“To keep the soul continually in a state of gentle calm, it is necessary to perform every action as being dne in the presence of God, and as if He Himself has ordained it.” ~ St. Francis De Sales
So how did the decluttering go? I managed to make a tiny bit of progress but I have a good plan in place for, not accumulating more and for when my days free up a bit more at the end of the school term. Just having the plan makes me feel a little lighter.
This week we are organizing. Organizing is a multi-million dollar industry now, as opposed to our grandmothers who never had enough stuff to need such things. Abby isn’t proposing becoming part of the industry but rather gives us four simple secrets to having an organized home.
- Centralize
- Contain
- Systemize
- Maintain
The premise of these four secrets is very simple and you need not go to any big box store and invest your IRA in shelving and cute containers. What you do have to do is approach each step with a prayerful intention to get some control over your stuff, (you should have less of it after section two), and a vision of how your family uses each room in the house.
The four secrets are followed by some really practical advice to help you achieve organization. The kitchen and bathroom tips are extremely helpful but what stood out to me was to “lead by example”. So simple yet so difficult.
Discipline in the home really begins with mom and some of us (me!) need to really work at having the discipline to do the right thing and lead our children in this way everyday.
I envision this section of the book taking a while to accomplish, depending on your current state of organization. I know for me it may take several weeks and is going to be a large part of my summer duties, but the resulting peace from having a place for everything will be well worth it. I don’t think you should rush it too much, we tend to make bad decisions when we rush, but a thoughtful and contemplative approach will yield the most fruit. It has also been my experience that whilst this phase takes place you might have to make your peace with living with a bit of chaos. To organize a room really means to take it apart, evaluate where everything goes, make decisions and returning things to proper places. This can kick up a lot of emotion, exhaustion and dust. Plan for things to be up in the air for a bit and take it easy on yourself in other areas, whilst it is going on. For example, the day you organize the kitchen isn’t the day you plan to roast a turkey or make lasagna. Have some sandwich making stuff or grill outside. It might even be a good excuse to go out for dinner.
Next week we will be halfway through our study and we will be conquering the paper trail! As a homeschool mom this is a constant struggle for me because we generate so much paper here. As part of the human race it’s a struggle because the junk mail industry is committed to cluttering our lives with nonsense. I’m looking forward to sharing Abby’s wisdom and I hope you will be joining us!
My organizing Pinterest Board which serves as inspiration and eye candy.
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