Creating Margin in Your Life

I have been working hard to create margin in our lives.  

It's taken a lot of work on my part, but my whole family is starting to see proof around the house.  Many areas around our house are no longer filled to the max.  We have empty spaces on shelves, free space in closets and it feels like our house has breathing room.  I still have a ways to go - I'm talking to my garage, holiday closet and cabinets.  But I wanted to document my progress in the hopes of inspiring you to reorganize, declutter and claim back some free space in your home.

I will never fall into the catergory of a minimalist.  That is not my goal.  I just hope to have a house filled with things we love and use.  Not a storage unit for clutter and chaos.

This cozy corner of our primary bedroom makes me smile.  The two books that I have read this year are on my nightstand and no clutter.  No toy baskets or junk.  Just the prettiest essentials.

Olive mentioned that it would be fun to have a cozy reading spot in her closet.  I worked hard to clear out the clutter and give her a cozy spot to hang out if she wanted to.  Kids and cats really do like cozy little spots to snuggle up in.

When the boys saw that Olive's closet had been cleaned out, they requested the same for their closet.  I spent the weekend reorganizing boy clothes that get passed down from Fletcher to Leo and now they have a cozy spot to enjoy in their closet.  It really is a breath of fresh air to open the kid's closets and have plenty of room to grow.

After adding some shelves in all of our downstairs closets, we have been able to reorganize and get things up off of the floor.  I love seeing the clean and clear pantry floor when I go into our walk in pantry.  I bake a ton and love a good cake plate.  That means my shelves are full of things that I love.

And lastly, this table tends to attract clutter of games and toys on the bottom shelf.  We reorganized a bit and only kept a few games in the baskets.  This space feels much friendly and easier to access for us.  The shelf could hold a lot more, but we tend to avoid using any of the games if we have to dig through layers and layers of clutter.

Disclaimer: I do want to acknowledge that you might find yourself in a season of life where space is tight and every inch of your home is being used.  That's okay.  We lived that way for a lot of years.  We loved our 900 sq ft one bedroom apartment when we lived in Utah, but it was packed to the brim.  There wasn't a lot of breathing room.  It was fine.  We survived.  If I could go back in time, I'd probably try to declutter as much as I could and enjoy my home.  We were just doing our best!

So do what you need to do, and see if there is anything you could donate, sell, consign or gift to free up some space in your home!!  

Let me know if you have any questions about making margin in your home.  

I do have one warning.  Once you start freeing up space, you'll probably be motivated to work on making margin in your whole home! It just feels so good!