5 Strengths, 1 Weakness as a Homemaker

There are affiliate links in this post. That means that if you click through and make a purchase, I receive a commission at no extra charge to you. You can read my full disclosure policy here. Thanks for your support of The Purposeful Wife! 

While there are varying skill levels, from messies to cleanies, there is no such thing as a perfect homemaker or the perfect home. We all have room for some improvements!

Last week I enjoyed the many sessions available through the online Homemaking Ministries Conference {I'm still catch-up watching this week and probably will be for awhile! So many good sessions!}. If you missed the live launching of the conference, you can still purchase a "ticket" at any time and enjoy lifetime access to each video session and the conference notebook.

Watching the sessions and thinking through the topics, I've had a chance to reflect on my own home. I'm also in high nesting gear {due date is Friday!}, so naturally I'm organizing all of the closets and reflecting on my home in general.

There are a few areas I am very thankful to feel like I've finally figured out in our current season {which I'm sure are bound to be wildly disrupted with the coming of a newborn! Ha!}.

Laundry. One load each morning Monday-Saturday, started before breakfast, switched while kids play, folded and put away while I work with my six year old on her homeschool. This happens most days, so if I miss a day or two, we still have clean underwear and socks.

I don't like mixing my loads up too much, so I have a laundry sorter {similar} in my closet to divide loads. Whichever bag is the fullest is the load that gets washed that day. Sometimes I'll combine light colors with whites, or vivid colors with darks, but I'm able to keep things generally separate.

Getting dinner on the table. After naps and reading a few books together, the kids go outside and I make dinner. I've even been cooking double to fill our freezer for postpartum days, so I feel very accomplished right now! Cooking isn't my favorite thing, but its a lot easier without kiddos underfoot 😉. I always have to give myself a pep talk to get started, but once I'm in the swing of it, its not so bad.

Weekly meal planning the day before I grocery shop is the key to making this happen.

Homeschool. Not necessarily a homemaking task, but a regular part of life in our home. I've grown a lot in consistency over the last few months, my daughter expects to have to do her school work each week morning, and I'm finally in a good groove of making sure what needs to happen is happening.

Kid's morning chores. Making beds and unloading the dishwasher happens every weekday morning, and it contributes greatly to the general orderliness of our home!

I've been realizing lately that my kids are probably capable of quite a bit more than what I'm asking of them, so now that these chores are down, I'd like to start slowly training them in a few other areas over the course of the next few months.

Mother of 7 Amy Roberts from Raising Arrows has a great session for the Homemaking Conference all about training children to help around the home, and I can't wait to implement her suggestions and printables!

Daily pick ups. We pick up toys, shelve books, and clear clutter off tables 2 or 3 times each day. My house may not be in perfect shape, but it is much more pleasant and tidy this way! The more I ask my kids to do these things, the better they get at it. So we are just practicing a lot 😉.

There is, however, one area that I find myself falling desperately short in, week after week.

Cleaning. Between the school work and the dishes, laundry and meal prep, homeschool and general tidying.... our house runs smoothly, but I struggle to find/make time for scrubbing the bathrooms, vacuuming, dusting, and mopping each week.

My home is picked up. But it's also kind of filthy.

A friend recently recommended Dana White's book, How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind. It was a quick and fun read, with plenty of good advice and generous doses of humor.

In the book Dana talks a lot about pre-made decisions- determining ahead of time that doing the dishes every day, for example, is a non-negotiable. Most of us are great about rationalizing our way out of things we don't want to do {especially cleaning!}. A pre-made decision is supposed to guard against this human tendency.

I think this helped me to identify my main struggle with weekly cleaning. I've set a time for cleaning each day {in the morning, right before school}. But I pull from a list of cleaning tasks, trying to decide in the moment WHAT I will clean on a particular day.

If we are running behind, or kids are more underfoot than usual because the weather has cooped them up indoors... it can be difficult to pick a task that fits my constraints. This makes it easy to waste my time rationalizing away what needs to be done.

Sticking with my predetermined time slot, I'm going to try assigning each particular job to a particular day. I'm hoping this will eliminate my decision fatigue and just help me to get it done! Not perfectly, but anything would be better than the sporadic cleaning I've been guilty of in recent months.

What areas do you dominate as a homemaker? And where could you use improvement? I love reflecting on and trouble shooting these sorts of topics 😊.

What's For Dinner?

I don't know what it is, but for some reason every. single. night. around 5:00 the people in my house get hungry and start asking for food.

