What Disturbs the Peace? – October Clean Out 4

When you wake up each morning, former procrastinators, what’s the first thing you see?  When you go to bed at night, what’s the last thing you see?  Your bedroom.  That place that you’d like to be a haven of rest, a quiet retreat.  Is it?  If not, what’s disturbing the peace?

Perspective:  God designed us to need recharging. Our homes should be a place of welcome and peace.  (That doesn’t mean no noise or activity.)  Within our homes, our bedrooms can be a particular recharging station.  When they’re filled with piles of laundry and stacks of books or serve as a dumping ground or storage unit, it’s hard to relax there.  Undone tasks whimper to be tended to.  We close the door behind us, but on our side of the door is more agitation.

Jesus is our peace.  A spotless, beautifully decorated room can never give us what He can.  Still, our bedrooms are an excellent place to exercise the dominion He has assigned us.  We neglect that room because we discount its importance.  Order there is good for our hearts and minds, our husbands’, children’s, roommates’.  It’s a great place to get the plank out of our own eye and benefit from peace.

Project:   Declutter our own bedroom.  Often we ourselves are disturbers of the peace.

1. Remove anything not fitting for the bedroom. (Tools, suitcases, etc.)
2. Cut that bedside reading material down to something you’ll actually read.
3. Remove excess non- clothing items from the closet.  (You’ve already done clothes!)
4. Pare down accessories – scarves, purses, jewelry.
5. Tackle the top dresser drawer – receipts, broken earrings, pens, makeup, etc.  Tackle other drawers if possible.
6. Make the bed daily.  Gain instant gratification and a sense of accomplishment while modeling good habits.

Some of my favorite helps:  Egg cartons to hold earrings, hooks on doors, hanging shoe organizers, long low boxes or lids to hold items that must be stored under the bed but that I can easily pull out to access, shoe boxes (or others that fit) to separate and corral items in a drawer.

And this – rolling clothes, a suggestion from Marie Kondo.  So far I roll undergarments, scarves, sweaters.  Some I stack on end and some on their sides.  I can pull out an item without making a mess.  I use more clothes because I can see them and access them readily.

Sometimes we must house items in our bedrooms that we’d rather not.  Make sure you’ve exhausted other possibilities, then declutter that area too and make it as streamlined as possible.

We can wake up to orderliness and end the day in a restful bedroom that’s a welcome retreat.

I once read that fall cleaning can be better than spring cleaning because we’re about to come inside and nest for the winter.  Decluttering can make that a pleasant season.  It also sets us up to better enjoy the holidays.

Congratulations!  You’ve accomplished some major decluttering.  Your light is shining.

When will you bring peace to your bedroom?