It’s Your Year to Shine {The House}

Panic seized my heart. Please, no, I thought. Not now. I just need a few more minutes.

But there it was again, taunting with a sing-songy voice:

Ding-Dong!

Desperately looking around, I rapidly crammed a few more things into a corner then lifted a shaky hand in attempt to smooth my hair. Embarrassment flushed through me as I opened the door.

Never again, I told myself, stepping aside to let them in. I will never again be this embarrassed of my home.

Clutter may feel like a normal part of life, but it always comes with a cost.

Clutter induces stress, drains our energy, steals our time, and can rob us of our joy.

But we don’t have to live that way.

This year, let’s be proactive instead of reactive. We no longer need to panic when the doorbell rings. We can stop spending hours searching for lost items. We will take control of our laundry mountains.

Because when we regularly cultivate a clean environment, we’re not only caring for our homes and ourselves, but we’re also telling our loved ones:

“I love you enough to create a calm space for you. I love you enough to gently teach you how to care for your own things. I love you so much that I’m going to keep trying, over and over again, for as long as it takes to learn this well.”

This is our year to shine {the home}. Not for one huge, exhausting day or event, but for the entire beautiful year. Because when we’re taking good care of our homes, we’re not only offering the gift of clean – we’re giving the gift of calm.

If You Need A Gentle Nudge…

I’d love for you to join me in the Chaos to Clutter-Free challenge that begins anew in the private Tidy Up Facebook group every January.

I must warn you though, this is no ordinary challenge.

Determined people band together for encouragement, motivation, and inspiration as we declutter every square inch of our homes together. It’s going to be tough. We’re going to sweat. We’re going to cry. We’re going to want to scream and shout and give up and forget about the whole thing.

But we’re committed to pushing through together.

And when we’re finished, we’re going to cry and shout and jump up and down again – this time not in frustration, but in victory, because we’ll know that we did it. We’ll know that we pushed through the frustration, discouragement, sickness and fatigue, we kept going, we refused to give up, and we made it.

It’s going to be the hardest thing many of us have ever willingly put ourselves through. But when we’re finished? It will be glorious.

Here’s How to Shine {Your House} with the Tidy Up Friends:

1. Join the Tidy Up Club on Facebook – while this particular challenge is specific to the winter months, encouragement & motivation are fresh all year long!
2. Leave a comment on this post, send me an email, or introduce yourself to your new Tidy Up Friends so we know that you’re joining in.
3. Dust off or purchase your copy of Chaos to Clutter-Free.
4. Clean your house! Bonus if you take before & after photos to share with your Tidy Up Friends!

If You’re Fighting Discouragement

Please remember that our value is not found in the cleanliness (or lack there-of) of our homes. Our value isn’t in the stuff we have or the meals we prepare. We’re valuable because God loved us enough to give us life. We’re treasured because He loves us so much that He allowed His Son to go to the cross on our behalf. That, my friend, is the greatest hope and gift of all.

“How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand…” Psalm 139:17-18 (NKJV)

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8, (NKJV)

Do you believe you’re valuable enough to live in a clean home? Are you ready to shine? If not, what’s stopping you?