Of course my kids aren't too choosy, and they'd be thrilled if I just threw a few cookies at them. While I won't say that never happens around here {spirit of full disclosure and all}, I generally speaking try to fill their bellies with a little more substance.

Which means my response is, "Good news! It's almost dinner time, so you can eat then."

The Routines that are Saving My Life

A few months ago I posted the daily schedule that seemed to be working SO WELL for our family at the moment. I just reread it and had a little chuckle because, predictably, quite a bit of it has changed already.

Life with little people, I'm telling you...

Quick Homemaking Habits that Pack a Powerful Punch

With all of the potential for discouragement as a homemaker... clutter. never-endingness of laundry. all the people need to eat three meals every single day. the work you do is seemingly taken for granted and under-appreciated....

Sometimes you need a quick win.

Am I right?

A Giveaway {and Conference!} to Encourage You in Your Homemaking

Homemaking is pretty much my favorite job ever.

I love being a stay-at-home mom. I love devoting my days to creating and maintaining a welcoming, comfortable atmosphere to nurture my family and whomever the Lord brings into our home.

But I also get tired. The dishes, laundry, and cleaning are undying cycles that conspire to wear me down. A house full of littles means that my day never quite goes the way I plan or structure it. I struggle with using my time well, staying on top of things, and remembering the greater, eternal purposes behind the mundane jobs that I do.

That's why I'm so excited about this year's Homemaking Ministries Online Conference. Going live the last week of September, over 23 speakers will be sharing inspiration and helpful insight on a broad range of topics that apply specifically to homemakers.

Throw in an active Facebook group of all the attendees, plenty of interaction with other homemakers like me, and a pretty printable notebook for recording insights gleaned- it's going to be a wonderful time of refreshment for women who are passionate about homemaking but could use a little pick-me-up.

I'm also really excited to share with you that I will be speaking this year! It's the first opportunity I've had to participate in something like this, so I'm studying up and praying for wisdom and good words to share. I'd love to "see" you there!

I can't spill any more beans yet, but I've seen the speaker line up.... and it is going to be good. Definitely had a few fan girl moments!

Ticket sales begin Monday, and to kick things off, the Homemaking Ministries Team has put together a lovely giveaway to inspire your homemaking. There are nearly $1,000 in goodies and three big prize winners, plus a $5 off coupon to the conference for every one who enters- so you will definitely want to head on over here and check it out!

What's the one area you need the most encouragement in as a homemaker?

Anchoring Kid's Chores Into Your Day

There are affiliate links in this post. That means that if you click through and make a purchase, I receive a commission at no extra charge to you. You can read my full disclosure policy here. Thanks for your support of The Purposeful Wife! 

Maybe this will sound familiar to you fellow mamas?

You want work to be a daily part of your young children's lives- to teach them a good work ethic, self-discipline, and to help contribute to the family.

So you find an adorable printable chore chart on Pinterest, or buy that sweet Melissa and Doug magnetic one on Amazon. You fill it out and hang it up on the wall. You explain it to the little people.

Only Touch it Once

Piles of clutter are pretty much the most draining stressor known to woman. Nothing kills your joy at home quite like looking from one mess to another- piles on the desk, piles of laundry on the floor, piles of toys strewn through the hall.

I try to stay on top of my personal piles, organizing and tidying regularly... but they still build up. I know that in part its having so many small children {I get interrupted mid-task often. They tend to collect things everywhere we go. Life is busy and exhausting.}... but a big part of it is also my bad habits.

4 Habits for a Relatively Tidy Home

There are affiliate links in this post. That means that if you click through and make a purchase, I receive a commission at no extra charge to you. You can read my full disclosure policy here. Thanks for your support of The Purposeful Wife! 

I'm not the cleanest or tidiest of housekeepers, by any means. Regularly you can drop unannounced into my home {please don't! haha} and find piles like this:

Want to join me in a decluttering group?

There are affiliate links in this post. That means that if you click through and make a purchase, I receive a commission at no extra charge to you. You can read my full disclosure policy here. Thanks for your support of The Purposeful Wife! 

Ok guys, there are only two days left before the Conquer Your Clutter Bundle disappears for good. I purchased mine two days ago, and I've been looking over the individual resources. There is so much quality stuff!

One of the biggest problems I've had with past bundles is my tendency to get excited at first, read a few ebooks, and then forget about the rest and let them collect dust in my hard drive. I think this is probably the number one deterrent for people who want to buy the bundle, but decide not to in the end.

