The Year of The Home: Getting my act together.

The Lord has been convicting me for sometime about a certain area of my life. That area is homemaking. If any of you know me "in real life" (IRL), you probably know this is a serious area that I consistently fail in. At least I'm consistent, right? ;)

Anyway, I am working on this. As Christians, we are called to be hospitable & I know I am not. I never feel like my home is clean enough (& it really isn't) for guests & I don't feel that my cooking skills are where they should be to offer meals to people who need them.

A couple of weekends ago, I finally told God, "Fine, let's do this." & really allowed Him to convict me fully on the subject. That Saturday, when I went to church, what do you think the pastor preached on? That's right...hospitality. "Ok, God, I get the picture."

So how does one go from pig to princess? From clutter & chaos to comfort & peace? From "get me out of here" to "I wish I could stay longer?"

Well, I don't know about others, but I'm a nerd & I research things to death. I ordered several books on homemaking, organization, clutter, etc... I have become obsessed with several blogs regarding homemaking, organization, cooking, frugality, cleaning, anything to do with running a home.

I know it sounds a little like feeding a problem to order more books for a person who already has a serious issue with clutter & way too many books to begin with, but I'm working on a plan. A couple of weeks ago, the weekend I finally had gotten the message, I cleaned out a cabinet in my bathroom hallway that had been bugging me for weeks. I threw out boxes of stuff. I felt guilty about throwing some of those things out but I've had them in that cabinet for almost 5 years now & still haven't used them, I doubt I ever will...I usually just end up buying another what ever it is when I need it anyway. For example, I found 5 large bottles of Tums in that cabinet. I can't even remember the last time I had indigestion. By the way, I kept one bottle & took the rest home to my mom & dad.

That same weekend, I also cleaned my closet & got things a bit more organized in there.

My next project, I hope to go through my book cases in my living room. Like I said, I have a serious issue with too many books. I'm going to be very selective & only keep the ones I am extreemly serious about reading. I have several that I have had for years & haven't even attempted to read them. Even though I always say, "I'll read it eventually," I never do, so those suckers are out. I have a friend who reads books like crazy so I'll offer some of them to her & the rest I'll take to Half Price Books & see what I can get for them, if there are any they refuse to take (which I highly doubt), I'll take them to my hospital (they have roving book shelves for the waiting rooms & patients). To be honest, I have gotten away from fiction lately. I use to say I would never read non-fiction..."it doesn't require any creativity, no imagination, it's boring"...but that's not really true. I love non-fiction now. I glean so much from it & I find it quite interesting. Like I said, I'm a nerd, I love to research & learn.

Most of the research (blogs, books, & websites) I have been making is by Christian homemakers, aka, stay-at-home wives/mothers/homeschoolers. I mean, they are the experts of homemaking, right? That's their job. I'm not sure if I'll ever marry or become a mother or a stay-at-home wife/mother but that doesn't really matter. If I do, I'll have learned a lot of great advice on how to run a home & if I never marry, I'll still have my own home to run. Practical life wisdom rarely goes wasted. I have already learned quite a bit &, hopefully, having real life friends that are homemakers & reading these other ladies blogs will continue to inspire me get my life on the homefront in order.

Last year, I guess, was the year of my physical life. God convicted me about my health & helped me to get in better shape, learn to eat healthier & like it, and loose approximately 70 lbs. While I still have at least 30 lbs to go, I guess God thinks it is time to move to another area of my life. I came to the realization that, like loosing weight, I can not get my house clean & in order in a day, a weekend, or even a whole month, it is going to take a long time to get it where I want it, even then, like struggling with weight, it will be a daily battle to keep undercontrol. When I realized that, I seemed to relax a little. I've been looking at this mess for so long thinking, "There is so much to do, I don't know where to start." & then I would find something much less productive to do. But knowing it will take months to sort & thinking in small goals, like my cabinet in the hallway or one book self at a time, seems much more manageable & much less stressful. The entire living room in one day, forget it...I'll just play Rock Band for a while. But, one shelf for today...I think I can handle that.

So, a couple of years ago, it was The Year (or Two) of Spirituality; last year, it was The Year of Health; & I guess, this year, will be The Year of The Home.

Mission Organization: Day 2: Not quite as productive, but not a waste

Ok, so today I wasn't as good at getting in there & getting at it but I did get a lot accomplished. I got all my clothes that go in my dresser put away, washed two loads of laundry, & packed for my weekend at my parents. I also finished packing up all the clothes that don't fit me any longer (aka, went through the clothes in the living room).

