This sermon-only transcript omits timestamps, worship music, announcements, and session logistics. YouTube’s automatic captions may contain errors.

Thank you. All right. Hi everyone. Welcome to those of you who are here for the first time and thank you. Yes, first time. Thank you for the returning people, you know, who came um after yesterday. So um let's see here. Oh, actually, you know what, guys? Let me go all the way to I realized this. Oh, yes, we're on part two, I believe. Okay. Oh, hold on one sec. I think this is the wrong presentation. Hold on one moment. I think this is wrong. Let me just open this up again. Did that go? And this is the Tuesday. Okay, we might have to move this over like that. Let's just do that because you know like how Okay. Sorry about that.

All right. Okay. Okay. So, today we're actually going to be transitioning from yesterday. Yesterday was kind of more like foundational. We're thinking about our philosophies of how we organize our home. Um and our the main scripture that we had talked about was um was about like all these things like keeping God first. If we you know um seek first the kingdom of God, then all these things are going to be added. But what do we do with all these things? So, what do we do with all the things in our home? We all have things, right? Raise your hand if you have things. Okay. So, today is going to be really the practical um component of that. And I did have a disclaimer. You know, I always have to have a disclaimer because in case, you know, I work with college students and I just need to make things very clear. So, today's session is about decluttering and organizing but not cleaning. Okay. So, what I'm saying this is like cleaning is separate. Cleaning is something you have we have to do

every day, right? So essentially, it's we're gonna we're going to think about inventorying all of our things. We're going to be thinking about um how to live with less because most of us could probably live with less um and how to manage things better, how to really experience more joy in living to be better stewards of our things. And so um if you have a cleaning issue, that's a different seminar. So okay, so this is kind of the biblical framework. Also, just as a recap that we talked about more extensively yesterday, um just something like the four main themes that I saw in the Bible that could relate to the way in which we we manage our assets and um just in general within the context of home organization.

And so stewardship is keeping in mind that everything that we have actually was given to us by God, right? Um because everything on this earth belongs to God. So the question, overarching question really is, are we faithfully using these things? So one of the questions we're going to be thinking about is in your house, do you use everything? Are you faithfully using everything that you have? Okay. And if not, do we need it? Okay. Um, and what is being hoarded that potentially could be used by someone else, right? So do we have things in our home that are just sitting there but could be used by people who are in like real need? Right?

Okay. Um the second one is order and this is kind of like the focus. So we're going to be talking again about how to declutter, how to manage all of our things. Um one aspect is minimalism. So we'll be kind of going through different philosophies of that in a very practical way. Um so that's that's kind of what we're going to focus on. But wise planning just by way of review is again this is going to be very very specific to you. So I can't tell you what would be wise planning for you. So, you have to think about your own home, all of your things, your own context, right? Um whether you have a family or not, um and your like all of your means, all that put together. So, that's kind of on you.

That's the work that you're going to be doing, you know, on your own. Okay? But today, I'm going to be focusing more on the practical. And finally, kingdom first. So, having um a ministry mindset, right? So, if we know that everything that we have in our home is going to like burn anyway, right? when Jesus comes. So, putting that in context, how are we serving others? Um, having a posture of generosity and being on the lookout um for ways to just alleviate the needs of others. Um, and so, yeah, how we treat the least of these. So, that's kind of again an overarching theme we want to keep in mind as we go through this process. And um just kind of like a random thing too.

Um cuz I'm as you probably know I'm a little bit obsessed with the home organization and and if you weren't here yesterday like you know this is I'm not like a professional organizer. It's just like a side hobby I thought it would be a fun topic to share on. I'm actually a teacher. Um but I have decluttered my church. I don't know the status of your church but um I have gone through all like that sharing closet that has stuff from like the 1950s. like I'm just I got permission, you know, but I'm telling you like like this this I would love to see this extended even to our church spaces where oftenimes we feel like that's someone else's job, but you know, take ownership of that. So, I've done that. I'm guilty of that. I will say I've cleared it through the people the powers that be. But, um I think a lot of these principles, too, could apply to

our shared church space, which is God's house, too. So, just keep that in mind. All right. This was our list we went over yesterday. Again, just kind of revisiting to jog our memories because I will tell you by the end of last night, guys, I was like, how in the world is it only Monday still, right? It was such a long day. So, um, so we were thinking a little bit again in your own minds like doing the reflection of like, man, what are the priorities? What governs how I organize all of my belongings in my house? Is there a rhyme or reason? Is it just like whatever? let me just throw this here, throw that there or like you know. So, um I just kind of wanted to refresh your memories about your priorities.

