How I refresh my home
This is one of my favorite things to discuss. Ever since my husband and I got married and we had our own space for the first time, I've been obsessed with making our home our own. I love everything about home organization, functionality, and maintenance. So the info you find here is something you'll find that I'm very passionate about and work very hard on!
To me, the concept of refreshing your home is not a cover-up-the-problem, but it addresses the current issues of your home and directs you in advancing one level at a time. Taking this approach means you're refreshing your home and improving it a little bit at a time to achieve the sense of refreshment, rather than approaching it with impossible standards. You can't refresh something unless you start from the ground up, or else that's just considered a bandaid approach, which has only short-term benefits. We're going for true, long-term refresh here, so no bandaids or quick fixes are allowed!
Everyone has a variety of ways to address their home needs, but this is the mindset and method that works well to address the core of the issue and work your way up. The most effective method to improve a situation is to start from the ground up!
Refreshing Your Home - The Hierarchy of the Home
Let me introduce you to what I consider to be the pillars of priority in your home, or the hierarchy of the home, if you will! To me, this is equal to the concept of how you can't enjoy a burning candle in your kitchen if your sink is full of dirty dishes and your countertops are overflowing with stuff. Or, how a student cleans their study space before they can focus on a school project (hello, it's me!). The concept of this hierarchy is the same as that. To explain the hierarchy of the home concept, I discuss each of the five levels for you below!
No. 1
So, what I believe the first level of achievement in the home needs to be, is a declutter of the stuff in your home. Maybe your clutter isn't hoarder-level status, but we all have things in our home that take up space that we don't want or need if we don't regularly declutter the spaces in our homes. Once you've decluttered to some extent (not perfectly, but just a decent declutter to start), then you've given yourself more mental space to move onto the next phase of refreshment which is the next level in the hierarchy!
No. 2
Next, the sort level is about ensuring that your items are organized and put away in their appropriate spots. So you know you've achieved this level in the hierarchy when you look around your room and see that the items in the room both belong in that room and are put away in their appropriate spaces! Also, ensure that the items you frequently use are in a space that makes sense to you and is easily accessible. Feeling a sense of refreshment in your home yet?
No. 3
The clean level is about cleaning the dirt and dust, so you've accomplished this level when the space in your home is free of the constant, out-of-the-ordinary grime! For example, kitchens and bathrooms are alwayssss going to be sources of constant dirt due to the nature of those environments. For example, in my kitchen, I had a problem with mud and dirt always entering through the kitchen and spreading throughout the rest of the house. So I achieved the "clean" level when I found a workflow that prevented the excessive, out-of-the-ordinary dirt by getting a better rug to put in the kitchen as well as a boot tray for all our shoes and a rag to use on my dog's paws for when it's wet or snowy outside. My kitchen still certainly gets dirty every day from cooking, but it is a normal, attainable and expected amount of dirt. You can even trial certain products to make the dirt less of a problem in your kitchen, such as investing in a nonstick pan so that clean-up is more attainable on a daily basis (I LOVE my Caraway fry pan because it's so easy to clean and it's worth every penny!). So go ahead and spend some time contemplating what out-of-the-ordinary extra dirty places you have in your home and brainstorm ways you can minimize the routine dirt! I feel a HUGE sense of refreshment after this level!
No. 4
This upper level is where it gets more rewarding: functional style! Updated interior design can totally rejuvenate your space to your liking, accomplishing an even higher level of refreshment in your home because you've combined style with usefulness! For example, I achieved this level in my kitchen after I painted my kitchen cabinets white, placed new hardware, and made beautiful board and batten walls that included a beautiful, large kitchen wall calendar. The calendar served as a communication tool for my and my husband and we look at it each day to become oriented with our schedules! Once I achieved the style and functionality I wanted through completing those renovations and projects, I felt so much more refreshed by this space! I no longer look at the once stained, plain walls with disdain; but now, I enjoy walking into my beautiful little kitchen with it's fresh style and helpful tools!
No. 5
The most satisfying level is the top level: Fine-tune. This is akin to Maslow's hierarchy of needs where the top achievement is self-fulfillment: the most content you will ever be. So, in my analogy, this is when you perfect your area to your liking by adding little extra touches or embellishments like picking out what specific kind of oils you like to diffuse in that certain space. I believe that it's in this level when you can actually have enough mental space to really have time to enjoy something like a piece of art, or that coffee table recipe book that you never had time to look through. And, in this level, you can enjoy experimenting with adding specific, soft background music into your space. Whereas before you likely couldn't enjoy those things or even think about those things because you were drowning in clutter or battling excessive dirt on the daily. But when all of those other levels are achieved and you find yourself aligning with the top level, the fine-tune level, you can appreciate those extra touches like hand-lettering a scripture verse to put on a specific shelf, or rearranging certain books on your shelf, etc.
To bring it all together, there are five basic levels of achievement to work towards in your home to get that home refreshment you're after! To refresh your home, simply identify what problem you're stuck in, and work up the hierarchy one level at a time. All it takes is advancing one level to find refreshment. So, before you can truly enjoy the little touches in your space you need to update the style of your space, and before you can enjoy the style of your space, you need to remove the dirt and dust, and before you can enjoy a clean area, you must sort and arrange the items in their appropriate spaces, and before you can arrange those items in those spaces you must declutter and clear out the junk! This order of achievement sets you up for success with the interventions you put into action to help improve your home. Just adding a candle in a room isn't going to improve your home refreshment long-term. A longer lasting solution is taking this approach and use the method of the hierarchy of the home to know what is the next thing to work on to achieve a higher level of home refreshment! You can totally aim to achieve the top level of the home hierarchy, but if your goal is a simple home refresh, simply go room by room and determine what level of the hierarchy that room is, and advance just one level, unless you're ready for more work! This method, in my opinion, gives you a true sense of refreshment because it strategically addresses the issues in your home!
If you felt inspired by this blog post, please download my worksheet which gives specific steps, guidance, and tools to help you when it comes to a total home refresh. It follows the patterns and strategic steps to follow to enhance the individual spaces in your home to finally achieve your home goals! This worksheet provides you with clarity of the next best steps to take to refresh your home and guides you to plan interventions based on your individual needs to make your home refresh a reality. Enjoy your home!
Until next time,
Dorothy
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