Break The Cycle

Homemaking does not have to be boring, mundane or torturous!

Homemaking can actually be quite fun! This is coming from someone who absolutely could not stand cleaning. My home would often look like a tornado hit it, so it would often be a super mess. Not to mention the mess would cause me to feel overwhelmed, freeze up and not be able to clean up. Creating an endless cycle of mess and chaos. I was too embarrassed to have anyone over. And too overwhelmed to actually clean up. I was doomed to live in the mess forever, or so i thought.

So, how does one help their home to go from chaos to clean? Especially when we cannot even get ourselves to begin, It’s too overwhelming remember? Well, first of all decide. it’s all about mindset. Let’s decide we are done living like this. And why? Why do we want a new way of life to begin with? Having a strong why is crucial especially if we want to push through the overwhelm. What is this way of living costing us? Our space? Our peace? Our sanity? Let’s think of this and get angry, a righteous anger, one that will cause us to take action. Is there not more to life than this? Than tripping over trash or clutter? Than living in chaos?

OK, supposed we did begin where do we even start? If, your home is anything like mine was. There was places that I could not even get to it was so full. Which also begs the question, why do I need so many things if I can’t even get to it ? Answer: I don’t! So, I started by the door. and I decided to work clock wise. That way, there’d be no excuse, no confusion. I continued this way day in and day out. For about an hour or so every day after work, working 15 minutes and breaking for 5. Methodically, consistently.

I was seeing results, but I was beat. Somehow, looking for better ways to clean I found the fly lady system, ( I think I might have searched 15 minute cleaning or something like that), and the rest is history. One day I will tell you all about that system and how life-changing it is. Or feel free to check out She Builds Her Home YouTube channel for more information on it now. You can find some videos about it here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwENkYZh1Mo1lmfdRpC5ObJ2lHhmKM9jm

But essentially, the best place to start is, some place you can keep track of (like a door, a bed, a desk, etc. ) and work clockwise from there. That way we don’t risk skipping anything o forgetting where we were up to.

If we don’t quit, eventually we will reach our goals. If we want something different we got to do a different thing! We must break the cycle. Let’s think of our why. Let’s think of how things will be when we declutter and clean our homes. The gift we will be helping to provide to ourselves and our families, and even our guest. Things will be much more calm and at peace. Mess, clutter and chaos take up much more than physical space, they also take up unwelcomed space in our minds and stress us out. And we definitely do not want that. So, we can’t give up! Let’s keep our goals in mind and work at it every single day until we get there. Once we are maintaining it is super satisfying. Be sure to take a before and after photo, so that our hard work never gets destroyed again.

A note on clutter

If things are not being used what do we need it for? If we can’t get to it we also do not need it. I used to think it was a waste of money getting rid of things after purchasing it. But leaving it there to collect dust, debris and eventually decay will not bring the money back either. Better to donate it and have someone who will actually use it find it. Think of it as gifting it to someone else. Like a secret santa if you will. They will get your anonymous gift, and you will get(several) gifts too. The gift to you will be, peace of mind, less things to manage, helping bless someone else will the things you were not using, etc.

The more stuff we have to manage the less time we have for family. The more overwhelming our homes will feel when it is stuffed to the brims with stuff. And that’s just it, it is just stuff. What do we need it for? We can’t take it with us. Let’s enjoy life with our loved ones, instead of taking that time and managing so much inventory. Instead of thinking if you need it, think about can you live without it? That will help us get rid of clutter instantly and get us some free time instead.

Finally, whether we are decluttering, cleaning or reorganizing; Let’s not forget to make it fun! Making things fun by playing music, a fun podcast, She Builds Her Home YouTube video 😊 etc. It will cause things to go so much faster and we won’t even realize how much we have been working because time will be flying and we will be enjoying our work. Remember if it’s fun it will absolutely get done! 💛