Life in His Hand

It always gets worse before it gets better. I have been working to reorganize my kitchen cabinets for what seems like ALL day, and I'm still not done yet. What I have finished, looks nice, but...the rest of the kitchen looks like a bomb went off. I am purging as I go, getting rid of dishes and gadgets we don't need and tossing out old, outdated, food. It will be nice when it's all done. Then I can move onto another area of the house that needs work. Hoping to keep this up so by springtime I won't have much left to do. Simplicity is something I long for. Which is one reason I am wanting to downsize and get this place organized. Lately, I have become really intrigued by the 'Tiny House Movement' and have been inspired to have less. I also love the Amish' simple lifestyle and over the years, I've read a number of good books on paring down. All of these and the very real fact that I live in a very small (though not quite "Tiny") house, has plante...

Happy New Year! I am wondering what you'd like to accomplish this year. I know one of the major things I want to do is really declutter my house and get more organized. I want a house I can keep clean easily which means everything needs a home. Well, in a small house with too much stuff, that means...something's gotta go! I actually started the process last week. I rearranged my tiny living room, which I didn't think was possible, and found that the new arrangement "forced" me to get rid of a bookshelf and table and the room looks a lot neater. I just need to work on the "entryway"--if you can call it that :) It's just a space behind the front door. The horrible problem I am having is my bedroom! Things are a mess and this is where the cutting will really need to happen as well as the need for creativity. All of my things (even Christmas stuff) are basically stored in my small room, so this will be a challenge for me, but worth doing because whe...

I have a simple, little house, but it contains everything and everyone I love the most. I walk in the door and see pictures hanging on the wall that speak to me. I feel the warmth and smell apple cinnamon candles, see my books at home on their shelves and I am wrapped in colors that I love. I see my kids' clutter strewn all over the floor...backpacks, shoes, you name it and it isn't long before I'm handing out the chores. Home sweet home. I can especially appreciate it now. I know how fleeting it is. One day these guys, too, will grow up and leave me like my older two did. And boy it sure didn't take too long for that to happen. So I need to cherish every day, every moment we have together. I am thankful to have the kids brighten my daily life. What a privilege. Some places remind me of just how fortunate I really am. People who are elderly, alone, they're homes aren't kept up the way they used to be. Their kids and families are gone and one by one they...

The more I try to declutter, organize and get rid of the junk - the more it seems to come from outta nowhere! So this spring I am going to be working REALLY hard to unload it. I have a lot of stuff that's just sitting around waiting on the porch to go to the second-hand store. Then there's the little stacks and piles here and there around the house. I think if I could haul it away, right when it's ready, instead of letting it sit and accumulate, it wouldn't feel so overwhelming. We will also need to take a couple of loads to the dump. Seems we do this yearly. My question is: where does it all come from?? Once I can get the junk out, then maybe I can actually get more organized and find a place for everything. Since I live in a small house, I will either have to get really creative (not so likely) or toss more stuff (not so likely, either!) Well I will have to cross that bridge when I come to it! This also makes me think of spiritual decluttering. What are the th...

                                   I collect old kitchen utensils and spice cans and I finally have decided that they've sat in the trunk too long. I pulled them out and put them on a shelf. My aunt came by and said, "You want to have your grandmother's kitchen." And I said,"Yes!" And started thinking...  About my grandmas and how I don't remember what they had in their kitchens so much, but I have a few very cherished memories of them that have been packed away far too long. So I thought I'd bring them out and share them with you.                                            We'll start with Clara, my great-grandmother. She lived in a tiny, little house with my great-grandfather in an alley called Willow Way. They had a white-picket fence and the yard was full of cactuses. Their c...

Yes, it has been awhile since I've felt inspired (motivated) to begin again in the room. Thankfully all that I did before hasn't been undone. My closet is still neat and organized. I was able to gather a lot of stuff to donate to a second-hand store, which I still need to drop off. So today, my goal is to sort through several boxes of junk. And find a place for the stuff or toss it. Basically decluttering. I printed some cool labels, maybe I'll have a chance to use those. I will be back to update this blog and let you know how it went... Until we meet again :) * Good news! Made some progress! And I am actually almost done. Some of these boxes have been toted around, unsorted and undealt with for YEARS. So I am pretty happy to have finally done it. Still have things to do...find prettier storage containers, like baskets and sort through my books. Did I forget to mention my room doubles as a library? I have two tall shelves, overflowing. I'll be back :) ** YAY!! ...

It's one day after Christmas and I am feeling so motivated to work on my bedroom. We live in a really small house. We moved here about 6 months ago from a house twice it's size, almost (and I thought that house was too small). But God had a plan for us to live in this even smaller house. When we moved we got rid of a ton of stuff. But unfortunately we ran out of time and so the boxes of mostly papers that I didn't have time to sort all came here, plus the things I couldn't decide on. So that leaves me where I am today. I have a very small bedroom that doubles as a storage. My closet is tiny and I have storage boxes stacked up in there, too. Barely any room to hang our clothes, so there's a good excuse why I also have clothes piled up here and there. What I'd like to do is buy some type of wardrobe/closet thing and just use the tiny closet for storage. Today I am going to get started on sorting. I should add pictures so you can more fully sympathize, but wow! t...

                                              Hmm... an average day. But it's the only one I have. It's Monday so that means the house is messier than usual because I don't believe in cleaning much on the weekend- haha. So what I should do is clean of course. I need to do laundry and I would like to work on figuring out just how to organize my tiny bedroom with it's micro closet. I believe it can be done but... where to start? Well the right question would be- what to toss? I have an armoire which is full and three tall bookshelves taking up one wall because my living room is too small to house them and I love my books! I wish it were easier to simplify. I wish I knew how to need less. I have a few storage boxes full of papers- I hate sorting. So those always get put off until never. When we were planning on moving to this tiny house, I pretty much became addicted to wat...