My home makes me happy. Not because I have a gorgeous large fancy house or anything (I really don’t) but simply because it’s home, it’s where my people are. No matter where I’ve been, I always love coming home. In fact I hate leaving most of the time. My home is cozy and it comforts me. It brings me peace. And that’s what I want for you…a peaceful organized home (POH for short).
Here is a list of 6 things that you can do to bring peace to your home. Of course there are other things that can bring stress to a home like marriage discord or financial worries however for this series we are focusing on the clutter and chaos that brings disorder to our homes. These are in no particular order.
1. Change your attitude
I have a super small entryway in this house. It’s one of those stairs up and stairs down right as you come in the door type of thing. All five of us can never all come in at the same time because it’s just too crowded. It’s hard for me not to compare it to our old home in BC which some of you might remember had a large entryway with room for everyone to come in and move around.
BUT all comparison does is steal my joy for the present.
My bitterness to a small entryway isn’t going to change a single thing about the size. So I have a choice, I can be miserable about it each and every time I walk in the door or I can adjust my attitude about it, recognize that it is what it is and make it work. That right there my friends is half the battle. And even more importantly our attitude sets the stage for the attitudes our kids will assume, yikes!
2. Add a Beautiful Scent
This one is huge for me. I love a great smelling house. In my old house my scent was Satsuma using the Satsuma oil from Body Shop and whenever I walked in the door it immediately triggered home for me. I loved it! In this house, however, that scent doesn’t seem to be work the same so now I use a variety of scents to make my home smell delicious and inviting depending on the season. Whether you use essential oils, wax warmers or candles, it’s an easy thing to do to bring a comfortable, clean feeling to your home.
3. Clear the clutter
This area is one of the hardest for people to get under control. The piles that breed in the night and accumulate out of nowhere mocking us from every turn. And you know what a pile attracts don’t you? More piles that’s what! Yep once a pile starts it’s easy to keep it going thinking you’ll deal with it later. Only as the pile grows it becomes overwhelming to think about tackling it so there it sits or it gets shoved into a cupboard thinking we’ll feel better if we can’t see it. But don’t fool yourself, you still know it’s there and it will annoy the heck out of you every time you need to dig through the pile to find what you need. Similarly, stuff and piles on the floor that you have to walk over and around can be pretty stressful and agitating. It’s pretty hard to feel peaceful in your home if you are walking around feeling frustrated all the time. It’s time to clear that clutter and enjoy the peace that comes from an uncluttered home. If you hate making decisions about your stuff, then this post right here is for you.
4. Have a home for everything
The best way to get to an uncluttered home is to have a place for everything so you can put things back easily when they get scattered about (and they will, we don’t live in bubbles after all). This is the part that takes time, and that people tend to avoid. Where to put things leads to much stress for people because it takes brain power, believe me I get it. At the end of a long day you just want to relax. But here’s the thing, are you really relaxing with all that clutter and chaos around you? Subconsciously all that stuff is going to weigh you down, whether you know it or not. Others might be thinking that it’s just no use since you don’t have the storage space to store it all. Well let me challenge you here by saying, perhaps what you need isn’t more storage but just less stuff to store. Remember my golden rule:
Have nothing in your home that you do not love or use OR have the room to store.
You can read more about that here.
5. Clear the mind clutter
Our brains are constantly working on overdrive. If something doesn’t have a home, your brain is constantly trying to remember for you where it is. It doesn’t get a break, it can’t turn off. Not only does it have to try and remember for you where everything is let’s not forget about all the details it has to remember in regards to schedules and things that have to get done. Who has to be where and when, school notes to be sent back, hippie day at school on Friday that your kiddo needs a costume for, groceries to buy, appointments to schedule, and on and on and on. Let’s give ourselves a break and get that stuff out of our heads and onto paper and a calendar of some type. I like to call it a brain dump and you can read more about how that works here. When your brain isn’t cluttered and on overload you’ll find that it’s much easier to make necessary decisions and changes about how your time is spent. Things become so much clearer when you aren’t in a fog. Less worry and stress leads to better sleep which makes it easier to have a better attitude. Ahhh we’ve come full circle, did you see how that happened? 🙂
6. Create some margin in your life
There are some seasons of life that are just going to be busier than others especially if you have littles that can’t pull their own weight around the house yet 🙂 I just read a great post over on the (in)courage site that really spoke to me:
“If we don’t allow white space in our lives to breathe and refresh, but instead pack every moment of every day full to the brim with to-do’s and projects, our lives will feel chaotic, disorderly, and exhausting. If you have a full schedule, you probably won’t naturally find much margin or breathing room in your life. Instead, you have to be intentional about cultivating it.“
The post then goes on to give you 4 ways to help you cultivate a little more breathing space into your life. You can read it here.
