In each of our hearts as homemaker’s is a longing to create a place of refuge and rest. One of the modern barriers to that is a cluttered, messy house. Let’s examine some of the why’s of clutter and figure out some strategies to free our homes and minds of chaos and clutter. A cluttered house prevents restfulness and peace.
What is clutter?
Imagine a lovely, rustic kitchen with a worn-out wooden table in the center, surrounded by carefully chosen mismatched chairs. The countertops are covered in a variety of items: flour-dusted cookbooks, empty sippy cups, a half-eaten pancake, and a crock pot filled with simmering stew. Pots and pans hang from a pot rack above the stove, while utensils overflow from a large drawer which refuses to close located next to the sink. The floor is strewn with home school books with no real home, sandals seeking mates, and Legos lost without care. A vintage French advertisement poster is partially hidden behind a stack of dirty plates near the wall. The overall atmosphere could be cozy and charming, were it not for the disarray.
Clutter really is a modern problem. I recall vividly stories that my Mamaw would tell of scarcity, practices that she would employ as a homemaker to ensure that her home and family were provided for due to her frugality and resourcefulness. As a result, I began my life as a homemaker wanting to emulate her ways and methods.
The difference now is that we live in a very consumer-driven culture. Consumption is at an all-time high. Our homes are constantly being bombarded with incoming purchases, gifts, tools, and lifestyle products. We are often plagued by guilt when wanting to rid our homes of non-essentials by feelings of sentiment and fear of scarcity in the future.
We may have good habits and practices that allow us to manage the constant inflow somewhat, but most of us really could do more to purge our closets, drawers and shelves of the excess that we have accumulated. How much of my life is wasted putting items back on shelves?
Preparing for Success
Overwhelm is a real pitfall when de-cluttering your home. Don’t let your mind go to that place. Prepare your heart for peace by focusing on the enjoyment and satisfaction that you will have once your space is tidy and welcoming. The reward of peace in your home far outweighs the temporary discomfort of the daunting task ahead and the reality of the joy that is currently being robbed while the chaos remains.
My Method for Success
Choose an area and start there. Set a timer. Keep consistently chipping away at the clutter. You may find it helpful and inspiring to take before/after photos. Treat clutter a little like the debt snowball method. Start with your smallest mess, eliminate it, take the euphoria and energy that comes from accomplishing that, and move on to the next biggest mess. A 10-20 minute investment in de-cluttering one space everyday will get the job done!
Tips for Clearing A Cluttered House:
- Purge all flat surfaces for instant gratification: Coffee table, end tables, dining table, kitchen counters, bedside tables, bathroom counters. Clear off all of the visible surface as you are able, house items in drawers, cupboards, bins, baskets, etc. Counters are not for storing items. When items must remain on the surfaces, group them together to allow visual rest and space in between.
- Limit knick-knacks and decor: Only allow yourself to keep out items that can be placed on a tray or atop a stack of books. Mess breeds mess and tidy encourages tidiness. Don’t go back to the mess by making a habit of tidying your spaces each evening for just a few minutes. This really helps to maintain order.
- Set small, incremental goals if the task is too great: Room by room, surface by surface, or closet by closet. Set a timer and play a round or two of “beat the clock.”
Have a plan to limit your storage and container systems. Avoid stuffing items in unlabeled bins or boxes and shifting them out of the way. “Out of sight, out of mind” is not helpful here. Many of us have almost unlimited storage. Storing stuff is not de-cluttering.
Even 30 minutes spent de-cluttering each day adds up to 182.5 HOURS yearly!!!
We learned this the hard way in our most recent move. As I began to unpack boxes I literally felt silly at some of the contents, stuffed hastily away and never missed for the next 10 years. There were things that I was happy to see again for sentimental reasons, but those were literally few and far between. The cost of storing and moving those items far outweighed the cost savings of already owning them.
De-cluttering is not wasteful. Owning and keeping things that you do not need or use is what is actually wasteful. Bless others that are truly in need. Recycling and repurposing is also great, but some of those belongings are just garbage.
A Plan for Moving Forward
A good example of needless clutter is today’s culture of fast fashion. Everything wears out eventually, but we can make better choices. We have easy access via thrift shops and discount stores to a vast array of clothing choices. Take time to make sensible investments.
If you have followed me for very long, you know that I have purposed to wear natural, non-toxic clothing. Fabrics like cotton and linen are often an investment, but they do wear better and benefit your body. So many of the cheap, fast fashion choices are polyester, spandex and rayon. Yes, they are often affordable but I have observed they quickly show wear and are often not as breathable.
People Over Things
Here is the plain truth. The vast majority of these things matter to us now, but upon later evaluation they were silly to keep. We cannot hold onto the past. It is important to fully embrace the seasonality of life. Time moves on whether we like it or not.
As women we mourn the stage of life that we are no longer in. Make it your goal to live in the present with eternity in view. Hold life’s trinkets loosely and embrace fully those things with eternal significance. Each member of your family will face eternity, your home and its contents will not.
Living in Reality
We have hobbies and interests. Sewing and gardening take up a lot of the available space in my home and property. Fabric, sewing machines, tools, seeds, canning supplies need space. We have been blessed with 6 children, all of whom are musicians. Let me just say pianos, cellos and harps take up space. As a scratch cook, I keep a lot of pantry staples and food creation tools. Cookers, mills, choppers, bulk grains, all need a place. We are a home educating family. Books, art, nature studies, multi-passionate children. Need I say more?
Prioritizing these daily pursuits and lifestyle choices is the key to peaceful living. Do not de-clutter items that are important to your family’s mission and values. There is a balance between usefulness and drowning in a sea of stuff. A seasonal rotation plan may help with finding this balance.
Make and keep systems that will serve you and your family well. Labels, designated drop zones, LIFO, and a nightly tidy-up routine that everyone takes part in. Choose to make your home a haven, not a battle zone. You and your family deserve to life in a chaos-free, well-organized home.
When your home is clear of clutter, you and your mind are free to live and love your family well, be more creative, and practice hospitality more often. Stop letting a cluttered house steal your joy. A peaceful haven can be had with just a few moments of consistent effort daily.
Please bless my home, Lord. Give us peace, security, and a place of refuge from the chaos of the world.
Share with our Traditional Wife/Modern Life community below your de-cluttering successes and any peaceful home tips you may want to share with others. See you soon!