Third Thursday~ I'm cleaning house!

Happy Third Thursday, lovelies! This month we're talking about running our home- tips and tricks that make life easier and also areas that perhaps we struggle with maintaining. With the new year already moving along, I have been trying to get this crazy place a bit more organized. I used to be so methodical and organized, but that was B.C. (Before Children)... it's easy to keep a perfect home when there aren't other people factored in, right?!

I think the number one thing that helps me maintain some sort of order is that I do something every day. In the days when I worked outside our home, I liked having one designated cleaning day, but I've found that this just doesn't work well for the phase I'm in. So what I do now is keep everything in my planner, and I try to write in at least one chore every day. Some of them are small, like 'pay online bills', 'dust', whatever, and some take more time. But the key for this perfectionist has been that if I accomplish the item(s) on my calendar, it is enough. I used to struggle so much with guilt for everything not being just-so, but I do not allow myself to feel guilty once I check off my to-do for the day. I also find that if I do something every day, most of the time our house is clear from looking like a hurricane went through.

The area I struggle the most with is hoarding papers. Especially now that Remy has started kindergarten, we are inundated with a stream of papers like I have never seen. And I want to keep and sob over every single one. He is writing phonetically on everything, and even Halle has started making 'mom' and hearts on each sweet paper. So I find myself stockpiling these sweet little love notes. And they can quickly take over. Now, in my defense, I have just started a new system that I'm hoping will work. I am first throwing away any page that is not an original, meaning that if it's just a coloring sheet or photocopied page, it goes. Then with the others I am keeping them in a basket until the end of each week. My goal is to then at the end of the week tell each little that they can choose one to keep and I can keep one if I want. Then the rest goes. This is kind of the first week for this, so we'll see how it goes!

Overall I'm feeling a bit liberated on the home front. I'm sticking with my Home Goals so far, and slowly but surely God is transforming this place into a place for sharing. In the week since I wrote those goals, I have been keenly aware to keep the table cleaned off, and we even had some new friends for lunch on Sunday. Halle and I also dropped off a van-load of donations this morning, which feels good. I'm so thankful for this life we have, that He's given us!

Do you struggle with getting and/or staying organized? Hearts at Home has a great book available by Karen Ehman called 'The Complete Guide to Getting and Staying Organized', if you're needing some encouragement. I also just found that Tsh Oxenreider's (you know, Simple Mom?) book, "Organized Simplicity" is FREE right now to download to your kindle. She always has great 'hacks' and tips!

 I also encourage you to check out these other bloggers~ I can't wait to read all their secrets. Praying that you're blessed today, whatever phase you're in!!