Get real with yourself and what you want at this stage of your life.

What you want and what you value right now may be different than it was 15 years ago, 10 years ago or even 5 years ago!

Sure, there’s a chance you may get back into those interests or things you valued back then, but you can cross that bridge when or if you get there.

If you truly want to get a handle on all of your clutter, get really clear with yourself about your life and what you value right now! Get clear on your goals, your family’s goals, and your relationship goals. The clearer you can be with yourself and your household, the better focused your stuff can suit your needs.

If you have a very sporty family, you may want to make sure bikes are easy to get to. Other sporting equipment might have an easy access spot in the garage or basement. You may even focus on having a really nice home gym that can be used by everyone!

If your family values traveling or road trips, you may have some space dedicated to equipment or luggage or even special backpacks.

If you love to host friends, maybe you have extra shelving for more servingware and cookware.

If you buy a lot of gifts, you may need a designated spot for storing gifts in your house.

If you have a lot of crafters in your house – good luck – you’re probably going to have clutter! You will need to ensure easy storage and minimize what you buy or even focus only on one type of craft!

The main idea is that it’s easy to use your stuff when you only focus on one or two things rather than try to do everything! It’s almost impossible to keep a tidy house if you dabble in everything. Also, it’s overwhelming to decide where to start if you have a bit of everything in your house!

That’s why getting very clear with yourself and what you want right now from your life is so critical. It’s easy to say to yourself that you want to craft, have sports equipment, host friends every friday, and buy tons of gifts for others, it’s another thing to store all the related stuff for each one!

If you find the stuff in your house taking over your life, rather than get overwhelmed with it all, just make yourself a coffee, grab a pen and paper and think about what kinds of things you actually want to do with your time. Write them down so that you can read them again. Write them down so that you can really sit with the list and figure out if you will feel more at peace focusing on only those things.

Once you’ve narrowed in on what you value and how you want to spend your time, and you have really visualized spending your time that way, the rest is easier. If you’ve determined that your life will be more peaceful focusing on the things on your list, then why have distractions in your home keeping you from doing those things.

By writing down the things you value most, you can basically create a rule for what stuff comes into your home and what stuff you allow room for in your home. If the stuff is in line with what you value, keep it and find it a home. If the stuff doesn’t align with what you value, then it’s better to keep it moving and get it out of your home or not even let it in!

In the end, you get to decide what adds peace to your life and what doesn’t. But I will tell you one thing, I have rarely enjoyed a coffee beside a cluttered coffee table, or rarely enjoyed cooking a home cooked meal in a cluttered kitchen and, I definitely have not found peace in a home gym that is piled high with boxes!

You get to find your peace and work towards maintaining that and keeping it! Always!

Thanks for coming home!