HOME: Week 1

This year I chose the word “HOME” to be my word for the year. I mean, if 2020 taught us anything at all it was that we need to take the time to embrace our homes. People all across the globe have spent more time in their own homes in the last 10-12 months than the have in YEARS. We here at Marshall Manor are no different.

When we moved back to Alamogordo the plan was always for us to move in to the second house my parents had with the goal of doing some much needed renovations as we lived in it. And at first we were well on our way to beginning some of those projects. Then life happened and things slowed down. Then Covid happened and things pretty much just stopped altogether. Don’t get me wrong, there are some things that got done, things like some major purging and decluttering but for the most part we just haven’t been able to get to some of the larger projects.

This year I want to really be intentional in how I run, manage, and live in the home that we have been provided. One of the big issues is that we just have TOO MUCH STUFF. I mean its just beyond hard to manage. Luckily I was able to come across a website that offers small daily and weekly challenges designed to help you declutter and organize your home in bite size pieces. Home-storage-solutions-101.com is a great website that breaks it all down for you.

Week 1 Challenges:

This week we are starting in the kitchen. She makes the point that she begins in the kitchen because that tends to be the central hub in most homes. I will be honest when I say that if my kitchen is clean and organized I just feel like I can function so much better. Below is this weeks list of challenges. This is the only week I will be sharing the list with the links attached just so you can get an idea of the things she offers. If you would like to get in on this deal all you have to do is subscribe to the email list. She will send you a daily email with the challenge for the day as well as give you access to the full 12 month, 52 week calendar with all the challenges laid out.

• Monday – Read Organized Home Challenge #1: Kitchen Organization, and declutter and organize your kitchen sink area
• Tuesday – Adopt a daily kitchen cleaning routine
• Wednesday – Clear off your kitchen counters and islands
• Thursday – Declutter small kitchen appliances
• Friday – Clear off kitchen table
• Saturday – Declutter potholders and kitchen towels, and then organize the rest, plus bonus mission to create a tax organizer for your current tax information
• Sunday – Declutter broken objects

Kids and Chores

Along with this plan of decluttering I am also doing more to get the kids involved in the chore process. The kids are 10, 8, and 3 which means they are all perfectly capable of being helpful when it comes to keeping the house clean and put together. Each of the kids has an assigned laundry day. They are learning how to get their laundry started, transitioned to the dryer, folded and put away on their own. Of course the 3 year old gets a bit of help from either myself or her big sister but she still does her part.

Along with the laundry they have the responsibility of cleaning their own bedrooms. Outside of that, over the course of the last few weeks I have been giving them more responsibility with keeping some of the other areas of the house clean. Since I have begun my decluttering/organizing process in the kitchen so have they. They have been tasked with washing the dishes from dinner and completing a daily cleaning checklist before they begin to get ready for bed. I am LOVING this. Each night I am going to bed with a clean kitchen and they are learning and growing.

Home projects this week

This week we haven’t really been able to work on any major projects. I have created a goal board based off of an idea my sister showed me and I am going to slow work toward incorporating that process. Little by little we are moving along.

Wrap Up

Home is a place I want to want to be at. I find that the less organized my home is the less organized I feel my mind is. I have been truly working toward decluttering the physical space so I can function in my mental space. I LOVE big open spaces where we can move and breathe and just be. I think this allows me to feel like I have space in my mind to think. I’m not entirely into the whole “minimalism” movement but I do think there is a time and a place for certain things and some things are just extra and not necessary.

There are 2 books out right now that I am really looking at getting my hands on to help me with this process. One is by the ladies at “The Home Edit” called “The Home Edit: A Guide to Organizing I discovered these ladies on their show on Netflix and I fell IN LOVE. I thing if I could be able to get things organized and contained the way they encourage it be done things would be a lot easier. The second one by Myquillyn Smith called “Welcome Home: The Cozy Minimalist Guide to Decorating and Hosting All Year Long” I discovered this wonderful resource when I was listening through a podcast and I have been dying to get my hands on it ever since. I love the idea that you can be a minimalist but if you love the cozy aspects of seasonal decor, cute throw pillows, and fluffy blankets you can have them. She talks about how to decorate your house for the season rather than the holiday and how to make it all flow together relatively seamlessly. I am hoping I can get these books both purchased in the very near future!

So there it is. The first week of living through my word of the year. It has been a rollercoaster of a week but I’m pleased with the progress that has been made thus far. Check back next week to how week 2 goes!