Day 23: CLEANSE (A Holiday-Ready Home)
The Way It’s Always Been
Teachers get important things done three times a year: summer, Christmas, and spring vacations.
Once the school year starts, anything that doesn’t involve teaching, lesson planning, grading, parenting, wifing, and basic survival gets shoved until Christmas vacation.
Which usually starts somewhere around December 21.
No wonder I’ve never felt ready for Christmas: I haven’t been!
Not by a long shot!
In fact, not only have I not been ready, I’ve been behind. Way behind.
My “To Get Done During” Christmas List
- All four of us need teeth cleaning appointments.
- The animals need to go to the vet.
- Both cars need major servicing (the kind that requires us both to drive to the dealership, leave one car, drive back home, wait a day or two, and then drive back again, leave the other car…you get the picture!)
- The freezer needs to be emptied, defrosted, and re-organized.
- Last year’s pair of boots need to be replaced because there are holes in both soles.
- The house needs to be cleaned from top to bottom.
- But before it can be cleaned, it really needs to be de-cluttered. (Anything we don’t quite know what to do with pretty much gets left wherever it lands August – December.)
And so on.
And so forth.
And — oh yeah — Merry Christmas!
Time for a Change
If I’m going to have a holiday-ready heart mid-November, I’ve got to change my what-gets-done-when habits.
Starting with the clutter.
If we confess our sinsHe is faithful and justto forgive us our sins andcleanse us from all unrighteousness.1 John 1:9 (NIV)
If God can cleanse my innermost heart of sin and unrighteousness, then surely I can put some effort toward cleaning my outer environment! (Click to Tweet this.)
As non-visual as I am, I have to admit that my outer life has a far greater impact on my inner life than I used to realize.
If I’m going to have a holiday-ready heart, I need to start now to have a holiday-ready home.
Waiting until my next major vacation is a huge set-up for failure…and continued holiday hatred.
20 Minutes a Day
For the next nine days, October 22 through October 31, I’m going to spend 20 minutes focusing on one key area of my home:
- 0-5: Pick up obvious items that need to go or can go.
- 6-10: Make a list of things that need to be cleaned, repaired, replaced, etc.
- 11-15: Take one small step (i.e. toss all the throw blankets in the wash)
- 16-20: Assess the room’s needs, especially in light of the holidays (i.e. wood for the fireplace.)
I’ll be dividing the days up according to these areas:
- Day 1: Living Room
- Day 2: Kitchen
- Day 3: Master Bedroom
- Day 4: Guest Bathroom
- Day 5: Kids’ Rooms
- Day 6: Guest Room / My Study
- Day 7: Garage & Vehicles
- Day 8: Back Yard & Pets
- Day 9: Front Porch & People
Obviously, I’m not aiming for any sort of perfection during these next nine days.
All I want to do is
All I want to do is
- get started,
- make a small difference, and
- make a do-able plan.
Doing this will break old habits.
And it’ll move me closer to having a holiday-ready home to match my holiday-ready heart!
Your Turn:
- Do you tend to put off home-related tasks until you can get it all done at once? Or do you consistently chip away at them?
- Do you enjoy preparing your house for the holidays or do you find it stressful? Either way, why?
- Anything else on your heart!
Start Your Holiday Ready Heart Journey Here
- How It Works (via Bullet Points & Videos!)
- Day 1: LOVED (+ 2 Vital Questions to Ask NOW)
- Day 2: CHOSEN – Making Right Holiday Choices
- Day 3: COMPLETE (+ 5 Gift-Giving Questions)
- Day 4: PURE (+ Goodbye, Ghosts of Christmas Past)
- Day 5: RIGHTEOUS (+ Rituals vs. Relationships)
- Day 6: FORGIVEN (+ The Story I Choose to Tell)
- Day 7: FREE (+ 14+ Ways to Enjoy “Free” Holy-Days!)
- Day 8: VICTORIOUS (+ Heading Off Holiday Hurts)
- Day 9: NEW (+ The Power to Get or to Give?)