Um and so as we begin here, I really wanted us to um talk about a little bit about what motivates me to declutter. So that's going to be um kind of like a heavy emphasis today. Decluttering, process of decluttering, and then from there organizing. Okay. But I do feel like the step of decluttering and discarding comes first. So for me, um, being frugal is pretty important. And again, as I talked about yesterday, Israel and I kind of had a rough financial start. So, um, the combination of saving money and not wasting is kind of always in the back of my mind. Okay. So, I'm always kind of thinking about like what can we use up? Um, I think this really ties in a lot with the stewardship. So, like often times, this is just my obsessive personality as well, but I'll just like go through the kitchen, all the drawers, and even like the packets and stuff of like condiments. I'll be like, "Okay, if

there's a bunch of ketchup, I'll be like, you know, I'm just going to put it in my ketchup bin. Put them all in. Put them all in and then throw all all the junk." I'm always looking for like, "What can I use up? What can we eat in the fridge so we don't waste it? We're going to eat this." Um, okay. I'm not the best cook either, so like like I wish I could say whip up the most delicious meal with all the food in the fridge. No, I don't. But um I'm always trying to find ways the last day of school. Does anyone here have schoolaged children that go to school? Okay, you know like those school supply lists that you get like at the beginning of the school year when you have to buy a billion things and I had three kids. So on the last day of school, what I do is I do not waste a single second. I'm

like, "Give me your backpacks. Empty everything out." And all of your leftover school supplies go in this pile. I will organize all of those, put them in a bin, and I wait for school to start again and to see what I have already, right? I don't let it um get lost in the abyss of their their bedrooms. Okay? So, again, I have this overarching like concept of how can I use up the things, but how can I be frugal because we don't have a lot of, you know, excess spending money. All right. Another one is nomadic. We have moved so many times. So my husband is a pastor and so that has also been a motivation. I've always kind of been like held back by this like what if we move again though, right? And trust me guys, that is enough to like if you if I told you you guys are moving in one month, you're going to get rid of things

because you are not going to want to um pack everything up, you know, like in your house as is, right? So just again, that's a good way to think about it. Like if you want a place to start, like I need to declutter, like we have too too much stuff. Just think we're moving. What if we're moving? What would we take? Okay, so sometimes I even do that for fun because I'm kind of sick and twisted in that way. I'm like, hm. And then we start going through our things. Okay, stress reduction. So, as you know, I'm in grad school again, so full-time. So, oftentimes I just like studying at home. I don't want to be in the library with all the young kids anymore. You know, they're not even focusing. So, but for me it's hard for me to really study and focus if like things are out of place. Is anyone else like that here?

Um, where it's like kind of difficult to focus at home unless like Okay, nobody. Oh. Oh, thank you so much. Okay. All right. So, for some people that is a thing where you just need it organized. Like if I open a junk drawer or even if I know that this junk drawer is like all crazy or things are disorganized, I can't really be at fully at peace. And then also it's kind of like I do kind of use it as an excuse too. I'm like let me clean out this rather than write my paper. But um so stress reduction is one of my motivations. And then also just accomplishment. So, I do feel like I'm the type of person. Again, it's a it's probably a personality thing, but I do feel really good after I clean out a room, after everything's in order, after I know everything that's in the drawer or everything that like all of my clothes like in my closet that I love every single piece in it. Like, there's

like just satisfaction that comes with it. Nothing's wasted. I'm not sad like, oh, that size four pant that I used to wear, like I'm not sad anymore, guys, cuz that's not even in there. Okay, it's like bye-bye, you know? I don't have to see it. Why be sad over like you know the past? Okay. So, um these are kind of things that motivate me and I think each of you need to have your own motivations for why you would want to start on this journey that I'm kind of imposing on you. So, sorry, you know, this was not advertised as topic, but guess what? Welcome to decluttering and hopefully, you know, you jump on the bandwagon.

All right. So, to start off, we're going to do a turn and talk. So, if you can find someone, but I'm gonna um let's see here. Okay, we're gonna let you talk to somebody next to you. At first, I was like, maybe I'll make you meet a new friend. Should I should I do that? No. Okay. Okay. You can just find anybody. All right. Because I kind of don't want if you maybe if you live with somebody like if somebody's your partner here, maybe don't talk to that person because then I don't want to stir up like negative feelings, you Because if it were me with my partner with Israel, I would just be like, "Yeah, what really stresses me is the shed that you should have been, you know, whatever." But anyway, I want you to think about what what is one part of your home that brings you joy? Like what is your favorite spot in your house?

Okay? And kind of describe that. And what is one part of your home that causes you stress? Like you don't even want to see it, okay? Or like you want to pretend that it just like accidentally burns or something. Okay? So think about if you have that and maybe you know what and maybe if you like love every aspect of your house I know that there probably very organized people here then you can just share your secret maybe like you know include you know share that in in your turn and talk. So please find somebody to talk to and I'm going to give you a few minutes to discuss these two questions about your home.

So What is it? He knows how to do it outside. Seems I hope I like whenever I try to get letters have day. I try I think you delay. I guess I like I like Okay, let's bring it back together. Okay, so did we confess all of our our um we all opened up. We're vulnerable, you know, with everything. I hope that all of you have a place. Raise your hand if you have a place that you really that brings you a lot of joy in your home, though, like that you can actually say there's a place in my home. Okay. Raise your hand if there's definitely most certainly a place a specific place that causes you stress. Raise your hand. Okay. Okay. So, I don't know. Hopefully, we can you can learn, you know, we can talk about something today that that can address that. All right. So, as I mentioned yesterday, it was in the early 2010s, guys, where I did jump on the decluttering bandwagon. Okay. Marie Condo.

