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Simplifying your home starts at the heart…

January 12, 2018 by Mallory Leave a Comment

Happy New Year! What a year it has been!! It was full of adventures, lazy days, fun-filled days and days of heartache. The new year is always my favorite, with it’s chance at new beginnings and so called “do-overs.”  

I usually start the year off with a huge overhaul of our home, cleaning and organizing and decluttering.  But this time around, something was missing, and then our Mops group watched a video from Kathi Lipp about organizing and how it starts at the heart; you have to come at it from the right place.  

It struck a nerve with this mama.  It both challenged me and encouraged me.  

Also I was in charge of writing the recap blog for that day so I thought I would share it here with you! 

 

I don’t know about you gals, but the Kathi Lipp video was exactly what I needed this morning. Yesterday was a tough day emotionally and the clutter that was consuming my home turned me from emotional to grumpy to darn right mean in the time it took me to walk from one end of my home to the other. I was so overwhelmed by the piles, the projects and the things I needed to do that I lost all motivation to do any of it. Everything seemed monumental and too much. Shoveling it into a giant dumpster seemed like an easier task than simply putting it away.
This defeated feeling was so frustrating because organizing and decluttering have always been a favorite of mine! I was that girl growing up that would take absolutely everything out of my room and start from scratch, going through every drawer and box and rearranging my room until I found joy in how it looked.
So why do I have such a hard time now?! Why does my home continually look like some magic genie came and transported articles from one room to another, right before a massive nuclear bomb went off?!!

I know I am not alone in the feelings of complete frustration that happen after a long day of cleaning and organizing, you turn around to catch a break and BAM…disaster strikes again!

Those sweet little dears….

But then again, nothing breaks my heart more than having to tell my kids “not right now” or “I can’t play because I have to do chores…”.
I’m tired of the time it takes to manage our stuff and keep it cleaned up and organized. I want to be able to tell my son “heck yes I will play Legos with you!” Without feeling the guilt of towering dirty dishes, scum ringed toilets or the mountains of laundry.

Now where to begin? Naturally my thoughts turn straight to Pinterest where I have quite a good organization board going, and those great books I have on the subject of decluttering speak great ideas and solutions to help the drowning woman. But I’ve realized this time around that I need to start at the heart….my heart.

I have an addiction to the high of a great purchase. Not just any buy, but the great deal buy. I’m pretty sure my gravestone could easily say “But it was only $2.00!” Hi, my name is Mallory and I’m a thrift store junky. I love the hunt, and saying no to that random something that is just too amazing to pass up because it’s just so cheap is my downfall. So, I bring it home, put it where it needs to go and the piles increase.

Whether it’s the great deal, the freebie, the happiness or keeping up with the Jones, we all have our justifications for buying that something.

But what if we stepped back, looked around our home and saw all the stuff that was holding us back from living our best life, and decided to make a change so that sitting on the floor playing block towers with your toddler didn’t mean neglecting anything else; to really be in that precious moment without being distracted by our own leaning towers of clutter?

Never a better time to start than in the New Year! I want this year to be the year of saying “NO” to the clutter, to the managing of stuff and impulsive buys! Remembering that clutter in our homes actually manifests itself in our attitudes and hearts!

Just like Kathi said, just take 15 minutes today to start somewhere! Clear out a closet, a drawer or simply your diaper bag. Only keep those items that you truly need or bring you joy!
I’m thinking about my closet right now knowing I could easily fill a bag with all the items that no longer bring me joy, and don’t even get me started with the toy situation in our home.

Grab your laundry basket and walk your sweet home, filling it with things that arent’ where they belong and put them away! Scroll Pinterest for easy organizing ideas and start a declutter challenge! Ask a friend for help! Organizing and decluttering your home is way more fun with a friend and a box of chocolates (cleaning burns calories 🙂 you’re welcome)

But remember that it has to start from the heart first to make a real change in your life. Ask God to help you see through the mess to what’s important, ask for strength and patience with yourself, ask for perseverance and some blessed energy to tackle your home. Remember grace for yourself that it won’t happen overnight and you’ll probably buy something in the next week you don’t need. But also Remember the reasons you want to make your home a sanctuary for your family. Think of all the time you will have to do the things that really matter when you are not slaving away managing all the stuffs. When you get rid of the stuffs, you can make room for something better.

“Choose today who you will serve. But for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. For He alone is our God!” Joshua 24:15,18

“Clutter is anything that doesn’t bring you joy and stands in the way of the things that do.”
-Leah Martin

“We were never meant to live a life accumulating stuff. We were meant to live simply enjoying the experiences of life, the people of life, and the journey of life- not the things of life.”
-Joshua Becker

 

Filed Under: Home, Motherhood, Pinterest Magic & DIY Tagged With: declutter, home, housekeeping, Joshua Becker, Kathi Lipp, MOPS, New Year, Organization

Starting Off 2014 Sleep Deprived but Organized

December 30, 2013 by Mallory 3 Comments

The title of this post says it all: I’m tired but determined to get a handle on this house. (Didn’t I just do a pre-baby nesting?!) I know it may be hard to believe, but keeping a house organized, let alone clean, with 3 small children is hard!