When I'm left to myself, I may or may not follow through on decluttering, or reading through an ebook bundle, or exercising regularly (among other things!). Some of my best past successes have been the result of accountability. Completing a project with a few trusted pals is also way more fun!

That's gotten me thinking- what if I started a private Facebook group for those of us who purchase the bundle? We could pick one resource at a time, and work our way through the entire bundle (or at least the resources that most interest us!), taking weekends off, but tackling one challenge each week day.

Conquering My Clutter after our Big Move

The links below are affiliate links. That means that if you click through them and make a purchase, I receive a commission at no extra charge to you. The commissions I make help me to justify time spent on this blogging hobby, and I'm careful to only promote products I can personally vouch for. Thank you for your support!

Six months ago, my family moved cross-country from the northeastern corner of Pennsylvania to Kansas City, Kansas. It's been a huge adjustment- from making new friends, to getting to know a new church, and starting homeschool with our oldest. Good stuff, but overwhelming at times!

One of the areas in our life that doesn't feel settled yet is our home. We chose a rental as a temporary solution because we're unfamiliar with the area. We weren't sure at first where we'd want to settle long term. This home has worked for us, but there are a few tensions with it that help us look forward to buying our own home.

2 Strategies to Improve My Homemaking Game

Keeping a neat and tidy home is not my forte. I'm not the messiest person on earth, but I'm a far cry from the cleanest. I aspire to greater order and cleanliness {especially when I spend time on lovely websites like Clean Mama and Just a Girl and Her Blog, for example}. There have definitely been improvements in my housekeeping abilities since getting married and inhabiting my first apartment 8 and a half years ago, but I still fluctuate in consistency, and there is marked room for improvement.

This New Year I'm trying to adopt two major habits to conquer the beast that is housework.

50 Fantastic Resources for a Successful New Year!

I don't know about you, but I love planning for the New Year :). I'm a big fan of free printables, planners, and goal setting. As a bookish person, I have an affinity for fresh, clean sheets of paper. If you spend much time around here I'm guessing that might be true of you too!

Today over at My Joy Filled Life I'm sharing a post that I am SO excited about. Basically I spent hours on Pinterest and the Interwebs tracking down all of the best resources to help you plan, get organized, set goals and make changes in the New Year. This post is going to be a resource I keep referring back to again and again, as it has links to some of my all time favorite printables.

Hope it is a help to you as you voyage out into another year! You can read 50 Resources for a Successful New Year right here.

A New Laundry System for Us

The links below are affiliate links- which means that if you make a purchase through them, I receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. Thanks for supporting The Purposeful Wife!

For my entire married life, I've had a laundry day. One day each week in which I did it all. Of course when my first daughter came along she had this little projectile vomiting habit that meant I did random loads of laundry as necessity demanded... but still, the bulk happened all in one day. We added our son two years later, and still laundry day held fast.

This worked swimmingly until baby number three cane along. For some unknown reason my nice tidy laundry day became unmanageable. I had endless overflowing baskets of clean laundry sitting wrinkled around the house. We would fish for sundry clothing items as we needed them, strewing piles of once clean laundry across the floor.

Next week's laundry day would come all too quick and I'd still have a pile of wrinkly unfolded clean clothes from last week.

I don't know what it was about that third baby, but it was the straw that broke this laundry woman's back.

My old stand by system just wasn't working for me, and I needed something that did work. Because drowning in piles of clean wrinkly laundry isn't the way I want to go.

I remember Fly Lady saying "a load a day keeps Mt. Washmore at bay," and so I decided to give it a try. Praise the Lord, it works marvelously for me!

I bought a laundry sorter that holds four loads- one for whites, one for lights, one for colors, one for darks, and I use our old hamper for towels and jeans. As dirty clothes are shed, I sort them accordingly.

Now each morning, usually as close to first thing as possible, I pick whichever bag is the fullest and throw it in the wash. Ideally I have the load washed, dried, folded and put away by lunch time... but sometimes I only get to folding and putting away after the kids are in bed for the night.

It's a beautiful thing.

I don't know how long it will work for me. But I'm no longer drowning in piles. We have clean laundry exactly where it should be when we need it {usually...}. And it requires very little thought or effort on my part.

What works for you when it comes to laundry? Has your system changed over the seasons of life?

