Remodel Your Home in Christ: Decluttering

There has never been a more pressing time than now for us to create a Christ-centered home! Your home has so much potential to do good and bless the lives of all who live within its walls! Parents and children alike! Never underestimate the power of family! Creating a Christ-centered home is your greatest defense against the evils of this world.

Families are ordained of God. You know family is important. You know the only way to create a strong, unified family is to help them focus on Christ. But how? Where do you begin?

Over the next several posts, if you’ll stick with me, I want to walk you through what I like to think of as “Remodeling Your Home”. Let’s take the framework you already have in place, and tweak it so that it’s functioning at 110%!

Warning: This is going to take effort on your part! You’ll need to do the work prayerfully to make your home the beautiful masterpiece God intends for it to be!

Just so you have an idea where we’re headed…Here’s the line up!

Decluttering Your Home…Spiritually!

This section is all about decluttering and simplifying your life. Get ready to take out the trash Marie Kondo style! It’s time to cut out any activities that are distracting you from what matters most. Anything that doesn’t align with the gospel of Jesus Christ and your family vision is getting thrown out today!!

I’m going to walk you through how to spiritually declutter your home. Before I do I want to share with you my inspiration for this post. It came from a talk entitled “Good, Better, Best” by Dallin H. Oaks. Read on to hit the highlights or click the link below to hear it all!

Good, Better, Best

Getting rid of the “bad” in our lives is the easy part. It’s deciding between good, better, and best that is challenging!

Most activities that occupy your time are good.

The problem is there are WAY more good things to do than you actually have time for. The solution is to decide which activities are best, and make them your focus.

What are you “Buying” with your time?

You exchange time for a result. Are you getting out what you’re putting in? Your time is so much more valuable than $money$. You only have moments and you never get them back! So ask yourself “What am I using my time for?” and “Is it worth it?”

Get back to the basics.

Focus on prayer and scripture study as a family, schedule family time and one-on-one time with each of your kids and your spouse! Focus on activities that will strengthen your family.

Less is More!

When you prioritize things that matter most, you teach your children that those things matter.

You actively teach them that family matters, that the gospel of Jesus Christ matters. This is far more valuable than any extracurricular activity your child could do. Beware of overscheduling yourself and your children!

My Favorite One-Liners!

“Don’t let yourself be ineffectively busy.”
Dallin H. Oaks October 2007 General Conference

“What your kids really want for dinner, is YOU!”
Dallin H. Oaks, October 2007 General Conference

Consider the story of Mary and Martha in the New Testament. (Luke 10:39-42) Have you ever been guilty of being a Martha? What can you learn from Mary, who sat at the feet of Jesus?

Let’s Declutter Your Life!

Stick with me and work through this 5-step process! It will help you find clarity and peace in your life while you take out the trash!

Step 1: List Your Current Activities

This will be your first list of three! 🙂

What activities are you regularly doing?

Make a list of everything you are doing on a day to day basis. Over the next couple of days, it might be helpful to write down everything you do and how long it takes you. Make sure you write your list completely and unfiltered! This will get you the best assessment of how you’re currently spending your time!

Step 2: List Your Wishlist Activities

List #2! Now I want you to make a list of all the things you wish you could do or spend More time on.

Picture your ideal day.

What does it look like?
Who’s with you?
What kind of activities are you doing together?

Step 3: Write Down Your Priorities

And now for list #3!

Write down EVERYTHING that is important to you. What matters most in your life?

This list doesn’t have to be long, but I bet you’ll find it to be simple even. And simple is likely the complete opposite of what might currently be happening in your life! Oftentimes, those simple, important tasks get hidden and buried deep in the day to day craziness of our lives.

You’ll likely find that the contents on this list align nicely with your family mission, vision, and goals!

Once you’ve made your list of priorities, ask yourself these questions…

What will happen if those important tasks never get done?
Who will be impacted?
What will others remember you for?

Step 4: Highlight Important Activities

Now it’s time to put your lists to work!

Using your list from step 3, I want you to highlight the activities on your lists from Steps 1 and 2 that align with your priorities.

Speaking from personal experience here…This step is eye-opening! I think most people find the majority of their priorities (or essential activities) are listed on their wishlist instead of their current activities.

In other words…you know what is important to you, but you’re either not doing it at all or not doing it enough! Why is that?

Let me show you a little gem I found that will help you be more efficient and intentional with your time! It’s called the Eisenhower Matrix.

You see, most of our priorities list ends up on our wishlist because they fall under the “not urgent” category. Important? Yes! But urgent? While you might want to say yes because there really isn’t any more time to waste, the fact of the matter is, life is demanding! So many urgent tasks take precedence and we think to ourselves “it’s okay, I’ll do it later.”

But do we do it later? Nope, because something else urgent inevitably comes up. There are so many ways your time is demanded! Keeping the house clean, getting everyone fed, putting out sibling squabbles, getting everyone to school and extracurricular activities on time and with all their gear. Then bed time rolls around and you might enjoy 5 minutes of peace and quiet before you crash face down on your pillow only to wake when the baby needs to be fed at 2am! I’m exhausted just thinking about it!

So the burning question is where do you spend most of your time? I bet a good chunk of the activities in your “current” list fit into the urgent/not important box. So now what? What are you going to do about it? How do you make a shift so you’re making the most of your time?

Step 5: Make Time

Cut out the Fluff

Let’s define “fluff”. “Fluff” is the items that eat up your time, but don’t get you any closer to your goal. And this, my friend, is what you’ll put in the “Eliminate” box. And eliminate you must!

Let me be real with you. I found that I spent a LOT of time checking my email and Facebook group and tried to disguise it as “multitasking” while I was with the kids. (I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this!).

I learned, although I’m embarrassed to say this lesson took me a while to learn, that there is no such thing as multi-tasking.

Your focus and attention can only be in one place at one time. It’s NOT just a guy thing! It’s a human thing. Was I really listening to my 4-year old’s cute story while I was reading an email? No. I missed out on that.

And I missed out on watching her play house with her stuffed animals. And you know what? I missed out on a piece of her life that I’ll never get back. And I don’t even know what it was because I wasn’t paying attention!! Let that sink in.

So I eliminated my phone and computer from my “kiddo time”. It had no place there and was merely a distraction.

What will you eliminate?

What is distracting you and your family from what matters most? This past year is the first year that none of my kids have extracurricular activities! Thanks, COVID-19!

With less running around, we have more time to get homework done AND a regular family night, weekly family movie night, and a weekly game night! Never ever in the Fitzgerald Family History has this EVER happened!

I’m not saying that extracurricular activities are bad, but make sure they aren’t taking away from quality family time. This is what Dallin Oaks meant when he said not to be “ineffectively busy”!

Don’t put all your time and energy into activities that won’t strengthen your family and your relationship with Jesus Christ.

Create a System

What family systems can you “automate”? Get your kids on board with helping clean the house, folding laundry, and cooking meals! Part 3 covers family systems and routines to help get your home running smoothly!

Finished Decluttering? Move on to Part 5: Interior Design!