A Sense of Order

“If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”
-William Morris

So I haven't posted for a while, it's true. I was unable to get a clear focus, and was drawing a blank whenever I sat down to blog. I took some time to get quiet, to read and get things in order. I feel like I cleared my mind (as well as my home) of a lot of cobwebs and I'm ready to share some things I learned. One of the simple abundance principles is ORDER. I didn't really get how significant this principle was until my plumbing went last week and our basement was soaked, we had laundry from 2 weeks piled up in every corner, I was washing the kids underwear by hand, dishes were piled up on every counter and stuffed in the dishwasher. I didn't even want to go home. Home was the enemy.

This disorder in my home started to show itself in my whole life. I went grocery shopping and realized I didn't have my bank card and I started digging through my purse, pulling out crunched up old receipts, old candies, Ruby's hair bows, papers galore...how embarrassing! No bank card anywhere, a whole cart full of groceries that I had to walk away from. I cursed and swore to myself as I walked to the car, people must have been thinking "Crazy woman." I get in the car and the stupid bank card was sitting right on the seat. This is just a small example. There were about a hundred small things just like that happening to me.

The plumbing got fixed finally, and we are still doing 8 loads of laundry a day to catch up. However, soon as the dishes were cleared and the washing machine was fired up again, I felt a sense of relief. Order is now my best friend. So, each day, I choose something to tackle. A closet, a toy basket, a drawer, a cabinet, something to put in order. I re-organized my medicine/linen closet the other day and everything is perfectly sorted in little bins, old medication is tossed out. When I came down with a cold this week, it was such a joy to pull out the perfectly organized basket and find exactly what I needed without having to sift through a billion things that shouldn't even be there to get to what I want.

So what does an organized physical environment have to do with your mental or emotional self? Said perfectly by Sarah Ban Breathnach: "How can we focus our attention on what's truly important when we're half-crazed because we can never find anything?" This I have realized is SO true. How can I sit down and blog about the important things in life if I am half-crazed from trying to sift through the messes all day? I'm learning to let go of "stuff" and simplify because I have to. I have made several trips to the nearest thrift shop to drop bags of things off. I am clearing out what isn't useful or beautiful. My sanity is returning with everything I toss in the garbage or recycling bin, or every bag that gets thrown into the thrift store. Even if it's something that I purchased with the best intentions or with the best label on it. If I haven't used it in the last 6 months or if I don't think it's beautiful, it's gone! Do try this at home! It will change your life.