Hi friends!
We are life givers, you and me. Did you know that you can give life by creating a life-giving home? Our influence is often unseen, a quiet voice in life that can affect the path someone chooses or change the path they’re on. The way we keep our homes says something. It communicates to all who enter. Today, I’d like to share a few practical thoughts on creating a life-giving home.
What is a life-giving home? The life-giving home begins in your heart and mind. You know when you’ve walked into a life-giving home. You feel comfortable, welcome, wanted, and enjoyed. There is a feeling of joy and gratitude for everyone who enters those doors – and everyone knows it. Peace and restfulness come from a sense of order; the flow of the home functions well. The good news for you & me is that the life-giving home is attainable for each of us! No matter your income, whether you are married or not, whether you have children or not, whether you own your home, or not. The life-giving home is created by rather practical things.
These four things—order, systems, cleaning, and beautifying—are the basis for creating a life-giving home. Let’s discuss how you can incorporate these into your home.
Order: Order is the function of your home. Think of a well-oiled machine humming away. There is a sense of order. The easiest way to organize your home is to have less to organize! Beginning mid-January 2024 Matt and I took the challenge to get rid of 500 items. This project has come in spurts. Sometimes we’d have a trunk load of things to donate, other times just a sack full. I’ve thinned down my home décor and sold large pieces of furniture. Let me warn you, once you begin to get rid of things the feeling of lightness and freedom is addicting! You can feel life flowing into your home! With the purge challenge, we are currently at 982 items (we’re pushing for 1,000!) and the funny thing is, other than the large furniture pieces, we don’t remember or miss what we’ve gotten rid of!
Systems: Think of systems as the mechanics of a home. How things flow together. With a lighter home, it is much easier to manage the flow of your home. There is physical space to organize the things you have. You can establish “zones” for different tasks near where those tasks need to take place. There are towels where you need them, there is a spot for air filters, light bulbs, etc. You have room to store the stuff and create a more peaceful atmosphere. With a lighter home, you also have mental space to create systems for the flow of your home. This could include meal planning, scheduling family events, home maintenance, laundry systems, and cleaning systems.
Cleaning: Cleaning is a luxury everyone can afford. For over 25 years I cleaned houses and learned a lot about how people lived. Some people were tidy, and I was able to clean their homes quickly. Others weren’t. One couple with grown children for whom I cleaned lived in a state of disaster. Picture this: In the kitchen, countertops, sink, and island are piled with a combination of dirty dishes, pantry goods, and several partially eaten meals. On the dining table, more partially eaten meals, paperwork, mail, groceries in plastic bags, and a load or two of laundry needing to be folded and put away. In the bedroom, shoes, piles of dirty laundry, and towels nearly cover the floor. One bathroom was covered in foundation powder, hair, and cosmetic products, more dirty laundry, and coffee mugs. The living room held several more pairs of shoes, dirty laundry, hats, coats (if it were winter), and a pile of jewelry. The furniture was out of place, the rugs askew, and a week’s worth of to-go cups and take-out trash were mounded on the side tables. Then, a few hours later the house was picked up, and dusted, bathrooms cleaned, kitchen cleaned, dishes & laundry done, sheets washed, dried, and beds remade, floors swept, mopped, and vacuumed. The furniture and rugs were straightened, magazines set out, throw pillows plumped, throw blankets draped over the sofa, and a few lamps glowing. The following week the scene of chaos would be the same. Nearly four years of cleaning for this family taught me a few lessons.
Having a life-giving home is a mindset. A home is to be more than just a place to exist, more than a place to sleep, fill your belly, and get ready to leave. This couple, while benefiting from having their house cleaned, was missing what that house had to offer. They weren’t giving their house a chance to be a home. We all can throw our trash away, load our dishes, and put our dirty clothes in the hamper. There is a direct correlation between the state of your home and the state of your mind. Taking responsibility for your daily habits will not only bless others, but demonstrate gratitude for the things, the home, and the people you’ve been given. Ask yourself if your thoughts and actions are life-giving or life-taking. This brings us to the fourth point:
Beautifying: How to love your home more right now by giving your house a chance! This mindset applies whether you own your home, or you are renting. Whether you have some decorating money to work with, or not. We can all too easily focus on what is “wrong” with our homes or on what we’d like to change and forget why we fell in love with our homes and chose them in the first place. Remember the first time you walked through your prospective home? Matt & I reminisce about that first tour… We walked through the empty house imagining where our furniture would go. We talked about how much we liked the fireplace, the lovely picture window looking over the backyard, and the special features like the round stained glass window in the hall bath. This would become our first home and felt like an unreachable dream since we were living in a 660-square-foot apartment. This house felt huge and rather grand for us! It’s important to focus on the things we loved most in the beginning and the things we’ve come to love over time. We rented from the homeowners for four years and then we were able to buy the house. As renters in those early years, there wasn’t much we could do to make the house reflect our goals for a home. We were renting and we had a tight budget.
Build well, build slowly.
Consider the creation of a life-giving home as a journey. It doesn’t happen right away, and you shouldn’t expect that. I don’t imagine us all going home and pitching 500 things and rearranging the furniture – as late as some of us stayed we might end up with an armchair in the bathroom! Creating a life-giving home is a life-long process. As you learn to nurture a life-giving home as yourself, does the way I clean, decorate, organize, and host in our home bring others closer to the Lord? Does it give them life?
“What greater joy can there be than to create a holding place for all that is sacred in life: God, purpose, beauty, relationships, creativity, fun, the art of life, safety, shelter, feasting? To foster education in many realms of interests, a classroom of life where the foundations of morality are taught and modeled and wisdom is learned. Building well is a long process. Creating a life-giving home, then, is a long process taken one step, one season at a time. Home should be the very best place to be ever.” Sally Clarkson
Until next time, take care
Rachel
