Clean and Tidy

The past year has been one of change around our home. And I mean in a very literal sense not at all figuratively. At the same time it has impacted our family life in a very positive way and has developed in me a passion for all things organized! Since I'm pretty sure I've been driving my family and (some of  my) close friends crazy with this new interest of mine I feel as though I need an outlet. So, in addition to "Make Me Smile Mondays" I'm going to start up another weekly entry dedicated to organization. I'm in the process of coming up with a name for it and I would love to hear any ideas you might have. Please keep in mind I can only pick one, so I might not be able to use it. If I am able to, I will happily give you full credit when I first introduce the name. :)

For today I'd love to share my "story" with you!

Last year I was beginning to feel really overwhelmed by our home. Well that's not entirely accurate. I was feeling overwhelmed by the task of keeping my home clean and tidy. We bought our first home (a semi-detached, 3 bedroom home) in summer 2005, so we've lived here for just over 5 years. When we first moved in it was just three of us: Jason, myself and our 2 1/2 year old little girl. We felt incredibly blessed to be first time home owners and we still do. Moving from a 2 bedroom apartment to a 3 bedroom home we couldn't believe the space - it was incredible! But, 4 years and 2 additional children later and things were feeling pretty cramped. Jason and I were suddenly feeling like we didn't have enough space even though we hoped to get a few more years out of our house before selling it. I was determined to make the time we had left as comfortable as possible.

Now don't get me wrong - this wasn't like an episode of "Hoarders" or anything. But keeping my house clean felt a lot more like a roller coaster ride than a walk in the park. I would work really hard and get the house nice and clean and then in a matter of a couple of days every thing was messy again. Then I'd have to work really really hard to get it clean again only to have things fall apart in the matter of a few days. Round and round it went.

At the time I couldn't figure out what I needed to change. Until I went to visit a friend one day in her new home. She, her husband and their 4 children had just moved into a bigger house. For as long as I've known her she's always been one of those women who makes taking care of her house  look easy. Her house always seems to be not only clean and beautiful but welcoming. And now in her new (bigger) house, she still managed to make it looked that way. What was her secret? I wanted to know! Leaving her house that day I left with a very valuable piece of information: everything - no matter how small - needs a place.

That was in November. Somewhere in between that conversation and Christmas I got the flu really bad. Jason's mom watched the kids for me for two days and I took off babysitting so I could recover. Just as I was on the mend we had a few people drop by for a football game. I can't even tell you how embarrassed I was with the state of my house. I knew that even after a couple of days out of commission things didn't need to be quite so bad. It was the final straw!

On boxing day of last year, I began the process of de-cluttering the entire house. And I mean the entire house! The closets, dressers, shelves - everything. Bags and bags of stuff went to goodwill, got recycled and thrown in the garbage. Taking time wherever I could get it, the first major overhaul took me one whole month of very intense work. I went to Canadian Tire and bought a couple of shelving units for my storage/laundry room and bins (everything seemed to be on sale)  for our toy closet. After that I spent the next few months going back over these same areas fine tuning what I'd already done.

What started out of neccesity has now become a passion.  Decluttering was the first (most crucial) step. Since then I've been discovering how organizing my home not only makes it easier to clean and more peaceful to live in, but it also helps make my home more beautiful. What I used to think had to do with the size of a home or expensive furnishings can easily be accomplished with a little organizing. The use of  every day items like baskets, bins, vases, and even decorative magazine files and paper trays have worked there way into my heart as I've seen them transform my house.

From my own experience I can look back and see that it ("it" being focusing merely on the cleaning aspect of keeping my home and not the so much the organizing/clutter control) wasn't so much an issue in our first apartment and didn't really become an issue until we had a few children and had been living here for several years. When I first discovered the importance of these thing I remember wondering why no one had ever told me before. So this is why I share my "story". I imagine there must be someone out there who can relate. Whether you've been feeling like all of a sudden things are catching up to you (like I did) or you're just starting out I hope that by sharing what has been helpful to me it may also be helpful for you!