Unfortunately, I did not finish getting my clean clothes hung up in the closet. But that's okay I do that when I get back from Thanksgiving. It won't take but a few minutes. I did get my towels folded, though. Since I don't have any decent storage in my apartment, I have to keep most of my towels & stuff in a laundry basket. Very annoying.

I am very happy to have my laundry baskets back so they can perform the job they were created to rather than being used as storage for the clothes that didn't fit in my drawers & closet. Hehe.

I finally got energized to finish packing away everything about an hour after my bed time. What is with that? :P

Day One...Mission Accomplished...well....kind of

I spent at least two hours going through the clothes on the floor in my closet & on my bed & on the floor in my bed room. I ended up with a huge box & one Old Navy shopping bag full of clothes to take to mom, plus two winter coats & a rain coat. Most of these clothes are too big for her but she knows other people who might want them too. Now my closet looks quite bare & I have a plethora of hangers. I didn't get all of my clothes hung back up but I'm getting there. I did put them in a clothes basket so at least I'll be able to spread out in the bed today. Yay.

I also got the kitchen straightened up a bit. I still need to wipe down the cabinets & find a place for some of my stuff but at least all the dishes are cleaned & the trash was taken out. I really need to go through my cabinets & get rid of the stuff I don't use, but I'll save that for a later date.

Tomorrow I plan on finishing putting away the clothes that are in the laundry basket & attack the clothes in my living room. I also want to change the sheets on my bed. There is nothing like sliding into a made bed with fresh sheets. It feels so luxurious. Obviously I'm not a high maintenance girl. hehe

This is going to take me a long time but a little bit everyday will start to show a big difference soon.

Chaos has taken over

I know I've been away a bit. Last week, for part of the week I was on vacation & the rest of the week, I just didn't pay any attention to what I was doing. I know I probably didn't go over on calories (until this weekend, oops) but I didn't do any exercise either. I'm really not sure how much "exercise" I'm going to get this week either. My house is a wreck & I'm getting sick of it. It is completely ridiculous for someone to live like this. So, I aim to start cleaning it up before I end up on television. So, house cleaning my have to be considered my "exercise" this week. I know this isn't a very good excuse or form but it has reached a point that something must be done. A clean environment usually makes you feel more inspired & relaxed.

Whenever I do finally get my place clean & organized, it tends to stay that way for a month or two. Then, all of a sudden, BANG! It's a mess again. I swear someone is sneaking into my place & messing it up on purpose. I blame gnomes.

My closet has virtually no clothes hanging up in it any more. Most are either on my bed, on the floor in the living room, on the floor of the closet, on my bedroom floor, on my couch, or still in the dryer. And even most of those don't fit me anymore. I have given two loads of clothes to my mom & who ever else she knows might need them, so now I have very few clothes that actually fit me. This is great, however, there is no excuse for me not hanging up what does fit in the closet now. That is what I am aiming for this week. Get the clothes off the bed so I can once again sleep all sprawled out like I like. Sort the clothes in the living room into what fits & what doesn't, then rewash them, take the ones that don't fit to my mom & put the others away. Go through the clothes at the bottom of the closet & pack them up for my mom (I'm pretty sure none of those fit me anymore). I have to do all of this by Tuesday night since I'll be going home for Thanksgiving on Wednesday morning, hopefully. I want to take this last load of my old clothes to my mom then.

I also have to clean my kitchen today. I don't care how small & inconvenient my kitchen is, it is inexcusable to let it get to this condition.

I've made these goals before & either did a minimal job or just looked at the entire scene & became so overwhelmed that I jumped back on the computer to escape the chaos around me. Some things are just going to have to be sacrificed until I get this under control. This situation is much like the whole weight loss task. When looking at the whole picture, I had to loose 100 lbs. That seemed impossible. Why even try? I've failed every other time, how will this time be any different? This task is not different. I must focus on one room at a time, one task at a time. It may take longer than I would like but I can't look at this as "get it clean the it's over" just like I can't look at my weight as "get it off then you don't have to worry about it anymore" or like reading the Bible can't be seen as "get it read then you don't have to pick it up again." That is how bad habits sneak back in & the apartment becomes a mess again, I get fat & unfit again, & I start to fall away from God again. These are things I must stay on top of every day for the rest of my life. I have to watch my calorie intake, exercise, straighten up the house/apartment, read my Bible, & pray every day. I had a friend who suggested setting a timer for 15 min every day & clean during that time. It think this is a great idea & I plan to implement it once I get the place to a point of livability. Sort of a maintenance plan, I guess.

I don't want to be this person. I want to be healthy, athletic, clean, organized, and as close to God as I can be. I want my place to be a place where people feel comfortable & I feel comfortable having them. I don't want it to become one of those places that people feel uptight in but I don't want them worried that they may get lost under a pile of clothes either.