Homemaking: the Job for which All Others Exist

"Homemaking is surely in reality the most important work in the world. What do ships, railways, mines, cars, government, etc. exist for except that people may be fed, warmed, and safe in their own homes? ...the homemaker's job is one for which all others exist." C.S. Lewis

When you think of your work as a homemaker, do you envision it as the noble and lofty calling that it is?

I don't care whether you are at home full time, or working outside the home and doing your best to establish a safe and welcoming place for loved ones on nights and weekends- all the home doings- the laundry, the dishes, the scrubbing, the tidying- it's all noble, God-glorifying work.

Image Bearers, Bringing Order

I love cleaning.

Shocked? I know, and I understand. Bear with me!

Sometimes housework can become such drudgery. There is stress and pressure from the overwhelming feeling of having too much to do, too many demands on your attention and time.

But doesn't it feel so good to transform chaos into clarity? To put away the clutter, wipe away the crumbs, bring fresh air and scent and light to the dark and dingy?

I earnestly believe this is part of what being made in the image of God looks like.

"And God created man in His own image. In the image of God He created him, male and female He created them." Genesis 1:27

"And God blessed them. And God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over... every living thing that moves on earth." Genesis 1:28

"But all things should be done decently and in order." 1 Corinthians 14:40

God is a god of order. He's commanded us to have dominion over our areas of influence, to rule and subdue them. When we rule and subdue our homes, bringing order to the chaos, cleaning up the messes and putting things to right... in a small way, we are mirroring the Lord and obeying that command.

I don't always love cleaning, and this is the only aspect of cleaning that I do love: the order that comes as a result. The feeling of goodness and rightness in my surrounding environment.

In reality the work is never ending and can often feel mundane. It can be thankless. It can be a mess ten seconds after finishing a job- especially with little ones in the house.

But it is good work that is worth persevering in. When I remember that order is good because God is ordered, and that ordering my dominion is filling His command and one small way in which I bear His image; it gives me a renewed sense of hope and purpose.

Let's commit to fighting against the chaos, however imperfectly our efforts may be. Let's find joy in mirroring His image and in ordering our worlds to the best of our ability. This isn't a call to spotless perfection, but rather to joyful endeavoring as we care for the homes {and people!} that God has graciously given to us.

How do you motivate yourself to just keep cleaning?

Why February is the Best Month to Clean Your House

There are affiliate links in this post- that means if you click on a link and make a purchase, I receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. I only recommend books and products that I can personally vouch for, and I take your trust seriously. Thanks for your support of The Purposeful Wife! 

If you could use a little housekeeping motivation {couldn't we all?}, here's why I think February is the best month to get your home in order.

1. The New Year high is still in gear. Or maybe slowly losing traction... but if you have any motivation left to make big changes around your house, this year is still fresh and new without many mistakes. Now is the time to capitalize on it, before you completely lose that boost in the next month or two.

2. Winter is for indoor work. I don't know about you, but come April when the sun is shining and temps are getting higher, the last thing you can convince me to do is stay inside and clean. I'll be taking my kids to the park, going for long walks, and doing as much of our reading as possible out of doors. And I'll be able to enjoy it all the more if I finished a serious deep clean and reorganization just two months before!

3. The winter blues aren't going to beat themselves. Nothing says "spring is coming!" like spring cleaning, even if it isn't technically springtime. If you're feeling depressed about the blah weather, and too cooped up indoors, blast some lively music, get a nice smelling all-purpose cleaner {I like this one}, and get your bottom in gear. As Gretchen Rubin says- "act the way you want to feel." It can be a surprisingly effective strategy.

If you're looking for more cleaning help and motivation, here are a few excellent resources:

Sarah Mae's new book, Having a Martha Home the Mary Way, due for release March 15th!

Reading on Fly Lady's site always gives me a good kick in the pants.

Marie Kondo's The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up is a bit odd {as previously discussed here}, but contains many gems. I'm still planning to implement a Kondo-style tidying around my house soon!

3 motivators to clean when you just don't have it in you. 

Money Saving Mom's 2 Hours to a Clean House {free printable checklist!}.

DIY Spice Rack Makeover

One of my all-time favorite wedding gifts was our spice rack. Since it was the first either of us had lived on our own {except for the few months before our wedding that Niall spent settling into the apartment}, I was going to have to start from scratch in building a collection. Generally speaking, spices aren't cheap -thank the Lord for discount groceries and bulk shops!

About a year into marriage I set up a system of cutely labeled baby food jars with painted lids to house the spices not contained on the rack. Essentially I had the equivalent of two spice racks/systems. That's a bit much for this wannabe minimalist.