All right. Um, I read both of her books and I was like full-on gung-ho. Um, and she, you know, went on to have a bunch of like shows. She's just like this major like home um, organization influencer. And some people I guess you would call it minimalism, but um actually she wouldn't consider herself I don't think a minimalist because it's more like she's just like very intentional about what you have. And um we'll talk about her kind of like the core principles of of this guru. She's like this organizational guru, right? And so this is this is Japanese Japanese um style of decluttering, I guess. All right. So here are the core principles and of the conmie method and that's why they call it you know like it's like her last name and first name but shortened conmie. Um the first one is this is step one I'm sorry let me just I had to make this bigger because I cannot read.

Step one in this process okay like again we're imposing this on you but you are now going to embark on a journey of decluttering your home. So, you want to visualize your ideal lifestyle. Okay? What does that look like for you? Like, what do you want to w open your door and walk into, you know, after work every day? Okay? What does that look like? What does that feel like? Um, and what do you imagine? All right, that's kind of where you want to start. That's going to be different for everybody because remember when we talked about the different philosophies of home organization. There's like the efficiency and functionality and then there's also um you know there is minimalism and decluttering but then there's also like just like you know a design focus. So it's really up to you right but you want to envision what that looks like for you. And I think it's important to kind of have that clear, that wise planning ahead of time, right?

Okay. The next one is the principle is discard first and organize later. So you don't have to worry about like how to organize everything yet. Like you don't have to worry about like getting those bins and your drawers so everything's all set. It's just kind of like you focus on the discarding because most everybody has extra stuff. Raise your hand if you feel like you have extra stuff in your home that you do not need. Okay. Okay. So um that is that is the principle. Okay. So we focus on the discarding then we'll organize later and organizing becomes easy after you discard what you don't need. Trust me. Next one is keep only what sparks joy. So again yesterday I made the joke but through this process again I'll tell you what the process is in a nutshell but you you actually physically hold every single one of your objects and you think does this spark joy? So it's like lit literally would be like you know this you know and then I'd say does a spark joy and let's say this

doesn't okay because it's like a Hello Kitty who has a Hello Kitty as a grown adult then I will say nah I don't need it and then I'll say thank you Hello Kitty computer organizer for helping me keep all of my wires like all of these years then you toss it. Okay right that's kind of the idea. So it's kind of funny. Okay. I don't know if it's like spiritualistic or something a little bit kooky but um that's her philosophy. Okay. And then you tidy by categories. Okay. So there are different ways in which you process through your own home. And I will say this, when we're doing the Conmary method, okay, this is an event like this is you have to like take a week off of for vacation and stuff like this is not like oh you do a little bit of here and a little bit of there. This is like if you want a whole home reset guys, this is the method that you do.

Okay, does that make sense? So I will say that I have gone through um this whole thing maybe like three times over the span of the past 15 years and I'm talking like over like and and we'll talk about um the exact steps. So this is again keep in mind if you are committed right now okay I will not do an alter call don't worry but if you are committed in your heart like oh man I want to go home and just like tackle my house you set aside in your calendar I give you I give a week like vacation time or whatever like where you're doing nothing or maybe you can do like a series of Sundays whatever but I think it's better to do all in a row and you go through it here is the process of um how to do that first you start with clothing. Okay. Pretend that you you're talking about just yourself, though, because I'll talk a little bit about

what happened when I my kids started talking, you know, and I um like as I grew up and they were like had their own opinions, it got tricky there. But all of my stuff, okay, so think of all of your clothes, every single place that your clothes are stored in the entire house, you gather all of your clothes and you put them in one location. Okay? So, I picked like my family room or living room. And I'm talking about you go through every single coat closet. You go through all the storage bins. I don't know if you guys have storage bins. Like in Michigan, we have like all the seasonal clothes. So, you bring everything out. All of your shoes. All of your shoes that are in the in the back doorway, in the mudroom, that are stored in the basement, in the garage, on the shoe rack. Like, you just gather all of your stuff. And you need to see it in all of its glory. And you might be shocked because it's probably going to be a gigantic heap, but you put it all in one place. Okay, are you kind of

getting the picture? You gather every single You do laundry, it's done and it's all there. Okay, not one piece of clothing is missing and you start sorting through one by one. Okay, and you look through each piece by piece. Some things will be easy. Okay, I like these shoes. But you really have to think about do the brain work like you have to be also wellfed and well-rested before you go through this process because you need to have stamina. Okay. And you need to have that decision-making power to be like, you know, I'm going to make good decisions right now. I'm not cranky and hungry and I'm going to be like, "Oh, I don't care.

I'm going to get rid of all of it or I'm going to like keep all of it." Okay, so that's how that works with um clothing. And that's usually the easiest to make decisions on. The next step then is books. Okay, so these are all of your books, too. So she it's not like, "Oh, whatever." Like you gather them all. You pull them all off the shelf. And maybe this is not possible for those of you with a lot of books, but you you maybe bring all the books into the library where you have all the shelves and you start sorting through one by one. So, do you see how this will take a lot of time? Right? And you don't do you don't give yourself 10 minutes to do this. You're giving yourself hours. Okay?

