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Gospel-Driven Encouragement for Homemakers

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Bringing Order to Our Homes

by Marci Ferrell
Cleaning Decluttering & Organizing Series Homemaking Organization Reader Favorites

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Clutter is a real enemy.  Clutter can keep us from enjoying our families and homes as it takes up our time, can rob us of our joy, can add stress to our lives and takes up our living space. @mferrell

“When life gets too cluttered, we neglect the  important things.”

~ Emilie Barnes

Bringing Order to Our Homes:

I love to work in an orderly workspace. I love order and beauty in my home.  Studies have proven that people think clearer and better in uncluttered environments. When I finish cleaning a room or my whole house I love to just take a moment to sit with a cup of tea and a good book and enjoy the order.

Clutter is a real enemy.  Clutter can keep us from enjoying our families and homes as it takes up our time, can rob us of our joy, can add stress to our lives, and takes up our living space. 

Our homes all have different personalities because we are all different so order for one person will look different for the next person.  There are some simple questions we can all ask as we desire to bring order to our homes.  What is important to you? What activities take place in your home? How would you like your immediate family to think about or even remember your home?  These are some good starts for real change to start in your battle to conquer your clutter.

What is the Purpose of Your Home:

We already stated that our homes are all different because we all have different values and priorities. One of the first steps to decluttering is to determine the purpose and use of your spaces in your home.  The hope is your home will serve you and your family well instead of you serving your home.  If it is uncluttered and there is a purpose to each room it will be much easier to clean and keep order.

I have found I need to determine what the purpose is for each room before I can begin to declutter.  It is a simple step that seems to get neglected in most decluttering books.

Take the time to spend a few moments in each room of your house with a pen and paper in hand and write out what happens in each room.  What is the room’s purpose and what activities take place in that room?  There are probably going to be one, or two at most, purposes for each room in your home.

An example would be your kitchen.  In my kitchen, we eat and fellowship around the table.  In your kitchen, you may do meals and homeschool so you’re going to be dealing with how to design your kitchen around those two purposes.  In our family room, we read, watch television, DVD’s and play games so my room is designed around those purposes (more than one purpose but similar).  In our bedrooms, we sleep and read.  I’m hoping you’re catching on to this ;).

A Place for Everything:

If you get one thing from this post catch this one: there must be a place for everything to maintain order in your home.  The moment an item in my home doesn’t have a home is the start of clutter (and it doesn’t take long for clutter to build from there).

If everything has a place it makes it easier for you and your family to clean up.  You save time by not losing items and spending time looking for them.  The things you need are in the right place where you use them.

Related Podcast: EP 14 Simple Tips to a Clutter-Free Home

Put items where you find yourself using them and where they are most convenient.  It sounds simple but many of us don’t do this.  A big clutter area we all seem to have is where we enter and exit our homes.  Make sure you have good storage in that area of your home.  A place for shoes, coats, keys, bags, etc.

Again, take it a room at a time and envision how you use that room and what you need to find homes for in each room.

Identifying the Clutter:

The clutter in our homes begins little by little over time.  It doesn’t happen overnight and it’s not fixed in a day.  We need to get to the underlying reasons for our clutter.  Much of our clutter is holding on to items that we are emotionally attached to. I’m less likely to get rid of an item if I’m emotionally attached to it.  The reality is I can’t keep every memory of my children’s childhood.  I need to determine which items I’m going to keep and how I’m going to store them (photos of them with an item, several items kept from each year of school or journal for each school year are some ideas to cut down on children’s paperwork clutter). 

Paperwork is usually one of the big clutter areas to battle.  Have a system for your daily mail so it doesn’t gather into a pile on your counter.  Try to keep papers from coming into your home.  Write appointments right into your calendar and don’t take the little reminder card.  If you’re comfortable do most of your banking and bill paying online.  (See my Simple Home Filing System.)

Clutter is best defined as anything you have in your home that doesn’t have a purpose.  Ask yourself what the benefit is of holding on to this item.  The other area you need to consider is the amount of space you have available in your home for storage.

Eliminating Clutter:

So you’ve determined the purpose of each room at this point and are pondering ways to get a hold on your paperwork clutter.  You are now ready to start tearing it apart room by room so where do you start?

Remember, you can’t organize clutter.  So we need to get our three bags or boxes and label them:

  1. Throw Away
  2. Give Away
  3. Put Away

Give Away is for items to donate.  Put away are for items whose purpose is not in the current room you are decluttering but need to find another spot where they are more conveniently used. The biggest bag you will probably have is throw away.  This one is obvious ;).

I encourage you to start small with drawers and cupboards and leave larger closets for last.  Just these small starts can encourage you to press on to the larger areas.  After you have determined the purpose of the room and decluttered, you can start to see if there are any storage needs that would help make it more productive and easy to clean up.

My best advice is to do a little a time and set a timer to work in that room 15-30 minutes a day until it’s finished before you move to the next room.  (See my Homemaking 101 Series here on Decluttering your home one room at a time.)

Please know that this will be a continuing pattern of your life.  We never declutter once in our lives and it’s over.  It is a continuous cycle that will be part of our lives while on this earth.  Clutter really will be dealt with daily.  Some of us naturally deal with clutter and others of us (me included) really need to work at it.  I have to work hard at staying organized, it is not natural for me but I love the benefits of having a home with order and not chaos.

Benefits of Decluttering: 

There are many benefits to decluttering but I think the big one is time saved.  When my home is decluttered and tidy I spend much less time cleaning and when I do clean it is extremely simplified.  My mind is freed up because I know where to find needed items, especially important papers.  I have more time to spend with my family and less time to spend cleaning and organizing.

 

“If you want to make room in your life for peace and patience, take small steps on organization, know the value of time. Snatch, seize and enjoy every minute of it!”

