Count it pure joy when you struggle James 1
I’ve loved the idea of minimalism for a while now.
I’ve done whole-house purges, sold and given away countless items (I didn’t count. I didn’t want to know.), and when my surfaces are clear, so is my mind.
But lately my surfaces are cluttered, my house is jumbled, and I’m not trippin’ telling you my children fall over forgotten stuff left on the floor on the daily.
So if I’m desiring minimalism, what gives? Shouldn’t my house be a haven and my children be calm little angels, uninjured by slipping on books and magnatiles?
Where am I not connecting well?
My works. I do what I do not what and what I want to do I do not. Sound familiar? Maybe from your own life, maybe from shoulding yourself, maybe both! But also likely from Paul’s writing in Romans.
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”
Romans 7:15 NIV
I want so badly to have a clear and clutter free house. One where I feel good walking into it. Where the thought of taking care of it is easy and the act doesn’t require much effort.
What gets in my way is myself.
I’ve developed a shopping habit. It’s online because I don’t enjoy leisurely shopping with the kids coming along. And I’ve refilled my house.
It’s been nearly 6 years since I did a whole-house declutter, so I don’t think it counts for much anymore. I couldn’t even tell you what I got rid of or where I would have put those things by now. And I have for sure filled in those spaces I opened up.
My clutter hotspots are my front closet, all of my bookshelves, extra and current wardrobes for each family member, 1,000 shoes my family can never find, houseplants, and every flat surface in my house. No big deal.
Some of this is purposed for the future. Not in a “what if?” sense, but more of “when you grow into this”