night stand

The first room in our house that was kind of livable/done-ish was our bedroom.

I knew we’d be knocking down walls (they were knocked down in the kitchen before we even moved in) and living without a sink or stove or ceiling in the kitchen. We needed a place where we could close the door and pretend like the mess didn’t exist. When you move to a new place it’s so nice to focus on one space where you can quickly feel sane and at home.

Even today, our room still doubles as my office. We (Chad) just finished painting the barn and office exterior (photos coming soon!) and my office has been taped up with plastic and no air conditioner all summer. Right now that dinky window unit is looking pretty great.

home

It’s not fancy and it’s hardly organized or sanitized with three kittens a dog (and did I mention the mouse?!). But one trick I’ve learned that helps keep me un-crazy-fied is to keep my floor picked up and free of clutter and random hairballs. It does wonders for any space.

shoes

My mom (who has an impeccably clean house) always says “If the floors are clean then the whole house is clean.”

desk

I also try to always evaluate what is working for me. For months I had this desk in our room. And then I made a discovery. I had never, not once sat at this desk and done one thing. And also, the desk only looked clean and tidy like this that one time when I took this photo. Yes, I used it to hold all sorts of piles and the chair was the perfect place to hang sweaters, but this desk just served as a great place to put stuff “for now”.

That desk was helping me keep my room messier! So as much as I love the desk itself, I cleaned it off…

real desk

…and we moved it out. It sits in the basement now, but I’ll use it in the barn in a few months.

mess

Clearly, all of my problems aren’t solved. But this photo was taken yesterday when I was in the heat of two days of doing a little photo shoot that took over our entire house, a Christmas photo shoot for a company where I needed to pull out Christmas decorations, send in photos, then wait to clean everything up until the photos were approved. My house was in a half mess/half Christmasy holding pattern for 48 hours. But even I have standards…

hall mess

Here’s the hall outside our room…

threshold

There was an imaginary barrier at the threshold of our room. I knew from experience that I needed to have one calm space where even if I had to have a mess that looked like Christmas threw up in our hall, I’d have one uncluttered space to retreat to.

Here’s more of the mess from my instagram, click the play button to see the little video (& there’s music).
wherever you are
I’m trying to remember to start where I am, with what I have, and to sometimes do the least amount required to avoid catastrophe. So while my blinds might be dusty, my bedroom floor is clean and tidy. Because sometimes you decide to know thyself and choose thy most important battles.

dust

God, grant me the serenity to accept the dust I forget to chase ,

The courage to clean the things I trip over,

And the wisdom to know the difference.

 

#idhtbptbb

Sometimes (every time) we have to choose the easiest road to rest. For me that means dusty blinds and at least one uncluttered floor, preferably in our bedroom.

for you

A Giveaway

I’m so grateful for companies that partner with Nesting Place, who give me free rein to show my imperfections. Today, you have a chance to win a great little helper in your home. Dyson, who basically has a cult following for their innovative technology–for vacuums is sponsoring this post. Thanks Dyson!

 

One person will receive a Dyson DC59 Motorhead it sounds like a fancy car but this is the latest “digital” slim cordless (!!) vacuum. Who cares about the blinds, let’s clean the floors and forget about the rest! Oh wait, I think this thing cleans the blinds too!

254_5c3ffe3ae7366882d6cf39c7c208d2d7(white uniform, empty, clean white home and vehicle not included please insert your own colored clothing and possessions that need vacuumed)

WINOne rule to enter to win, pop over to the Dyson DC59 Motorhead site (it will open in a new window), scroll through the info and then come back here leaving a comment what feature would be the most useful for you and what space in your home you try to keep the most sane–and then you’ll be entered!

Winner chosen August 18th, prize value: a cool $549.