organized simplicity

By Karen Brown 

From Organized Simplicity

One of my 2011 resolutions intentions is to simplify - simplify our home, our finances, our routines and schedules...all of it. For me, when things are orderly and neat, when they make sense and are intentional, I feel like I can function at my best. It creates a calm and peace in our home that we so desire.

The first thing I set out to tackle is the clutter in our home. The things we have that don't work, don't work for us, don't need, don't love, don't use, have too much of...you get the picture. I am going through the house room by room asking myself questions like: Do we love it? Do we use it? Does it belong here? If we were moving, would I pack it? Is it something I find beautiful to look at? Etc... I am trying to be ruthless, knowing that simplifying in this way will only make managing our home easier - less stuff to pick up, put away, dust, store, search through when looking for something I really need...just less things to fill my mind and available space in our home. It helps to visualize our preferred future and what we really want to surround ourselves with and how we want to spend our time...with those around us, not bogged down by our possessions.

Already it has felt quite freeing to pack up boxes to donate and bags to throw away. I want to surround my family with things we love and appreciate, things that remind of us God’s blessing in our lives, of memories shared and things that bring us joy. And if another person can use or benefit from what was just cluttering our home, that's even greater incentive to give it away.

I heard about the book Organized Simplicity and immediately ordered it to help me figure all this out. I felt like I needed a roadmap and a little bit of a pep talk. I devoured this book in no time. I highly recommend it if you are looking to simplify as well. It offers some great suggestions.

So to keep it real, I've still got a long way to go. The de-cluttering is about halfway done and the charity has been called to pick up our donations. Our hope is that by streamlining our home and routine, we will free up more time and energy for what is truly important.

From Organized Simplicity