Before kids, I was a little ADD about cleaning/organizing my home. It was perfect 99% of the time. Towels in the closet were folded with edges facing the inside and color coordinated. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, had a place. I had Mondays off of work and spent about 8 hours cleaning a 1,500 square foot condo. Every morning before work, I spent another hour or 2 cleaning. If you are counting, that is somewhere around 13-18 hours a week; almost a part time job.
Fast forward to 2013; 9 years, 2 homeschooled kids, 2 businesses, a women’s ministry and major hormonal changes later. No longer are the towels color coordinated in the closet, hopefully, they are just IN the closet instead of the basket. The one thing I always hated, piles, abound! Sometimes, I actually go to bed and leave the dinner dishes (gasp!) until morning. For the record, I always cringe in the morning and wonder what the heck I was thinking as I walk into a dirty kitchen. My once spotless house is not. I am almost certain that is why God waited to allow me to move forward with the Encouraging Women ministry for 16 years. When He told me about the ministry, if I had walked into any women’s home in the disarray mine is in right now, I would have been mortified! I certainly could never have related to them and probably would have quickly written a blog post on how to better organize your home and offended the majority of my readers. Thank you, Jesus, for your perfect timing!
One room in my home had gotten completely out of control. We have an unfinished bonus room upstairs. When we moved in 6 years ago, it was the staging room for boxes to be unpacked. Some of the business records never did get unpacked. It became the catch all room. Maternity and outgrown kids clothes. Baby stuff in case we had another child. Christmas items. Books. Etc. When my mother-in-law moved in, all the contents of the guest room went in there, including furniture and the displaced treadmill. Her extra stuff also made its way into that room. Eventually, there was a path through the room and junk everywhere. Numerous times, I have had grandiose plans to get the room purged and organized but been overwhelmed after a short time. Mortified is now the word I would use if I knew anyone would see that room.
This past week, we went to visit family and had a house sitter. When we came home at 2:30am, I noticed a few fans that had been in the bonus room outside the door. I turned the handle of the bonus room door, which I had locked before we left, and it opened. The light illuminated a room very different from the one left. The middle of the room was almost empty. Things had been somewhat organized by category as best they could without completely going through every box. All items were placed around the perimeter of the room. At first, I was horrified that anyone was in that room. My second thought is that she must think I am one step away from being a hoarder with all the junk in there. I turned out the light and shook my head, not sure what to do. The next morning, I went back into the room, wondering if I had been dreaming. As I looked around, I took a big breath of relief. The room is actually manageable now. I can start at one end of the room and work my way around it to get rid of things and reorganize it all. I was EXTREMELY grateful! There is more to the story, however.
Lisa Taylor
~ I have only known her since the spring.
~ My friend has 2 toddlers of her own.
~ It was over 90 degrees outside and that room doesn’t have air conditioning. I had turned the air conditioning upstairs to a higher temperature since we were gone. It must have been well over 100 degrees in that room as she worked.
~ She spent 3 days doing it.
~ A few days later, I called to ask her for an hour of her time to help me move furniture. Instead, she came over and spent 4+ hours helping me rearrange rooms and decorations.
~ She gave me a renewed sense of excitement about making my house a home. Whereas, once I gave away knick-knacks in order to simplify, she helped me understand that a few good pieces are important to add some warmth to my spaces. I am really excited about getting into the bonus room to finish the monumental task she started!
THANK YOU LISA TAYLOR! You are amazing! I appreciate you more than words can ever express.
Lisa is just one of the MANY friends I have that have blessed me tremendously over the years. I am beyond blessed that God has brought so many special women into my life! But as I ponder the help she gave me this week, it makes me think that I need to spend a little more time both WITH friends AND blessing them!
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work… Ecclesiastes 4:9
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In the comments below, tell us about a friend of yours!
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