Are You living in Chaos?

Our surroundings affect how we feel.  If our surroundings are chaotic and messy we feel chaotic and messy.  If however our surroundings are calm and organized we in turn feel calm and organized. 

Take a look around you right now, wherever you are.  Are you happy with how everything looks and feels? 

So what can we do if our homes are not benefiting us and helping us stay happy and positive. 

START SMALL

I follow the start small rule in most areas of my life.  That doesn't mean I don't have big goals.  In fact my goals are huge, but starting small is, in my opinion the best way to get to where we're going.  In this case creating a calm, happy, well organized home environment.

First pick an area of your home you want to tackle.  For example the bedroom.

Next pick an area of the room - Your wardrobe.

Now concentrate on tidying ONLY your wardrobe, nothing else.  When it's done you can start on another small area of the room until it's all done.  This doesn't all need to be done today.  If you clean and tidy 1 area of each room a day you'll still get there.  When you try to do the whole house in one go you'll get fed up and demotivated.  Sure it will look great to start with but can you keep it up? 

Have a daily routine of things you need to do to maintain a clean and tidy house, such as tidy, wipe, sweep/hoover, wipe the bathroom etc.

Once you've worked your way around the house each day or week decide on a room to give extra care to.

For example this week I'm paying special attention to my bathroom.  So it gets a thorough clean and I check all the cupboard and the blanket box etc. 

Next week I'm working on my kitchen.  I'll give the main area of the kitchen a thorough clean and then each day I will clean 2 or 3 cupboards etc. 

Knowing I don't have to do the whole lot in one go makes it easier and I'm more likely to do it rather than put it off.

This is a great way to get kids to keep their own bedrooms tidy too.  In our home we have a genral rule that toys are put away at the end of the day and one lot goes away before new toys are brought out.  It doesn't always work but mostly it does.  Then I will ask Jack to tidy his bookshelve or tidy under his bed or sort his top drawer out.  I find saying "Jack can you please go and tidy your top drawer?" works much better than "Go and tidy your room." 
It's a specif area and it only takes a few minutes.  Easy. 

Never be afriad to get kids involved in housework.  Young kids love it and it gives all kids and teens a sense of belonging and being part of the home.  Remember START SMALL. 

In my kitchen we have a wipe clean board.  On it I have this message.

TREAT OUR HOME AND ALL OF THE PEOPLE IN IT WITH LOVE AND RESPECT

Next time you need to do household chores think of this message.  You're not only cleaning, you're putting love into your home.