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If you’ve checked out the blog much lately you’ve probably noticed that I’m on a cleaning, decluttering, and overall home management kick. Why? Why would a blog that started out as wanting to inspire you to choose joy, even when life is crazy, start focusing on homemaking?
Because I realized that when life gets too crazy I start to lose my focus. When the dishes are piled up high I don’t want to be thankful that we have food to eat. When the kids have colored on the walls I don’t want to admire their artistic skills. When the dog has spilled her food all over the floor in the kitchen I don’t want to remember that our kids are learning responsibility by having a pet to take care of.
Nope, I want to holler and stomp my feet that there must be more to life than all this. That there must be a way to balance the tasks needed for family life and enjoying the family life!
So I shifted my focus a bit. Instead of only trying to inspire you to choose joy I want to share ways to manage, embrace, and love the chaos of everyday life. Because if we don’t learn ways to manage the chaos of life, especially the chaos of kids, it will overtake us. We will feel like we are simply drowning in a sea of laundry, dishes, and dirty toilets.
I started this shift back in January when I introduced the Clutter Buster Challenge. Clearing our house of clutter, even just the bit we’ve removed in thirteen weeks, has made a major difference in our home. I realized how badly these piles of items or cluttered surfaces were affecting us! Now I can actually find that piece of paper one of the boys needed for school and see my glasses exactly where I set them down. Aaaahhhh! It’s like a huge light bulb went off. Less stuff = easier to manage. Fabulous. Plus all the decluttering tasks are broken down into small bits because small tasks = easier to manage. Perfection.
I also introduced you to the Home Management course from Stacy over at Humorous Homemaking. I’ve been using this method/system/toolbox for over a month now and I feel prepared each day. I know what needs to get done and I know what I can ignore! Oh, I need to make muffins for that event – put it on the list for Kitchen Day! Need to make a few phone calls for appointments? Office Day. And when life happens and I don’t finish everything? Catch-up day. Plus this system tells me to take a day of rest. Bam, done.
My kids now know that Wednesday equals cleaning day in our house. They know when they get home from school to check the chalkboard for the list of chores. Do they always all get done? Nope. But we’ve only been at this a month and they are 8 and under. But it’s making a difference in how we manage our chaos. (By the way, the Home Management course is only available through March 31st so don’t delay if this sparks your interest!)
Finally I’ve got this bundle to share with you. I’m sharing it because if you’ve found value at all in learning to manage the chaos of your home, get rid of clutter, or learn more about areas of home management like meal planning, creating a schedule, or organizing areas in your home then I think this bundle could be for you.
The Conquer your Clutter Super Bundle contains 5 ecourses, 15 planners, and 18 ebooks for only $47! You can learn more about meal planning, get additional resources on decluttering and family organization, or inspiration for managing your time more effectively.
After looking through the whole bundle I found that these really stood out to me:
- Sanity Savers For Christian Moms: Simple Solutions For A More Joy-filled Life! by Kristi Clover – um, isn’t that what I’m all about? Yes! I’m all about doing things the simple way and finding joy in my actual life, not in the life Susie So-and-So has down the street.
- 5 Days To A Better Morning by Crystal Paine – I love Crystal Paine! I’ve been an avid follower of her blog for most of my parenting years and highly recommend her books and courses.
- The Sunday Basket: Weekly Paper Organizing & Planning by Lisa Woodruff – Paper is my downfall. I adore paper items – planners, scrapbooks, real books – but they all take up space and I can’t seem to figure out a system for keeping track of all the important items that I need to find again later. I’m definitely checking this one out.
- The Home Management Binder & Family Planner by Helena Alkhas – This planner all by itself is valued at $47, as in the price of this whole bundle! You could buy this bundle solely for this planner and consider the other 37 items as free bonuses.
You may not love every piece in this bundle. For instance, I don’t need a book and binder about home management for homeschool moms because I don’t homeschool. But perhaps you do. Or maybe you see no need for learning about better mornings like I did but you are itching for a way to take control of your finances and keep track of your budgets – there are printables for that in the bundle!
That’s what this shift is about. I’m finding ways to manage our chaos and sharing them with you. Five kids means our home is always going to have some element of chaos. I can’t pretend to control some things around here. The kids play and have fun. They make messes and wrestle. But I can control if there are piles of papers in the way of their art project. I can control knowing what’s for dinner before 5pm hits. And I can control my reactions when the chaos comes.
Here’s to managing, embracing, and loving our everyday life by choosing joy no matter what kind of chaos is happening around us!
I’m linking this up with Kristin Hill Taylor for Porch Stories
What do you think of the blog’s new expanded focus? Do you find that aspects of your home affect your ability to choose joy?