Regardless of the size of your home or the furnishings inside, our homes should be a sanctuary for our souls, a place of comfort and peace to come home to everyday. I hope putting these six steps into place will help you achieve that goal.
Read this series from the beginning here.
Linking up: Thirty Handmade Days, Design Dining and Diapers, 36th Avenue
Jannie says
Great post! One of my faves. Thx for taking the time to do this. I get something out of your posts everytime!
Laura says
Thanks Jannie, that means a lot to me!
Paula says
Loved this post. I especially loved clicking over to read about making decisions. That is one of my biggest stumbling blocks in LIFE….I get so sick of making decisions. I, too, love having a good smelling house!
Laura says
I really hate making decisions too, ugh. But I also hate clutter so that helps fuel the decision making process along 🙂
Jenn (Student Mom) says
I can’t wait until I’m at the point where I can sit back and say I’ve got rid of all the clutter.
I hate clutter, and it’s everywhere!! I’m doing a ‘one section of a cupboard at a time’ routine and it seems to work for me. Once I have the cupboards under control I’ll be able to focus on surfaces. There’s no point in rescuing the surfaces if all I’m going to do is shove the ‘stuff’ into the cupboards, which is what I do because there’s so much in there already, what does one more item matter?!
Meredith from Penelope Loves Lists says
It’s not going to be surprising that I totally agree with all these points. My home is truly my haven. And, like you, it’s not fancy, just very, very comfortable. And having it tidy and organized is, for me, a way to make it peaceful.
And one of the biggest parts of that peace is, like you, the gorgeous scent factor. I love to walk in to a fragrant home. But I’ve had the hardest time finding candles that really fill the space with scent. They always seem to just cover 3-4 feet from the candle.
So, I’d love to know if you or your readers have used anything (candle, wax warmers, etc.) that really, really are super fragrant and lasting.
Laura says
You know something that is weird, my old house was so much bigger than the one I’m in now and my Satsuma oil scent could fill the whole house. It’s so weird because that doesn’t happen in this house. I’m like you and having the same problem filling the space so I have multiple burners and warmers all over the place. It’s kind of a pain really.
Tracy @ Using Time Wisely says
Thanks, Laura! I, too, love a have a beautiful scent in our home. Just a sweet fragrance give me energy and motivation to press on through the 5 loads of laundry, pile of dishes, or pages of e-mail.
http://www.usingtimewisely.com/cleaning-creating-motivation-through-the-sense-of-smell/
With an open floor plan, the Yankee candles do so well. My favorite scent is the pineapple cilantro. Ahh!
Linda says
Thank you Laura. I can relate to each one of your points. I am so glad you are focusing on bringing peace to out cluttered lives this year. ‘Clearing the Mind Clutter’ – that’s big for me right now. So many tings are spilling over. I really appreciate this post!
Laura says
Thanks Linda for your words of encouragement, it is appreciated!
Maureen Calamia says
Laura,
I enjoyed your article. Very appropriate tips for creating peace. In Feng Shui, as you must know, clutter is #1 in blocking and creating negative energy in a space. I love your idea of creating “margins” for breathing room.
I had a feng shui consultation recently with a psychotherapist and she works out of her home. In her office, the bookcase is jam-packed with books. When I looked at it, I couldn’t breath! And this is the view for her clients! Definitely creating margins of space is what is needed in all of our lives. Thanks! http://www.luminous-spaces.com