Add to the fact that over 7 years later, all of the containers had gotten kind of grimy and nasty- a combination of cooking splashes and dust creating a sticky layer over them. I shudder just typing about it. Shame on this not-so-fabulous housekeeper.

At the beginning of this year I was decluttering in my kitchen and decided that enough was enough. I tossed all of the spices I never use- which was half of them. Then I washed all of the containers thoroughly, repainted the tops, and labeled them with a paint pen.

Because I am super on top of things- ha- I dabbled off and on in this project for about two weeks. Now that it's complete, I feel very accomplished and love the look of it!

If your spice rack could use a revamp and face lift, here's what I did:

1. Remove labels. I bought paints for this project before carefully thinking it through- oops. I thought the labels were stamped on, requiring a paint over. Turns out they were just stickers! I could have just taken off the labels, cleaned them, and written a new label. But I had already purchased paint and had my heart set on black lids by this point.

2. Wash the containers. I went the lazy route here. If I was emptying the jar entirely to make room for a more used spice, I washed the whole jar inside and out with hot soapy water. If the contents were going to stay the same, I simply screwed the lid on extra tight and scrubbed the outside carefully, quickly hand drying it. Before taking the labels off for the wash, I wrote the spice name on the bottom in permanent marker. This worked like a charm!

3. Paint the lids. I used an acrylic paint- bad idea, because it can easily wash or chip off. If I could do it all over, I'd just spray paint them.

4. Write a new label. I bought a paint pen for just a few bucks at Wal-Mart, and for the most part loved how it worked. They have oodles of colors if you want to go fancier than I did. I did run into a bit of trouble on several of the labels when it dumped a profuse amount of paint out, but I did my best to work with it and in the end was satisfied as a whole. Alternately, you could just print labels on a label maker or your printer.

Paint pen leaks- oops.

I'm not the craftiest of crafters, and my execution wasn't great. But I love that a) all of my spices are in one handy location, b) my spice rack is super clean now, and c) a little piece of my kitchen got a makeover. I've been enjoying looking at it and using it every day.

Points to Consider When Natural Living is Stressing You Out

There are affiliate links in this post- that means if you click on a link and make a purchase, I receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. I only recommend books and products that I can personally vouch for, and I take your trust seriously. Thanks for your support of The Purposeful Wife! 

Heaven knows I'm not the most natural person out there. My in-laws are some of the healthiest and crunchiest people I know. While they've rubbed off on me significantly, I still have a long way to go! I'll never do cloth diapers, we still occasionally eat processed foods, and I think that after two all natural births I've finally come to the conclusion that I would rather give birth with drugs.

Sure,  we juice fresh fruits and veggies several times a week in our crazy serious juicer. I make plenty of our food from scratch, stick with more natural homemade cleaners, and avoid medication unless absolutely necessary. I want my kids to be as healthy as possible, and I'm always trying to move our family in a more natural direction.

With that information, feel free to accept or reject what I'm about to say next. I'm not natural enough for some of you, no doubt.

I can't help but notice all of this angst- articles posted and shared all over the internet using emotionally manipulative scare tactics to freak moms out about the snack food they let their children consume, or the products they use in their homes, or certain mainstream healthcare treatments. I'm sure you've seen them too. Maybe you've let them stress you out. I know I have at times.

I get that there are definite issues with the American food, drugs, and housecleaning industries {probably the understatement of the year}. I really do. We should try to be good stewards of our bodies, and do the best that we can with the resources and information we have. For sure!

But.

Don't let your level of natural or unnatural living stress you out.

Sin has messed everything up. Before there were pesticides and nasty man-made chemicals and genetically modified vegetables and fruits, people had problems with bugs and blight and floods and famine. It makes perfect sense that man's solutions to these problems {all results of the curse subsequent to man's fall into sin in the Garden} have been found to have problems of their own- cancer, poison, etc.

Either way, you can't win. Organic farmers are going to have the same "natural" struggles that farmers experienced before newer food technology, and the new food technology is going to have consequences. Scripture tells us that all of Creation is groaning under the curse and fall {Romans 8:22}, and this is a part of that.

We are all going to die. This too is a part of the fall. I do not advocate crazy abuse or recklessness when it comes to taking care of the one body God gave you to be used for His glory- it would be foolish at best to smoke a pack a day, subsist on McDonalds and ice cream, and never exercise.

