Back to School with MSID
What better way to kick off the end of summer or beginning of fall, whatever way you want to look at it then with another series on the blog. This month I’m going to show you How to Love your Home in 30 days! Each week, there will be a theme that we will explore along with some practices I encourage you all to try out in your own home.
If you recall in July I got personal and wrote a three part blog series talking about how I bring calm to the chaos of family life in my own home; from tips and tricks I use to keep me sane, to routines and rituals I practice working from home to how I create a calm and cozy home for all of us to enjoy. If you missed that, you can check that out here!
So let’s get to it shall we?
This week we will talk about purging, cleaning and organizing because in order to love our home, we need to be intentional with what we allow and keep in our home.
A lot of our discontentment with our homes stems from what we are surrounded by. We should only have items in our homes that make us happy or as Marie Kondo so succinctly puts it, “sparks joy.”
I love this quote by William Morris:
We should only surround ourselves with items that are beautiful, essential, but ideally both.
Think about it? Even our daily utilitarian items such as our tea towels, pot scrubbers while essential, should be beautiful.
I want you to think of your home as a relationship. In any relationship, it’s important to let go of things that are no longer serving you and the relationship. Whether this is a brand new home or a home you’ve been in for several years, I want you to treat it like it’s your first day together. It’s time to lift the weight off all that physical baggage. Yes, I’m talking about CLUTTER! All the clutter that’s been getting in the way of enjoying your home, things that no longer work or things that you have been holding on to as place holders.
I have helped several friends over the years declutter their home. While I am in no way a professional organizer, I do have a few practices that I use in my own home that are worth sharing.
Purging
I recommend you keep the following points in mind when it comes to purging:
Keep what is beautiful to you.
Remember that William Morris quote I shared above? That’s right! Who wouldn’t want to be surrounded by only the things they love? If I’m being honest, I have been guilty of holding on to things that are just meh. Perhaps it’s a pillow, curtains or a piece of furniture. But I want you to be ruthless. If you don’t love it, I want you to purge it. Don’t worry I’ll be doing this exercise right along with you. I want you to think about not overcrowding your home with stuff. It’s ok to have an empty corner. Actually I often tell clients I am working with that not every corner needs a piece of furniture, not every wall needs something hanging on it. Our eye does need space to rest when taking in a room.
No more placeholders.
Don’t hang onto things for the sake of hanging on to them just because you don’t have anything to replace it with. Don’t hold on to an item as a substitution until you find the perfect thing whether it is a piece of art, a vase, a lamp, etc. Think of your space has valuable real estate. Do you really want to surround yourself with items that are just collecting dust and filling space?
Give yourself permission.
I heard so often when working with friends on decluttering their spaces about how much money they spent on an item and they could not possibly get rid of it. If you’re worried about being wasteful, remember, the waste was made when you bought something you didn’t love, NOT when you decided to get rid of it. Regardless, give yourself permission to pass it along. If it is a family heirloom, reach out to family first to see if anyone wants it. Just say, “ABC isn’t working in our house anymore and I am reaching out to see if anyone wants it.” If it is not adding to your life, it is time to toss, sell or donate. If you’re still not ready to part with it, perhaps a little DIY makeover on the piece could help it fit in with your style but remember it should also serve a function for you too! And if you’re going to give it a makeover, do it now! Otherwise the piece is just going to sit and well that brings us back to points 1 and 2. It’s important to be honest with yourself here.
Keeping things because you don’t want the money you spent to go to waste, shouldn’t be a reason to keep them around. Especially these days where selling things has never been easier, but for as long as we’ve been married, I’ve been selling things we no longer love, want or need to help fund our next purchase. That’s how I am able to acquire new to me pieces for our home.
Does the idea of purging and decluttering make your palms sweaty?
That’s ok. I always recommend we start off with the easy stuff.
Here’s a quick list of things you can purge right away!
Soaps, shampoos and lotions you never use.
Old makeup. For all that is holy, ditch that stuff. It’s not even sanitary to use. Yes make up has a shelf life!
Expired or unwanted food. My MIL was notorious for hanging on to old spices. She purged her kitchen to prepare for a renovation and she had spices from the 1970’s in her cupboard!
Medication, supplements. I keep a first aid kit up to date. All other stuff gets tossed. I tend to refresh these items in the fall before cold and flu season.
Nail polish. Hands up if you are holding onto dried up bottles of nail polish. If you like to do your nails then you probably like to keep up with the color trends so toss the old stuff.
