Monday, April 13, 2009

Restoring Order

My friend, Rebecca, and I are starting a new series today! I am so excited about this and I know we will have fun doing it together!

We are friends from high school and both moms of littles wondering how to keep the clutter at bay and feel like our homes are in order! She will be sharing some introductory thoughts today as well and will be hosting for this first week.

Each week (we'll alternate) one of us will post an area we'll be working on de-cluttering, organizing, purging, etc... and then later in the week we'll post progress and have a Mr. Linky for you to join! It is so much more fun to do this kind of thing when we are doing it together!

Here's my heart behind the idea ~ and I look forward to reading Rebecca's thoughts as well:

Do you ever feel like the clutter is taking over your home? Like the things you have are taking away from the feeling of home and order and instead just giving you a big headache?!

It is a continuous project and process to be ordering our homes. It is not done once forever (unfortunately!) but we must keep at it little by little to create this order. Here are a few past thoughts on God-ordained order.

My desire is that together, we will encourage and motivate one another to focus on restoring order in our homes in places that may need some help! Often, I'm amazed at how long I put projects like this off and then relatively how little time they take to accomplish!

Want to join in? You're welcome every week or just when you have time to step in and participate. Hop on over to Rebecca's for this week and join me here next week! Let's restore order (although that would imply I had order at one time!) and create order, calm and peace in our homes and lives!

23 comments:

Ginger said...

I look forward to this. I am attempting to purge my house of the "stuff" last week and this since I have the time off. It is still overwhelming, though. I have two big boxes so far for the Salvation Army. I am also working on just throwing out school stuff I haven't used in the last year. I want my spare bedroom back from school junk.

Ginger said...

Oh, and another clutter area I MUST work on this week is the kitchen. The end of the week Sears is coming in to reface my falling apart cabinets, so I must take everything out except the appliances. Most people have one junk drawer in the kitchen; I have 3. That's ridiculous.

Wendi said...

Great idea! Boy, do I need some encouragement in this area! I find that when my home is not in order that it spills over to clutter my mind and heart. I look forward to being motivated!

mamabeck said...

What a blessing to log on to this, today! I've been working at restoring order in our home, and it's getting there, one baby step at a time!

Off to read Rebecca's blog!

DairyQueen said...

I'm in! My hall closet is begging for it! I'm headed over to Rebecca's. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

YES!!!!! I do struggle with the battle(war!) of clutter. I look forward to gaining encouragement in this area!!!tammyp

Lesley said...

sounds like a great idea...having a 12 month old...clutter has become a daily ....war...shall we say....

Just Me said...

This is perfect timing - thank you! We just moved (second time in 9 months) and whilst moving is a great way to get rid of stuff, I'm always amazed at how much junk we have. And our neighbourhood just posted a date for a neighbourhood garage sale and I decided to participate, so this is perfect! Amen.

Davonne said...

I badly need this! I desperately want to declutter my entire house before baby #2 makes her entrance into the world, but our spare room upstairs is so overwhelming that I don't even know where to start! And I keep putting off doing the rest of the house, because I know that once that's done, I won't have any excuses for not going upstairs, aahhh!

My Blessings From Above said...

I am looking forward to this! It is so timely! I am working on purging my home over too much clutter. Really it is overwhelming what we have here! Thank you!

Jenny said...

I'm rejoicing in God's goodness this very moment! Before I went to bed last night, I told my husband that I was discouraged about all of the STUFF that clutters our little home. It just gets piled here and there. I'm a notorious "pile person." We moved into this home almost 2 years ago, and I loved the fresh start. Now that we're settled into our home, the junk and clutter have settled, too.

Instead of moving again (not an option anyway), I'd really like to take the clutter by the reins and do some serious Spring Cleaning around here!

As I fell asleep last night, I decided to add this to my journal today--areas in my home to work on, one by one, to restore order. Then I read this post! What a blessing!

Elise said...

I have lots to get in store, not so much *re*storing!! I do believe I will join in this time!!
Elise

Stephanie said...

I am really excited about this. I was just thinking this morning I need to regain some...some kind of control over my house. A big part of this is sorting through cloths for both parents and kids. So that is where I am going to start. It's nice to have some company along the path. I hope it's a productive week.

MamaDuck76 said...

What a good encouragement to get the house organized before the new baby arrives in August!

This week will be the playroom and next week will be the spare bedroom (which needs to be cleared of clutter so our older son can move out of the nursery!)

Joy said...

Looking forward to this!!

Donna said...

This is something I've been working on in my own home and life recently. It's a very worthwhile goal to have; it makes such a difference in many different ways!

rachaelnz said...

Monica, I absolutely needed this right now! We are having a two week holiday break from homeschooling and I am planning to attempt to declutter my house! Thanks for the encouragement!

Amanda said...

I'm in! As another poster said, I am a notorious pile-r...I'll look forward to learning and sharing - off to Rebecca's blog. We'll be moving in July, too, so I need to start weeding through "stuff".

K. Messerly said...

The tornadoes that just blew through our town (and the piles of 'stuff' that are left in front of affected houses) have many of us wondering about the things we collect and keep. Time to clean out! Don't want strangers going through your mismatched plastic containers and expired coupons.

Mom said...

Great topic and fun to do with a friend! :) This is an ongoing challenge for me -- and for many others according to the comments you've received. I've often said that when there is disorder around me, there is disorder in my spirit.

Two of my favorite tools for working on clutter are the "one in -- one out" rule (for each new thing I bring home, I try to get rid of something else) and FlyLady's "27 fling boogie." Love you, Mom

Debra said...

How timely. Have you been to my house? It's like you know what's going on here. :) Looking forward to this series.

Anna said...

Great idea! I am in the mood to do some cleaning and reorganizing as spring approaches. We just moved last summer from a house to a smaller apartment, and I got rid of tons of stuff, but it is amazing how it builds back up.
We are moving this summer, too, and then hopefully going overseas in the fall, so I need to get rid of a lot of stuff.

Adena said...

What an awesome plan!! I wished I had seen this and jumped on board at the beginning. I just majorly cleaned out my refrigerator but maybe I will do the linen closet and night stand. But late than never, right?