~Emilie Barnes

 

 

Related Resources:

How I Plan My Days

Homemaking 101 Series

My Top 5 Homemaking Tips

Simple Home Filing System

Become a patron at Patreon!

Related posts:

  1. EP 14: Simple Tips for a Clutter-Free Home
  2. Homemaking 101: Decluttering & Organizing Our Kitchens – Part One {Countertops, Kitchen Sink, Under the Kitchen Sink & Drawers}
  3. Where to Begin When You’re Overwhelmed
  4. Homemaking 101 Series: Decluttering & Organizing Our Kitchens Part Two {Refrigerator, Kitchen Table & Cupboards}


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Marci Ferrell
It is better to get wisdom than gold. Gold is anot It is better to get wisdom than gold. Gold is another’s, wisdom is our own; gold is for the body and time, wisdom for the soul and eternity.⁣
~ Matthew Henry⁣
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Read Seeking Whatever is Good at the link in my profile @thankfulhomemaker (click on the link under the blue arrows and then this image)
Whether you're running errands, doing household ch Whether you're running errands, doing household chores, or sipping your coffee, you can do it in style, reminding yourself and others you are a Thankful Homemaker 🥰⁣
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Shop TH Gear at the link in my profile @thankfulhomemaker (click on the link under the blue arrows and then this image).
What do you think of when you hear the word discer What do you think of when you hear the word discernment? The dictionary defines it as making a distinction between good and evil and truth and falsehood. As believers, we all desire to be discerning and wise in our choices. As we mature and grow in our knowledge of the scriptures, the hope is we will use that information to make choices in line with God's will.⁣
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We become discerning people by not just knowing what to think but how to think. Being spiritually discerning is an ability to see the world the way God does. This comes about as we grow and mature spiritually into the likeness of Christ. It is about seeing “All That's Good.”⁣
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Read Seeking Whatever is Good at the link in my profile @thankfulhomemaker (click on the link under the blue arrows and then this image)
“Waiting exposes our idols and throws a wrench i “Waiting exposes our idols and throws a wrench into our coping mechanisms. It brings us to the end of what we can control and forces us to cry out to God. God doesn’t waste our waiting. He uses it to conform us to the image of his Son.”⁣
~ Betsy Childs Howard⁣
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Listen in to EP 23: Seasons of Waiting at the link in my profile @thankfulhomemaker (click on the link under the blue arrows and then this image)
As I’m sharing this episode, I’m finding mysel As I’m sharing this episode, I’m finding myself in a waiting room on the Lord, and it’s been a long one, and I don’t see an end near.  It has reminded me that when I gave myself to Him, I gave up my “right” to be in charge. The reality is we never were in charge anyway; we just came to that understanding when the Lord opened our eyes to His sovereign control over our lives.⁣
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Even though it is a truth I know or we know, how many times do we want to think that somehow we can effect change in our life situations?⁣
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Waiting is hard because there is no guarantee that my waiting will end in this lifetime. One thing I have learned – my waiting has deepened my trust in the Lord and has helped me to develop patience, perseverance, and endurance.⁣
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It’s also given me different eyes to see with compassion others who are in a season of waiting.⁣
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Listen in to EP 23 Seasons of Waiting at the link in my profile @thankfulhomemaker (click on the link under the blue arrows and then this image)
Six questions I have written in my Bible that have Six questions I have written in my Bible that have been a help to me over the years may be a help to you, too, to be prayerful and slow to speak. These are helpful questions not just in our friendships but in our marriages and with our children, and truly any of our relationships:⁣
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1. Is this the time to say this?⁣
2. Am I the person to say this?⁣
3. Is it necessary?⁣
4. Is it true?⁣
5. Is it kind?⁣
6. Do I need to say this?⁣
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Listen in to EP 140: Threats to Biblical Friendship at the link in my profile @thankfulhomemaker (click on the link under the blue arrows and then this image)
We all know that fostering true biblical friendshi We all know that fostering true biblical friendship isn’t easy – it takes work. Jesus told us in John 16:33 that we’re going to have trouble in this world, and trouble does touch all our lives in various areas, but this includes our friendships too.⁣
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We’ll be hurt; we’ll be the ones hurting others; selfishness is a battle; jealousy and envy raise their ugly heads; we have our fears and insecurities, failed expectations, the damage our tongues do to one another, not appropriating the gospel and these all come from hearts that are still battling sin. ⁣
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So when these threats to our friendship with one another in Christ come up, it shouldn’t surprise us that we have these issues, but what we need to keep at the forefront of our minds is how we respond and deal with them when they do come up. ⁣
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I want to walk us through some of these threats, and this list I’m working with isn’t exhaustive – there are many more threats than what I am addressing today – but these are areas that stood out to me that have been a battle within some of my friendships over the years. Sadly, it is often the sin I’m battling in my heart, and I need to get my thinking, attitudes, and actions lined up with God’s Word.⁣
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Listen to EP 140 Threats to Biblical Friendship at the link in my profile @thankfulhomemaker (click on the link under the blue arrows and then this image)
May we be women who are willing to return to the a May we be women who are willing to return to the authority of God’s Word, embrace God’s priorities for our lives and homes, and live out the beauty and wonder of womanhood as God created it to be.⁣
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Read more at The History of Modern Feminism at the link in my profile @thankfulhomemaker (click on the link under the blue arrows and then this image)
Women will never find fulfillment and satisfaction Women will never find fulfillment and satisfaction by trying to be "like" men and shedding their uniqueness as a female.  They will only find satisfaction in Christ.⁣
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Come read The History of Modern Feminism at the link in my profile @thankfulhomemaker (click on the link under the blue arrows and then this image)
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