And just knowing where to start is a challenge! Before kids I would take a day or two, start in one corner of the house and clean and organize every room, drawer, nook and cranny till I reached the other end of our home. Those days are long gone and simply restarting the washer for the 2nd…3rd time because the clothes smell weird seems overwhelming.

So I’m starting off the New Year right and subscribed to Apartment Therapy’s The January Cure! Every week day in the month of January they will send me an email with my daily organizing assignment (thank goodness for weekends off or the chance to catch up on all the missed assignments ;))
I figure I can handle one cleaning/organizing job a day and they say by the end of the month I will be sitting pretty…or maybe that’s my house.
image
“Like anything worthwhile, it’ll take some effort but we’ll dole out the assignments, day by day, in totally do-able bits. And, it’s truly a group project so we’ll all be in it together, helping each other out with tips, ideas and lots of moral support.in each day’s comment thread.”

If you are feeling like your house is falling down around you and you’re being buried alive by the chaos that your family has created (cause we all know we are totally innocent) join me in this challenge and we can help keep each other accountable!

Cheers to a great start to 2014!!

Filed Under: Home Tagged With: 2014, Apartment Therapy, Cleaning, home, Nesting, New Year, organizing, The January Cure

A lil’ Cleaning inspiration for 2012

January 1, 2012 by Mallory

Oh, Pinterest, how I love and hate you. Like most of you women who are addicts like me, it sucks you in and turns you into a zombie. In loo of the new year, I decided I would share with you some of my Cleaning and Organizing Board for a little inspiration to kick of the new year and the dreaded spring cleaning. Now this isn’t just for your benefit, I’m hoping that it will help me get my big pregnant butt in gear and attack the piles that have manifested themselves around my home before Baby gets here!

Hope the tips help and the photos inspire!

If your tired of waiting to do all your cleaning all on one day, but can’t quite get a good routine going, join Clean Mama on her 2012 journey to cleaning and organizing!

I HATE cleaning my microwave, it’s like scraping cement. And then I found this! “Heat a bowl of water and vinegar for 5 minutes in the microwave. The steam will get rid of stains and then you simply wipe it off.” From craftylittlegnome.blogspot.com

Say goodbye to those ugly manly yellow armpit stains: The Power of Dawn and peroxide

Ever think about the original color your tile grout used to be? Clean Your Grout!

My stove burners are nasty…can’t wait to try this! Clean your Burners!

Now that your house is clean, here are some pretty photos to inspire…

Photo: inspired-design.tumblr.com

Photo: Custom Closet Direct

Photo: Style Me Pretty

Photo: Better Homes and Gardens

Photo: Houseandhome.com

Photo: Everythingfab.com

Filed Under: Blog, Home Tagged With: Clean Mama, Cleaning, inspiration, New Year, Organization, Pinterest

The New Year: Back to the Basics

December 29, 2011 by Mallory Leave a Comment


Once again the new year, 2012 to be exact, is just a few days away, and the conversations around me center around resolutions: What will they be; will I keep them; trendy vs traditional; the age old “gotta loose those pesky extra pounds.” A person can get quite caught up in the chaos that has become making New Year’s resolutions! Last New Year’s, I had a list of eight things I would like to change in the coming year, and not to brag or anything, but I did pretty darn good on them too! This year though, I’m keeping it simple. I’m going back to the basics.
Lisa from Well Grounded wrote a guest post for SimplyMom.Net about our basic fundamental needs as mothers. It was inspiring! It is so easy to get caught up in the slippery slide of wanting to be that Super Mom or Wonder Wife…The Woman Who Can Do Everything!
These were Lisa’s 4 fundamentals:

1. Food: How are you feeding yourself?
2. Rest: How are you sleeping?
3. Calm: How are you handling stress?
4. Activity: How are you moving (aka exercising)?

With Baby Hill #2 due soon after the new year, and the craziness that will immediately follow, I have decided that this is what my focus will be, but with adding my relationship with Christ on the top. Selfish you say? Nope. I see it like this: if I am healthy, calm and focused, my family will benefit greatly! I have been overwhelmed with the feeling that I have to be Super Mom, Wonder Wife, a Crafty Diva and have a blog that is awesome enough to pay the bills (I’m not there yet).
Getting back to the basics of who I am as a woman, will help me better take care of my family and meet their needs.
Now, don’t worry, my crafty corner will not go ignored or fall into an unloved state. I will still make time for me and my glue gun. But the stress of producing something for sell or hire will be gone, because until I’m ready, this will be a simply time of enjoyment, filled with glitter and notions!

So there it is…my New Year’s resolution for 2012. I would love to hear yours!

Filed Under: Blog, Family, Home Tagged With: 2012, Back to Basics, Lisa Byrne, New Year, Resolutions, SimpleMom.net, Super Mom, Wellgroundedsite.com, Wonder Wife

About Mallory

Mallory Hill - SimplyMal

Love spending time with my family, reading creative blogs and tackling a good project!

Visit Mallory Hill's profile on Pinterest.

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