- Day 10: CONFIDENT (+ 10 Ways to Keep Christ in Christmas)
- Day 11: MASTERPIECE (+ Being Content With What I DO Have)
- Day 12: INSEPARABLE (+ Missing Loved Ones at the Holidays)
- Day 13: DELIVERED (+ Why the Holidays Can Overwhelm)
- Day 14: TRUST (+ How Each PURSE-onality Can Get Day Overwhelmed)
- Day 15: PATIENT (+ Practicing Now for Patience Then)
- Day 16: NO RECORD (+ How to Have Grudge-Free Holidays)
- Day 17: TRUTH (Each PURSE-onality’s Take on Truth)
- Day 18: PERSEVERE (+2 Cures for Procrastination)
- Day 19: BLESS (Your Feelings Can Help You Choose)
- Day 20: BUILDING (20+ Ways to Build with Words)
- Day 21: HOLD (Hold Back, Let Go, and Step Up)
- Day 22: FRUIT (I Didn’t Think…I Was a People-Pleaser!)
Dear Cheri,
Thank you for the reminder. Even though I am behind and it is Nov. 5 (ALREADY), 20 minutes a day is doable. I am VERY visual. I get sensory overload sometime with all the clutter in our house. If I could just take 20 minutes a day and work on one thing, I wouldn’t feel so helpless and feel like I’m drowning.
3 kids are outside playing, one in the shower, and one reading, so I took the time to try and catch up on your challenge. Now it is lunch, naptime for little ones and then possibly rest and time for Momma to do her Bible study. Little steps. Do the Next Thing. I love the poem I got from Elizabeth Elliot a long time ago.
Thanks and God Bless,
Kim in NC
I usually get pretty overwhelmed at the holidays because I feel a certain amount of pressure from my family to keep up with the expected traditions. But they don’t have a relationship with Christ and I’d like to be a better witness and have a more intentional approach to the holidays this year, one that focuses on the reason we celebrate Christmas! Looking forward to reading through everything and maybe winning the Untangling Christmas book!
Keri-Rose —
Love the idea of an intentional approach as way of witnessing! Praying for a season of joy for you and your whole family.
Oh man, can I relate to this quote or what?! “The house needs to be cleaned from top to bottom. But before it can be cleaned, it really needs to be de-cluttered. (Anything we don’t quite know what to do with pretty much gets left wherever it lands August – December.)” I love your idea of setting aside 20 minutes a day. That really should be doable! Unfortunately, it’s going to take me much longer than 9 days to make a dent. Hmmmm, wondering how I can modify this to make some real progress in my home. Thinking of starting off with 9 days, focusing on two or three rooms. Then taking the next 9 days to move onto some other rooms. Perhaps I can keep up the momentum until Thanksgiving week. 😀
I can also relate to the quote “As non-visual as I am, I have to admit that my outer life has a far greater impact on my inner life than I used to realize.” Honestly, it just feels like things are getting more out of control. If I don’t get a handle on this we are all going to snap!
I do truly believe that God does not want us to live in the state of clutter and disorganization. If I practice self control, I know He will help me get through this mess and get our outer life in order, which will help our inner lives and our relationships with each other. Now if I could only find a way to stay home so I could concentrate on my home and family!
Lisa —
My motto is “SOMEthing is better than NOthing.” Making a bit of a dent each day and then STOPPING at the end of the 20 minutes makes a big difference over time…without punishing us and making us want to quit altogether!
I agree with you that God does not want us to live in a state of clutter and disorganization. For decades, I excused all my “stuff” as being evidence that “I’m an interesting person” with “lots of hobbies.” Finally realized that I hang on to a bunch of false identities to make me feel better about myself…but all that they do is make me feel bad because they aren’t real. (I clung to my scrapbooking supplies with white knuckles…even tho I never scrapped!)
Trying to “do it all” is hard, I know. Now that I’m working half-time, I am much more proactive about home-making and de-cluttering. When I was full-time, well, I couldn’t figure out how to do it all.
I am doing the 31 days until clean right now. I would LOVE to Win the Christmas Untangled book!!
Lana, where did you find out about the “31 days to clean”. I’d be interested in checking that out!
Lana and Lisa —
Lana — is it this one? http://31daystoclean.com/
I usually have put off de-cluttering because it just seemed so overwhelming. But I’ve recently started chipping away at it — tackling one pile at a time. It’s amazing the difference in attitude with just one small pile gone! Thanks for the great suggestions.
Yes Meghan, it is overwhelming isn’t it? Good for you for chipping away!
Meghan —
I think everyone knows about FlyLady.net by now. I found her when I’d fractured a vertebra 10+ years ago and literally couldn’t do anything. I pooh-poohed the whole idea of doing anything in “baby steps”…until I tried, just to prove the idea wrong, and discovered how WONDERFUL it felt to see progress!
De-cluttering can be incredibly overwhelming. And when I’ve taken the wrong approach, it’s just about killed me and others around me. Much safer to chip away, like you suggested — one pile at a time!