The Gifts of Character::Orderliness & the Clutter Queen

"What a gift of grace to be able to take the chaos from within and from it create some semblance of order."

~Katherine Paterson

 I am not a tidy person. Not that I am dirty or living with filth (mostly). I am just not very good at putting things away. I have this beautiful new living room and every day we come home and make a new pile. The children are just as bad as I am {I fear that they are learning what they live...}.

Orderliness is living in a way that creates harmony around us and within us.

I have often wished to live in a Pottery Barn catalog home where the couch is rumpled on purpose and the books teeter ever so artfully on the edge of the coffee table. The office is neatly arranged and color coded, but it looks as if there is actual work getting done there. Of course, I would have a family that enjoyed that look as much as I do and wouldn't leave balled up socks lurking around every corner, candy wrappers stashed behind the couch and wouldn't tuck the wrappers from the band-aid back into the container {true dat... found that just this week in the linen closet}.

I want that harmony that is in the Pottery Barn world {complete with all the stuff that makes it look like that} but I know that it is out of my grasp. I am part way there, but not quite. 

We have a place for the things we use, and keep them where they belong.

To this day I wonder why my life is so cluttered and my sister's is so very orderly. Her house is generally spotless, this despite having two kids younger than mine. There is a place for everything and everything in its place. Her husband and son are constantly complaining that she hides things on them. No, she insists, she isn't hiding things. She just finds a more obvious spot for that thing. She will be the first to tell you that she is slightly OCD about organization. {I keep trying to get her to organize me... to know avail.}

Order and beauty in our homes and work spaces brings a sense of peace and freedom. Our thoughts and ideas flow more freely.

When I was a young whippersnapper my mother was always exasperated about me never cleaning my room.

"Creative minds are rarely tidy," I declared one day.

You can imagine how well that went over. ;-)

This is how my studio usually looks.

{This was actually taken some months ago before I moved furniture around. It is still a mess but arranged differently.}

This is how I envision my studio looking.

I sometimes get so fed up that I go through and clean sweep it all {sometimes that means clean sweeping it all into a big box and shutting the top ;-}. I wonder if I get more done in a space that is clear and clutter free or less. Sometimes I need that chaos around me so that I can be inspired and find exactly what I need. If I put it all away then I sometimes forget where I put it. Like the entire box of sterling silver beads and clasps that I could not find but stumbled on the other day. I tricked myself by putting it there, and have been without sterling for some weeks. 

We do not hold onto clutter. We clear the way for genuine abundance.

 

Paper is my biggest nemesis. I never know if I should get rid of it or not. I find a spot that seems obvious at the time to put that coupon or invite or letter... only to find it later on a frantic clean sweep when I have lost something and with it my mind. I have stacks of paper, and don't even get me started on my business records. I know, I know. I can't run a business if I don't keep better track of things. I always start out the year with grandiose plans as to how I will whip my paperwork into shape. And here it is November and I didn't use the binder and envelope system I devised in December last year. *sigh*

But reading that last line makes me pause.... if I were to keep a better handle on these things when they come up rather than waiting until the end of the year to make my organization would that lead to more abundance? Hmmm.... interesting concept.

Orderliness is being focused and purposeful, planning tasks step by step instead of going in circles. As we trust Divine order unfolding in our lives, we find a still point of order in our souls.

© Virtues Project International
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Do you live in a space that is orderly? Or is it a bit chaotic?
How do you feel in that space? Harmonious and peaceful or scattered and anxious?
Do you always put things away when you use them? What is your best organizational tip?
Are you are planner or a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants-er?


Do tell!