Because you're really thinking to yourself, does this spark joy? Like, I read this book already. Will I ever ever read it again? Okay? um even if you love it like let's say you love like let's say you throw it out what's the worst that can happen you could probably get another book if you really needed it right but um going through all the books next one is papers in her process so you just gather all the loose papers in your whole house and this is very different now because everything's digitized but at the time it's like even like all of your bills even all of like those files with all those random papers like all of your kids papers like every single piece of paper, you like gather it together. Then it's what um is referred to kimono, which is the miscellaneous items. So this is where then you start going through all of like your kitchen wear, so on and so forth. Okay? But that's all done in one setting. And then finally the sentimental items because that's

going to be the hardest. But you go through one by one and you look you go through every single one of your belongings. All right. Now, um, again, this is an event. This for me, I I tackled one thing every day. So, I did it in five days. Um, and I would like, you know, you have to like take breaks. It's kind of like, you know, you're in a marathon and you need to make sure you have nutrition. Okay. Um, but every time I've done this, I've ended up either discarding or donating close to like nine gigantic huge garbage bags of stuff like every time. Um, and so again, when you have the kingdom first mindset as well throughout this whole thing, like I would label everything. These are all thing and you're you're thinking about it and you have the energy. You're like, "Okay, this whole bin or this bag I'm going to going to donate to this shelter that I

know of. This bag I'm going to think about, oh, the college students, you know, maybe they could use these kitchen supplies." But you're very intentional about giving. And that's also very helpful because you know that your items that you normally have a hard time giving things up because we think, "Oh, but it's still so good, right?" But it's like if you're not using it, somebody else can. Okay? So, it's also again an opportunity to kind of kickstart like a ministry, kickstart like a way to reach out and help others knowing that your items that have been collecting dust for like decades will actually be used. Okay. All right. So, that is the Conmary method. I'm going to have another turn and talk now. Who has done Conry the Conry method before actually or who is familiar with it? Okay, a few people.

Okay, perfect. Okay. Who has done it recently? Has anyone done it pretty recently? Okay. I'm going to have you just think about um process this out with somebody next to you or like maybe a new person. I don't know if you're willing to branch out, but how long do you think this process would take in your home? And do you feel the other members of your household, if you have any, if you have multiple people in your home, would be supportive of this? Okay. So, let's just entertain this idea of like, hm, is this doable? I'm going to give you a couple minutes for that. Or if you like think this is like you would never do this, you can share that too.

I can hear the possibility. I guess it makes sense. Okay, let's wrap this up maybe in uh 30 seconds. All right. Okay. So, I was like gung-ho conmary. Um, then my kids got a little bit older, you know, like when they're young, you can just do what you want, you know, but then they started getting a little bit older and I tried I tried doing this method and it started getting a little complicated because this is see that little face. Okay, that's our middle son, Micah, and he's our little hoarder. Um, and that it's like a personality or something. I don't know because he's still a hoarder now. He just loves to keep everything and it's like organized you know I have to give him things but he's he's going to be in college so I'm like hopefully you know his roommates cool with you know his collecting but um but you know we were going through and I was really trying to empower my kids because you don't want to speak for them

right and I wanted to give them like agency you know I'm like you know what let me but everything he would hold be like sparks joy yeah that sparks joy too and then so then there was a point where I was like, you know, when you know, a lot of times because of three boys, people would give like gifts in threes of, you know, like toys and all this stuff. And so I would just go through and end up like doing a big donation thing like, "Okay, we're going to fill this bin, you know, and I would just start putting stuff in and he'd be like, "No, mama, this sparks joy. It sparks joy." And he would start trying to like fight. So things get very complicated. um you know once you have kids who have their own opinions and also again with my partner with Israel like you know he he even wrote about me once in like an article saying how I like made him get rid of all of his suits and now he has no suits let me

know and I was like oh great so it's very difficult I think if um if you have family who are not on board so I think focus on like your own things I would say and maybe like shared things but um this is kind of why I think the comry method is very limiting to like when you are living with other people. But I think it's great as a Kickstarter, as an event, okay? Especially if for all of your belongings and things that maybe you feel comfortable sorting through like maybe kitchen, garage, you know, whatever. Um but yeah, so so my new home girl when it comes to organizing is Don.

Okay. She's this lady. um she's like a very spunky um woman and she's refers to herself as a minimal mom and again like I said like I don't know if I would categorize myself as a minimalist. I know people who are actual minimalists but I do really really avoid clutter. I don't want and I really it's important for me like I'm going to mention some of these principles that I know I inventory all of my like I know what I have. There's nothing that's sitting in the attic space that I don't know about. Okay, because it's just sitting there doing nothing, right? might as well get rid of it or throw it out. So, um I really appreciate her tips.

I don't get paid by her, okay? I'm not like, you know, she is not sponsoring anything here, but these are some of the principles. One is understanding bandwidth. And everyone in this room has a different bandwidth when it comes to how much capacity and energy we have at the end of the day to tidy up. So again, there's a difference between cleaning and tidying. Cleaning, we have to like be cleanly, right, guys? We have to like scrub our toilets. We have to like wipe down the counters and everything. That's different because decluttering is all those things. It's dealing with the things that are here like, oh, this, let's put this away. Is there a spot for it? You know, everything having a place all those things. So, how much bandwidth do you have to tidy up your house at the end of the day? And really, the whole concept is once you conmarie your house, right, you have everything that you need. Everything has a place. At the end of every day, it should just take five, 10 minutes to just, oh, I know this goes in the trash or throwing out the trash.