Clothes you haven’t worn in 6 months (if you went a whole winter without wearing that sweater, you probably won’t wear it next winter either) Do you know the hanger trick? Turn all your hangers the same way and then when you go to place that hanger back on the rod, turn it the other way. You will know what you wear and didn’t wear for the past 6 months. Going back to #1. If you do not like how a piece of clothing makes you feel today, then it’s not going to make you feel any better 6 months from now.
Clothes that no longer fit. (If you expect to fit into them again, at least store them.)
Gift bags and wrap. I am guilty of this but after moving three times in four years, you can betcha I purged those items.
Markers, crayons, colouring pencils. Sit down with your kids and clean up/purge their craft supplies. Trust me if you do this, they will be excited to use those items again.
Food storage containers with its missing partner. I have a couple of sets of tupperware and the rest of the misfits got turfed. My cabinets are also much neater and tidier for it!
Cords you never use. We have been guilty of this too as you purchase new gadgets the old cords do not get thrown out. This is a sure fire way to tidy up the junk drawer.
Toys your kids do not play with. They know what they like. I also ran into resistance on this one from parents when helping them purge. If the toy has been sitting in a box unplayed with, you know the saying out of sight, out of mind? Your kid is not going to miss it. They have their favourites. As they outgrow toys, you do not have store them. I have kept a select few items for my kids but the rest has gone bye bye. I actually got my kids involved in the purge process quite young so for them they have always been comfortable telling me what could be donated and what they wanted to keep.
Organizing
While I love a good purge, I love what comes next just as much and that is organizing! I often get asked how do I keep our home so tidy all of the time. Well, it’s simple. Every thing has a home. A well organized home is a home that is a breeze to keep tidy and clean. I can tidy a room in 5 minutes because I know where everything goes. Junk drawers and catch-alls may seem avoidable but make a point to go through those on a regular basis. Actually, we do not have a junk drawer in our kitchen.
Another word of advice is to rethink where things go physically.
Your life and the way you live in your home is not like anyone else so organize your home based on how you live. For example, I keep my face towelettes in the drawer with my face care regimen rather than in the linen closet with the rest of the towels. It’s more convenient and I know I am more likely to keep up with the face care routine by having what I need all in one place.
The same goes for your kitchen. I have a kitchen organization formula that I use and it works in all shapes and size kitchens. It’s all about creating those zones and making sure the tools you need are stored in that zone. If you like to prep and chop at the island then it doesn’t make sense to store your knives and cutting boards in a drawer of a perimeter cabinet. The same goes for baking. Since I have organized our kitchen using this formula, everyone in our home, just not me, have been known whip up a batch of cookies whenever the craving strikes. Being organized helps you to be more efficient.
The same goes for keeping the bathrooms clean and tidy. Each bathroom has their own cleaning caddy. No more running down the stairs or down the hall to another bathroom looking for cleaning supplies. With this simple adjustment, I realized we were more than willing to spot clean the bathrooms each day.
I know what you’re thinking.
How do you get your partner and kids on board? Set some clear expectations with yourself and your family about putting things back when you’re finished with it so it doesn’t become clutter. I started my kids early on this but that’s ok if you didn’t. Our philosophy has always been; we all live in our home and we all need to help take care of it. I never have to pick up after my husband and he never has to pick up after me. We both take pride in our home and our spaces and everyone wins when we all chip in.
Cleaning
Cleaning is not everybody’s favourite but it’s essential to building a connection with your home. There are two types of cleaners- the surface cleaners and the deep cleaners. I am more of a surface cleaner and I will do a deep clean when I am feeling stressed (nothing keeps my mind occupied like giving our home a deep clean). I say it is cheaper than therapy. Perhaps you opt to hire out the deep clean, that’s ok. We also get the kids to help and my husband and I have always been good at dividing up who does what.
Once you remove the clutter and have a home for everything, cleaning becomes easier when you do a little bit every day and have rules and systems around it–dishes need to be washed and loaded every night before you enjoy a show and a snack, or bathroom sink gets wiped down every night after you brush your teeth. These things take very little time to do.
Make it fun.
Turn on some music, light a candle, diffuse some oils and get to it.
Honestly, you might not ever enjoy cleaning, but maybe you might try to shift your perspective a bit. Your home deserves some TLC, so grab a toilet scrubber and show some appreciation to your home for all its’ hard work.
