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Welcome back! In case you missed it, we are on Week 2 of our Love Life At Home Series. If you missed week one, go back and read it first, and then come on back here!
Last week we reminded ourselves to be grateful for how our home is already serving us, set intentions for our space, and began to put rhythms in place to get some positive change in motion. Hopefully you saw a shift, even a subtle one, in how you felt about your home.
This week, filled with gratitude and a fresh perspective, we’re going to start addressing the things that aren’t working or could easily be improved upon with a little effort. We are looking for simple, sustainable, progress here, so we’re going to start with baby steps. You may in the back of your mind that you have lofty goals of adding a 2nd story to your house or renovating your decaying master bathroom, but we’re not going to worry about that just yet. We want to think smaller.
Sometimes it’s the little things that can go a long way. The 2nd half of my life began when I reworked a drawer in our rental house to hold a sharpie, plastic bags, disposable spoons, and other lunchbox essentials. We went a step further in our new house and have a shelf in the pantry that holds the lunchboxes when they aren’t in use plus all the various sized plastic reusable containers. The shelf below it contains the peanut butter, bread box, and storage bin for chips and goldfish. It’s a one-stop-shop for packing a lunch, so everyone isn’t all over each other darting all over the kitchen to get what they need.
In this category I’m also going to include making simple swaps of things that probably could use replacing anyway, but with a better version of itself. When something reaches the end of its useful lifecycle it obviously needs to be replaced, but how often are we replacing it with another low-quality item that is ugly and/or simply won’t last? I know there is a toilet scrubber brush currently in my master bathroom that’s proving I have some work to do in this area.
I’ve probably re-pinned this laundry/mudroom from francois_et_moi a dozen times in different iterations on various Pinterest boards. It grabs me every single time. If you look closely it’s a dustpan and broom. Of course the paneling and art and perfect interior decorator's styling are all part of the appeal, but this image would be pretty WHOMP WHOMP were it to feature a gray and orange plastic dustpan like the one I currently have.
Our goal this week is to identify some small things that could be fixed or swapped to make life at home a little more enjoyable. Nothing huge, but the little irritations. Some examples:
The cabinet hardware that broke off the drawer years ago that you’ve been meaning to replace
The grody kitchen scrubber sponge that you’d be embarrassed if your mother-in-law saw
The fact that your keys and your purse and your sunglasses are in 3 different spots
The toilet scrubber that you’ve had since goodness knows when that likely carries a science lab worth of germs at this point (I’ve already admitted this is actually true of me)
The best way to do this is to simply march through your day as you normally would but with fresh eyes. Imagine you were staying at a nice Air B&B. What very limited but intentional, functional, beautiful everyday objects might you find? Here are some of my favorites to get us started. Some that I use (like the scrubber brush and soap dispenser pretty enough to stay on the counter full time) and others that I’d like to add (the aforementioned toilet scrubber).
Drop us a comment with your experience! Have you made small swaps that made a difference to how you interact with your home? Or what pain points are you hoping to fix this week?
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