Oh, this goes in my backpack. My backpack goes on this shelf, you know? Do you see what I'm saying? Like everything has a place. So, it's not like, oh, where should I put this random scissors? Like, oh, scissor. No, there's a place for scissors because you decided all the scissors, like the scissors going to go in this third drawer, in this third slot, whatever. Okay. So, your bandwidth, you have to think about it like you're you start with a tall cup of water in the morning. Okay. But every decision that we have to make about all these things that we see in our house, because whether we know it or not, they are causing us stress. They're draining our little bit of our energy, right?

We're we're we're experiencing some decision fatigue. Looking for things, cleaning up extra clutter, managing piles, making unnecessary decisions, dealing with unfinished tasks. All these things are actually wearing away at your bandwidth. Okay? Might even be making you irritable, guys. you know, I didn't realize, but those things really make me irritable, too. So, um, so thinking about how we want to really protect our bandwidth. So, again, um, sometimes people think, oh, decluttering, that's like a certain personality type or like I want to organize, it's a personal. No, actually, it's to make your home happy, right? It's to make sure that you are able to protect your time um your your personal time but also time with your loved ones in a space and creating a space that you really love and that eventually if you have kids like like I said our goal right now is to make our home a place our kids love that's a priority for us like our we want our kids to love our home so that they'll come home and visit us often that

they'll bring their friends that it's a space for them so that's always the top of our our minds right so bandwidth here is her core the these are her um core um philosophies here. The inventory management theory. So view items as inventory. Every single thing that you possess in your house is like an inventory like like an item item that that you can inventory. So it takes up time. It took money first of all probably right typically was money, time, energy and attention to manage. So from the moment you brought something into your house, you had to decide what do I do with it? Am I going to use it?

Am I going to put it somewhere? Like am I going to leave it for somebody else to take care of? Am I, you know, burdening the space? Whatever. Okay. Her the goal here really for Don as a minimal mom is to reduce. So we kind of talked about this. Most people I would say most Americans, right, we have too many things. So, in general, there is a need to reduce because we still live in this consumer culture. We're over buying. People are always bringing new things into our house all the time. Every member, we're all guilty of it. So, we're always thinking about how do we reduce the inventory. Okay? Um especially if you're feeling overwhelmed in your house, like if you walk in and you're like, I got to do all this stuff.

Okay? Trust me, if you have less stuff, there's less stuff to do. Okay? And finally, um stop organizing access. So, why are we wasting time like organizing like the five pairs of scissors where we only need one for example, right? Like it's like, oh, where's the scissors? Okay, but there's all these scissors going around like a scissor here, a scissor here. Like, why not just one pair of scissors? So, again, it's like eliminating excess. If we can just live simply because really we only need one pair of scissors. And guess what? Let's say that goes dull, you just go buy a new one, right? Like, not a big deal. So, sometimes we we hoard and have excess and we don't really know why. I don't know, maybe it's the way we were raised or maybe you just think it's so hard to go shopping. We all know it's not, right? So, um, we don't want to waste any bandwidth organizing access

things. Why? Why do we keep rearranging those boxes in the basement? We just keep moving them from here to there and there and you know. So, all right. Here's another method I want to just propose to you, okay? as you're going through this process of like thinking about all of your things, beginning to try to inventory all of your things, okay? Because I can guarantee you that if you can inventory all of your things, you're going to feel so much better and you're going to realize you can live with very, very, very little. All right, this is the line method, okay? From Don, imagine drawing a line across each room in your home. So, it's just like an imaginary line. And only items that support your current station in life or season, sorry, I can't even read. Um, that only support your current season in life and your life goals, right? Will cross that are allowed to cross it.

Everything else you either like um will exit, you throw it away or donate or she does allow for something called a time will tell bin. Okay, the time will tell bin is is very important for those of you who are afraid to discard. If you find yourself thinking like, oh, I just can't get rid of I don't know. I might need it. Whatever. You can stick it in what she calls a timewell bin. You box it up. You put it all these things in a time will tell bin and you tape it up and box it and you do put it away, but you label it time will tell and you wait 3 months, six months. If you have whatever time limit you want and if you've never thought about it, you finally get rid of it. Okay? So, that's kind of like a little um scaffolding for those of you who have a really hard time getting rid. But you I think oftentimes you never look at that. Time will tell.

Anyway, so this line, okay, here are examples of what that line could look like in different rooms in your home. Okay, so for any living spaces or dining rooms, this is a line that I love. The line is it has to be easy to clean and tidy. Okay. So, if you have this line that you've drawn for yourself that your living area has to promote rest, okay, it's a place for a family connection and it must be easy to clean and tidy. That's how you're going to determine whether you decide you keep or not. Okay? So, if you have excessive decorative items that are so hard to clean or you have to like take it in to dry cleaning, okay, get rid of that.

Why? Why do you have that, right? Stacks of magazines, get rid extra throw pillows, furniture used mainly for storage. Okay, sometimes storage is the problem. We have too many things to store. But if you get rid of the storage, you will no longer have those things too. So we need to eliminate things plus storage. We think the answer is get more bins, get more storage, but that is not solving the problem of access. Okay, so any extra blankets, any decor that no longer brings you joy. Maybe it brought you joy before, but not anymore. Okay. Knickknacks, unneeded flat surfaces. So that random table or counter that's just there that you know or like you know like I always think in the bedroom, you know that chair that we put in there but it just hangs clothes.