The Bible says that whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, we ought to do it for the glory of God. This requires our thoughtfulness and responsibility. It also rules out stressing over natural living as a God-honoring option- Christians are to "be anxious for nothing."

If you've placed your faith in the hands of a good and sovereign God, you've got to believe that He has ordained the date and cause of your death, and he is orchestrating even that for His glory and the good of His people. We seek to be faithful and do the best that we can with what we have, but ultimately we are resting in His perfect providence. Resting, not stressing.

I really do get that you are trying to glorify God and be a good steward by being as healthy as you can be. I applaud you. But let's not be too hasty- maybe God hasn't called your Christian sister next door or in the Church nursery to the same level of vigilance.

Maybe using threatening or terrifying language to describe a food concern is more harmful then helpful.

Maybe when we see articles that give us momentary panic attacks, we should take a deep breath, pray about it, and evaluate the information and what we are going to do about it with a calm and quiet spirit. Trusting that this isn't a news flash to the Lord, that He is already taking care of us, and that all of these efforts to be healthier are part of a process. A good process, but one that takes time and is different for everyone.

Maybe we can relax, bask in grace, and extend that same grace to others.

Love Waiting

"Love keeps the door open, the light waiting, and dinner in the oven for years." 
Edith Schaeffer 

This job we call homemaking; the raising of children, the cooking of meals, the supporting of husbands, folding of laundry, doing of dishes, mopping, scrubbing, tidying... it can be a tough job. The days are long, we're on call 24:7, the messes keep being made and we find ourselves doing the same things over and over and over again. 

Lately I've found the redundancy, my inability to keep up, and the constancy to be a tad discouraging. Inspired by this quote from the late and lovely Edith Schaeffer, I'm trying to remember a few things. Maybe you need to remember them too?

Remember today that your work isn't a sprint. We are called to be faithful in the position the Lord has given to us until He returns or calls us home. It's a long race, but we can be encouraged that "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion" {Philippians 1:6} and we can be "looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of God" {Hebrews 12:2}. Hang in there. 

Remember today that your work is significant. Building a loving and secure safe haven for your people is no small accomplishment. You are raising little souls that matter in the scope of eternity. You are pouring into a marriage that reflects the love of Christ and His Church to a watching, needy world. These things matter. Greatly. 

Remember today who your work is for. "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men. Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ" {Colossians 3:23-24}. 

Remember today that your work is moving towards a far greater weight of glory. "For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison" {2 Corinthians 4:17}. 

"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up" {Galatians 6:9}.  

Keep on loving. Keep that light on, waiting. And keep putting that dinner in the oven, day after day, week after week, year after year... even when it goes unnoticed and unappreciated. Your Father in Heaven sees, calls you blessed, and will reward you. 

Project: Clear Surfaces

Let's take a moment and consider the state of the surfaces in our homes. If counters and tables and nightstands are drowning under piles of stuff, home probably isn't feeling too relaxing right now.

Clutter-free surfaces are visual white spaces in your home. If the counters are cleared and clean, your eyes will have a tidy place to rest, causing you to feel relaxed. They are also big productivity boosters- it's much easier to do homework on a neat table, and to make dinner on an empty {or almost empty} island, than cluttered ones.

When preparing to tidy up surfaces, consider this: the surfaces in our homes tell stories. If we can hone in and listen to the story a particular surface is telling us, our clutter solutions can be solved with a lot less fuss.

For example, one of the issues with my desk is that the mini photo books I receive each month have outgrown their space. Once it worked perfectly- now they just tumble over and get knocked about. If I move them to a more accommodating space, the area will be a lot more presentable and user-friendly.

The trouble on top of my drier is rooted in the disorganized and overflowing craft collection on the shelf above. If I can streamline our art supplies and find a way to put them away neatly, while also being easily accessible, the issue will be resolved.

The other issue with that space is that I don't have a set location for borrowed goods that need to be returned. My friend's cake platter and travel cup are washed and waiting to go back to her, so I stick them on the drier. I keep forgetting to return items to people, and the pile grows. Designating a neat box of items to return by my door or in my car would be a better option.

What are your spaces telling you? The solutions you need could be right under your nose, if only you take time to pay attention and think it through.

The New Year is the perfect time to attack the surfaces in your home and wipe the slate clean. This week and next I will be going over my surfaces, discarding superfluous items, and creating more visual white space in my home.

It's a comforting ritual to ring in the New Year. Here's to lots of wide open spaces in 2016.

What stories are your surfaces telling you?