Simplify -- A Journey's Start

Simplify!

This is the cry of my new year (even though it wasn't 2015 yet...).  I feel the urging of the Holy Spirit to simplify life for our household, and thought I'd blog my adventure for you.  I'll be posting many of my adventures--for adventures they'll surely be--throughout the new year as I seek to create beauty in our home, through simplicity and contentment.

Welcome to my home.

So, to start off, a little background...

In November, as we ended a one-year mortgage modification because of Fernando's unemployment, self-employment, and much lower income throughout 2014, we faced a mortgage company (we'll call them WF, which you can probably figure out) unwilling to work with us to pay off the back payments we owed and were happy to pay back in a way that we could afford.  Due to snags, miscommunications, unreturned messages and overlooked documentation, our home seemed to be hanging in the balance, and we faced the real possibility of losing it.  Which meant:  we faced the possibility of moving.

We have lived here for over 16 years, and have accumulated stuff to fill the spaces that were oh so empty upon our move-in.  Having just recently had the experience of my parents moving after 35+ years in their home, with all the accumulation that that time frame afforded, I knew without a doubt that I didn't want to have to move that much stuff into a new home.  Oh, and that new home would most definitely be smaller than our 1700-square-foot home!  I shifted into declutter mode, and our family made three or four trips to Goodwill with various piles of boxes of stuff.

My kitchen, ready for canning summer tomatoes from my garden.

Now, I'm not a hoarder, and other than snowflake ornaments for our Christmas tree, I don't own any collections of stuff.  However, I have managed to accumulate stuff that I no longer use, that just sits around, that I have to manage, or dust, or tend to in some way.  With a potential move on the horizon, I had the perfect impetus to start decluttering!

My silverware drawer, nice and tidy with my DIY organizer.

I'm a natural throw-er-away-er (new word!), so decluttering doesn't come hard to me.  However, I live with five men of varying degrees of messiness, so I have to maintain balance and be careful with their stuff.

I started with a goal.  Because without one, the journey bogs down and I forget about why I'm doing what I'm doing.  This goal will extend not only to my home, but to my life in general--because, who wants a crazy-busy life with no room to breathe?  Well, not me!  And I don't want my home to look that way, either.  Here is my goal, which I'm sure will be refined every now and again:

A simple and beautiful house

that the Lord can use as a peaceful haven

for my family and others.

Friends drop by?  Come on in, there's couch space for sitting.
At mealtime?  Sit with us and share our meal.
Crazy day for the family?  We'll be able to relax at home.
Your furnace went out? We have room for you to spend the night here.
Troubling day?  I have a peaceful place to lay my head at night.
And so the list goes.

Unrealistic?  I don't think so.  Do-able?  Absolutely.  I've listed a what, a why, and a who.  And I think it reflects the heart I have for my home.

So, time to get started.


Back to life,
Christine

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