You got to get rid of that because then you'll put your clothes away, right? Okay. Um area rugs. So that is the line. It has to be easy to clean and easy to tidy up quick. Okay. The next one is a bathroom. So the line is anything in this bathroom has to be used daily, weekly or monthly. Okay? So if it's not used daily, weekly, or monthly, you get rid of it. So um bathrooms often hold a lot of I spent a lot of good money, especially if it's cosmetics or creams or you, you know, that thing that was going to take away all your wrinkles, you know. Um but it's important that you just move away from that. You're starting fresh. Okay? So any expired products gone. Half-used beauty products you don't use anymore, gone. samples you never reach for. Gone. Okay. Duplicate tools, outdated makeup, products um that you bought for a routine that you don't follow, but step one, two, three, four.

You never do the one, two, three, four, just get rid of it all. Okay. Um extra towels that you never use, clutter drawers, unused cleaning products, hair products that don't work for you. I give you I give you permission to just like toss them, throw them in the trash or I don't know if you have some if they're really good products you don't like, you can give it to save them up in a bag, a nice cute little bag and give them to somebody at church or some you know high school girl like hey you want to try these products or whatever. Okay, but um the line is something that you use daily, weekly or monthly.

Um I think we have one more. This is just an example again. So, the clo clothes um and this is something that I adopted the most recently because I used to always think that I'm going to lose weight. I'm like on this mission to lose weight and I get back to a certain size so I would keep the clothes, you know, as motivation. Okay. No, not anymore. Because my line is everything will fit me right now. I feel good about it. Okay? And it's an option for me to wear today. And guess what? If I do end up losing weight or gaining weight or whatever it may be, I go to the store and get more clothes. That's fine. You know, it's not a big deal. Okay. So, I'm just removing that guilt. Um, and just living for, you know, making sure that we're using everything that's in there.

So, any clothes that no longer fit, uncomfortable shoes, you know how when you're, you know, you're ready to go to church and you see all the shoes, you never pick those certain shoes, like get rid of those because you're never going to pick them. Okay. Duplicates. worn out basics, items that you keep out of guilt. So maybe it's even something very special, you know. Um if you're willing to let that go, I suggest just let it go. Give yourself permission to be free from that. Items with tags on it. I don't care if it's new, but you never wore it. You don't like it. Okay? So just get rid of it. Okay? So this is kind of an idea again of ways and of course there's these are all resour like free resources online. There's so many, but to give you an idea of how you can start thinking about um like like an approach to starting to declutter the things. Okay. So, I want you to think

about all the contents in and around your home and and with with this concept of inventory. Okay. I want you to be very honest like just take some time a minute just thinking to yourself what percentage of all of the things in your home do you feel you have inventoried meaning that you would know what what exactly is in every single one of those things. Okay. Um so think about all the drawers, think about the garage, think about um you know closets. Okay. How much do you think you know is in there of all of those things? Right? what have you inventoried and is in your brain? So, I'm going to give you a couple minutes to just talk that out.

Think about it and then talk it out with somebody next to you um of how much what percentage you think of your things are inventoried. Okay. All right. Okay, I'll give you guys one more minute. Okay, let's bring it together. So, um the goal really would be for you to know pretty much where at least 90% of all your things because we can't memorize every little detail. Um, so that's kind of something to keep in mind. If you if you do not know what is in what are the contents, you know, in your drawers or if you do not know like, you know, what are the contents in this closet, for example, that's a great place to start actually, right? Because you should be physically able to see and know all the things that you have. All right? Because the whole purpose is for you to use them, right? Okay, we're almost done. Um, I'm gonna end here and then at the end we're going to have some time for us to kind of share out if

anybody has any um, insights or things that they've learned or things that they intend to do. But I'm going to end with my top five habits for organizing the home. Okay, so these are kind of like things that I like to do. Um and the first one is after major decluttering set in motion systems to keep track of inventory and maintenance. No. So for example, let's say you decide to con your house. Okay, you you do that. It doesn't have to be conry. You can go room by room. You can do any any sort of method that you want. But you've discarded all of your stuff that you don't need, right? you've pulled out, you just like set aside time. You did the thing, you pulled out all the junk and you like sorted through, you opened all the bins, you opened all the boxes, right? This is after that. Okay. Um it's important to have set in motion certain

benchmarks so that you can always revisit. Okay. So the idea is again like I said, every day you tidy maybe for 10 minutes, but things are going to accumulate. So the first thing um one example is you know the medicine cabinets the medicine's like always expired when you go when you need it. So every January this is just like arbitrary but you know like for me it's like once a year it's like I'll just go through and look through all the medicines. I'm going to look through all the medicines right now. You take the time to take the 10 minutes to go and check everything and throw everything that's expired. Okay. The first of every month check for expired food in the fridge or the pantry. Like don't wait like years later. just think, okay, I have 10, 15 minutes right now. I'm gonna just do the thing. I'm gonna like, you know, I'm gonna go through all the food,

whatever. Okay. Um, for another example, every Sunday you're going to sort through all the mail and discard. Like our mail just kind of accumulates on the pile, you know, on the counter. So, like one day a week, we're just going to go through it and then get that settled. Um, early December before Christmas is always a big time. I'm like, I'm getting ahead of time. I'm getting rid of all the stuff already. At the same time, inventorying my kids things to see what they need because I was also that mom that would be like, "Yay, for Christmas, you're getting socks and underwear." You know, of course, I would try to do fun things, but also whatever they needed. Like, here's some three pairs of jeans cuz you're right, you got too tall.

