Restoring Order After the Holidays by organizing your home.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The holidays can be a wonderful time of year—but they also come with extra chaos and stuff everywhere. The days between Christmas and New Year’s always seem to fly by, yet they’re also when I finally slow down enough to step back from daily routines. Think about what my new goals are for the year? What do I need to continue working on? What went well this last year?
This is usually the time I take on a project or two while everyone is home for 10-14 days. This year, I’m not tackling anything major, but I realized our house has slowly lost its sense of order. So my goal for the week is simple: one room at a time.
The kitchen still gets the daily cleaning, of course, but each day I’m focusing on really cleaning one space or even a space inside a space. Today, that space is the bedrooms. The kids and I all worked on our own rooms—picking things up, putting items away, and making room for new things that came in over the holidays. The kids thought it was a lot of fun that we were all working on similar things. They loved it even more when they were both done before me! Might have been intentional to encourage that cleaning can be fun if you make it that way.
As I worked, I was reminded of a simple truth from Scripture:
“For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.”
—1 Corinthians 14:33 (NIV)
Sometimes restoring order in our homes helps restore peace in our hearts as well. Not having the constant mess can help calm the little bodies and also encourage play. They want to play again when they have space to play, and it’s not so overwhelming with everything out.
Starting with My Bedroom
The first day after Christmas, I decided to tackle my bedroom. Over the last several months, little piles had slowly accumulated. I’d clean here and there, but certain areas had definitely gotten out of control. The place that I tend to dump when I need a quick clean.
This is one of those projects that doesn’t work well when you start and stop. You almost have to make a bigger mess before everything can truly be cleaned and put back in its place. I was committed to making it happen in one day. Make a big mess so that I can clean it up and restore order.
One of the main problem areas was a dresser with a changing table attached to it. We haven’t used the changing table in over a year or more, but it had become a convenient dumping ground for random things—anything that needed a place to land.
That’s where I started.
Turning Clutter into Something Useful
For a while, I had been thinking about making that space more useful again. Instead of letting it collect clutter, my plan is to use it to store games for the kids and adults. I also placed a few of my personal books on it that I hope to read in the next year.
The dresser itself is still used for our youngest. There simply isn’t enough room in the boys’ shared bedroom for both of them to have full dressers at the moment.
Honestly, the arrangement works well for now. He’s two and a half, and most mornings he ends up getting dressed in our room anyway. Eventually, when we’re able to rearrange the boys’ bedroom, we’ll rethink how everything is set up.
Part of the challenge right now is that we’re using a bunk bed with a trundle pulled out underneath. No one sleeps on the top bunk at the moment, so that entire setup is something we’ll deal with another day.
The Challenge of Kids’ Rooms
While I focused on my bedroom, the kids were also working on organizing their spaces.
Finding a system that works for clothes, toys, hairbrushes, jewelry, balls, cars, and everything else can feel overwhelming. I could easily go out and buy a bunch of organizing bins or furniture, but that just isn’t realistic for us right now.
Instead, I’m trying to be creative.
We’re using shelving from old classrooms and pieces we had in our previous home—making them work as best as we can for this season of life.
Getting into the true nitty-gritty of organizing the kids’ rooms will come later. For now, the goal is simply to restore some order. The kids were all about making their rooms clean and getting to vacuum it.
Peace in the Process
I didn’t take any pictures before. I thought about it for a moment and then decided to just get started. I was in cleaning and organizing mode and wanted to get cracking.
And honestly, it felt really good. I was like, ready, set, go!
Putting things away, removing items that didn’t belong in my room, and clearing off surfaces brought back a sense of peace to the space. It also made our room a place I wanted to sit and enjoy once again. A bedroom should feel like a place you want to be at the end of the day—after everyone else has gone to bed and the house finally becomes quiet.
A couple of weeks ago I cleaned out my closet, and this felt like the natural next step. That was also a much needed project. I still haven’t fully unpacked everything from the move 2 years ago but decided it was time to get my clothing taken care of. Is there probably some random box downstaris still, yes! But I sorted and put clothing away by season. I now have room for all my clothing, it’s amazing!
While working, I was reminded of another verse:
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.”
—Luke 16:10 (NIV)
Sometimes faithfulness shows up in the smallest tasks—even something as simple as caring for the spaces we live in. God wants us to take care of what he has given us. He encourages us to be good stewards of all that we have. I want to be a good steward for our home.
A Simple Reflection
Life gets busy, and little things have a way of piling up before we even notice.
Restoring order doesn’t have to mean perfection. Sometimes it simply means creating a space where you can breathe again.
And maybe that’s part of the purpose of these quiet days after Christmas—time to reset, refocus, and bring a little more peace back into our homes.
“But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.”
—1 Corinthians 14:40 (NIV)
How do you stay on top of the little things that pile up when life gets busy?
Tips to help Keep those spaces clean
The “Container Limit”
Instead of buying more storage, let the container define the limit: it keeps clutter from quietly expanding, when a basket or drawer gets full, something has to go
Daily 10–15 Minute Resets
A short reset at the end of the day can make a huge difference. Set a timer for 10-15 minutes and see what can be accomplished during that time. Make it fun with the kids, see who can pick up the most items, or who can beat Mom cleaning the kitchen (kids versus parents). I like it when the kids work together as a team, so I try to have them work against me. I especially think this is helpful around the holidays, when you are coming and going or have company. Getting everyone to help makes for quick work.
It might include:
- returning items to their places
- clearing surfaces
- doing a quick sweep of the main living areas
Because it’s short, it doesn’t feel overwhelming.
The “One-Touch” Rule
When possible, handle something once.
Instead of setting an item down “for now,” try to put it directly where it belongs. It doesn’t eliminate clutter completely, but it slows the accumulation of those little piles.