked about the biblical theology behind cleaning. God is a god of order, and he expects us to come alongside him as we steward what we own. This requires us to be actively working towards cleanliness every day because our world is constantly built towards chaos and disorder. We live in a broken world, and the curse brought this disorderliness into the world.
I didn’t realize how much my stuff was ruling my life. Not only did it steal away the time I spent trying to fix it and put it in its rightful place. It also dictated much of my attitude. I know this is not always the case, but most of the time women tend to bear the brunt of cleaning and taking care of the home. We can feel like failures if we fall below our standards of cleanliness and order. When my home was a mess, I felt shame which led me to lash out defensively at others. Even though really, no one cared about what my home looked like. I was only failing to reach my own arbitrary standards.
I didn’t realize much of this until I got the chance to stay home with my kids. I always blamed working full time for the reason my house was a mess. I remember saying, “If I only was home, I could have everything fixed and how I want it.” But, any stay-at-home mom will tell you, the mess only multiples because you are at home all day. When I realized that I wasn’t going to have a home that was immaculate or even really clean just because I stayed home, I did some soul-searching and some research to try to figure out how to tame the mess.
Creating a home that is beautiful is part of our task on Earth as we pattern ourselves after the first homemaker. It is a worthwhile task that we should set our hearts to. It is worthwhile to focus on decluttering and organizing.
What follows is a list of 5 ‘rules’ on decluttering and organizing that I have learned as I have tried to tame my home. You can think of these rules more like suggestions or guiding principles. Your home will get untidy at times, but if you stick with these ideas, you won’t feel ruled by your things.
You can check out our ‘supply list’ for decluttering and organizing here.
5 Rules of Decluttering and Organizing
- Figure out the why behind your clutter.
- Own your organizing style.
- Remember the Ones: One Touch; One in, One out; One Load a Day
- Do a ten-minute tidy every day, a one-hour cleaning ‘reset’ each week, and a one-day deep clean each season.
- Create a home you love and relish it.
Over the next several weeks, we are going to be breaking down each of these rules and how to implement them. Hopefully, this will give you bite-size, practical ideas to get you started on creating a home that you love. It is just one step closer to creating a life you love while cultivating your heart for God.
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