Whatever. So, um, early December is always a time every year, like if your kids are growing that you can really, um, think about, okay, let's get rid of all these board games they don't play with anymore because they'll be getting new ones. Okay? So, setting things in motion so that they're regularly going to be maintained. The other one is to consider weekly, monthly, yearly cycles or events as signals. So things that naturally happen, okay, that you're not you're not intentionally doing. But for example, trash day after decluttering, like after the Conmarie thing, I actually like love trash day, guys. Nobody's more excited about trash day than me because before like the night before, I'm like, what can we throw away? What are more things we can throw away to eliminate things out the house because a trash person will just take it away. So that's a good time again to go through the fridge, go through any of other things, go through like some drawers, just pick a drawer like what can I throw away so that I can put it in the trash bin, try to make that thing,

you know, you don't try to make it full, but again it's part of the maintenance. Okay, so a weekly thing like okay, what can I discard? Trash day is coming the end or start of school year. Again, every year if you have growing kids, I would do the same thing like get all the kids uniforms, get all the kids shoes, everything, church clothes, pull it all out. What do we need? right? What can we donate right now? What can we pass on to that needy family, you know, or to to the shelter or to Goodwill, whatever it may be. Okay, these are things that naturally occur cycllically that should be a trigger for you to signal, okay, this is a time there's a little bit of decluttering here, right? Um, spring cleaning, you know, for us in Michigan, we have our four seasons. So, every time it's spring, I'm like garage time, garage and shed right away. Like, we got

to do that. we're going to sweep it out and clean it um before Christmas going on a trip. Before we go on a trip, I always clean the whole house, okay? It drives my husband crazy because he's like, "Why are you cleaning the whole entire house frantically?" I'm like, "I just want to come home to a clean house, you know?" But that's also an opportunity for me. I'm like, "Let me just get it out of the way and then it's done and then I can come home um and don't have to worry about that." Okay. Pathfinder Yard Sale, our Pathfinder Club has one every year. So, I'm always collecting stuff for that. So, I don't know if your church or any local organization or something you can just like save and it's I want to give because it's helping a cause, right? The kids that I want to support. So, I'm more generous also when I think about what I can get rid of. Daylight savings.

I know one of our friends every daylight savings he actually changes all the batteries in his house, you know, the ones because that's his signal. Like, oh, he doesn't ever want to like run out of battery for his clocks if you're moving or an annual um full inventory check. So again, just just a way to sweep through everything, okay? I um I do not even use my attic space anymore, you know, like I do not put stuff in the attic because it just gets lost in there forever. So really being able to pull things out, know what you have, and try to use them again. Okay, number three. Create organization tools and rules that work for you. I always did clothes bins as my kids were growing up. So they would just move from this to this to this. Once the last kid finished this bin, it all left, you know. And um and that was just the way that I could

manage all the things. Um once my kids, again, like I said, some of my kids are more have hoarding tendencies and others don't care. But I got bought each of them a bin. I said, "You can put whatever you want in there. This is like up to you. I'm not going to make you donate or throw it away." So they have one large bin that they still have to this day. They still use and they're like, you know, in college. But that's those are the things that they chose to keep. Okay? So I give them that space. Um and then obviously they have their bedroom, but you know, so whatever works for you. Everything has a place. For me, my rule is in my shoe rack and my closet, I have a certain number of hangers, and that's all I I need. I know that's more than enough clothes. So if I buy new clothes, I will eliminate something from there. Okay. Um, so I'll switch out because I I don't want I don't want my closet to be so tight that

I'm like cramming more stuff in there or cramming stuff in my drawers and and if I really feel like I want more, I could buy another storage space or get a bigger closet. I don't know, whatever it may be. But that is my rule for clothes hangers or for clothes and shoes. Okay, so think about what what limit what your line is, right? Okay, fourth one. We're almost done here. Minimize storage for only items that are regularly used. So again, like I said, troubled places are always going to be like the atticss, the garages, the sheds if you have basements, but in Michigan, we have basements which are total like traps to to save so much junk. But I would really try to avoid that. Just like you don't need to really store like for what what are we hoarding things for, right?

Sometimes we think like, oh, I don't know in case um but find a way to use it or find a way to um repurpose it or whatever it may be. But I would just really tackle those areas and think, what can I get rid of and what can I not replace there? Unless it's things that I know I will revisit after a year. Maybe kids clothes, bins, you know, you have to wait a year if your kids are growing up or something like that. Okay. And finally, before you add to your home, consider your bandwidth. So I think really again having this you know this conversation with yourself really thinking about what is your bandwidth what is the philosophy what is your vision of what you want your home to be like and just like make it happen because sometimes we think we can't make it happen but you really can. Okay. So, again, um one in and one out, that's kind of like a good um uh a way like a method that you can eliminate having

access. Um maybe if you decide you want to start raising chickens like we did. So, we have like chickens. You have to give up something else. You can't just do chickens and then have everything else or else you start going crazy, right? So, maybe okay, we got chickens, but I'm not going to do a garden then because we have the chickens, right? So picking either or even with your kids, they want to pick up a new hobby. They want to do this. Guess what? What's going to go then? Right? Because we don't have bandwidth for everything. Um buy books or crochet. Okay? So let's say you picked up crochet and you don't read anymore. Just get rid of the books then, right? Um and you can always go back later. You can always switch. You can always move back. Sometimes we think when we get rid of things it's permanent, but it never really is. Okay?

And we can't have it all. So those are my top five. Just a reminder of the framework that we talked about yesterday again. Um, and now I just want us to close. We have, you know, it's like 3:32 now. I think we're supposed to end 3:45. But I was wondering, I wanted to kind of give this time back to you and see if any of you are willing to share something that kind of like throughout these the past couple days or maybe just from today, something that you really want to implement in your home. um or maybe like like a takeaway or something that you want to remember. Okay. Or if you have a question or concern that's still lingering, you can also address that.

But is there anybody who's willing to share anything with the whole group? Yeah. Oh my goodness. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. No, absolutely. Thank you for sharing that because we actually live with my mother-in-law and our parents um my mother and father-in-law had lived with us too. So it was a similar situation and so we had to be very careful. I understand that you know but we really divided out spaces. We kind of carved out like this is anything you want you know and and so maybe that's just something you can think about like what are spaces designated spaces you can carve out like you can put anything here but this is you know I don't know in a way that that works for you. But thank you for sharing that. You can totally do it. Yeah. Just make sure you are, you know, you once you set aside that time and you're committed, usually we give up because we don't have the

time, you know, we were like, "Oh, it's too much, right? Overwhelmed." So, I hope you can do it. All right. Anyone else? Anyone else? Even if it's just one takeaway or one something that you want to just implement out of anything that we discussed or shared, anything that struck out to you. Yeah. Yes. I appreciate that. Yes. Absolutely. I love that. Nice. Yes. Yes. Mhm. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Amen. Yes. Yes. I love that. Yes. I love it. Thank you so much for sharing that. That's awesome. using the same bin. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Then you got to get rid of those two. I love it. Thank you so much for sharing. Yes. Okay. Yes, Pastor Ch. He was my favorite youth pastor growing up.

Just want to say Okay. Thank you for being here. It's an honor. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. I I think for me like if you're dealing with a family, if it sparks joy for anybody, you keep it and everyone just understands and you do it for the sake of the relationship. Yeah. I really think so. if anybody if it if it sparks joy. Now I think um if you're able to slowly convince them or you know like if it's one person but you know like over time give it time but but you definitely this is I learned the hard way because I was kind of like imposing my get rid of everything you know and my kids started getting really like scared like oh no like hide all your stuff mama's coming like donation bag is coming you know like because I'm like nope you don't need that you don't need you know um and so I I I think that

if it sparks joy for anybody it's really important to anybody then everyone should understand and we keep it. That's that's what I would say. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yeah. You know there are um our boys also really like stuffed animals. Okay. They Yeah. So, we actually there are a lot of different um storage solutions for stuffed animals. I would say if they're willing to keep it all in one place, but right now all the boy stuffed animals are in this big pouch. It's like a bean bag type thing where we we made it multi-purpose where it's like filled with it in there and zips up, but it's like also a bean bag. I don't know.

That's kind of what what makes me feel a little bit better about it. But I do think that um there might come a day where your kids don't care about it anymore, which I you know, I think it's coming. But again, I think it really is important if it does spark joy for them, they there just has to be a place for it. So that's the thing like their job is if the place is this huge bin in this corner, like a it's plushy bin, then they need to put it back there every day or whatever. You know what I'm saying? Like at once a week or whatever. So, as long as So, the the whole point is not minimalism. Again, like I'm saying, like the whole point is not minimalism. It's just that there's a place for everything, though. That everything in your house has a place. So, the plushy can't go like all 50 places and it's all

over. It's in one place. And if the kid sometimes that even will be a deterrent like you realize like, oh man, like if all the plushies have to go in our room and in this one corner, like that's so many. Maybe we can just keep 10 or maybe we can just keep five or something. But it's tricky with kids. But I will say because having boys now that are like grown up, I'm like, I wish they would still play with their plushies, but there's going to come a time where they're gonna be like, get rid of them all. I don't care. So, so it's coming. But I think let them play with the plushies. You know, we don't want to take those away.

Anyone else have any ideas though and thoughts on that though? That's kind of I'm just speaking from what I think. Oh, you do. Good. I know, right? It is. was pretty. Yes. Did you want to say something? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Oh my goodness. Oh yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. No, I think that's great. And again, like that's perfect. That's like that what storage should be. It's like there like somebody loves those things. You know what's in there, right? It's not like random boxes like you moved once and you don't know what's in it and you're like, "Ah, it's just sitting there because I don't want to go through it." it like it's inventoried, but there's a purpose and it'll go with your daughter when she's ready. Yeah, I think that's perfect. Exactly. Yeah. There's no need to like traumatize our children, which I kind of did. So, that's what I'm saying. I'm like showing so much grace to your kids, but my kids be like, "Mama, you didn't you forced us to get rid of all our stuff." But anyway, yeah.

Any other comments or thing? One, maybe one more if anyone has anything to share. I had one more tip I'll share real quick and that was for my sister-in-law. She said a new trend for organizing is something called kits where you form a kit for things that um belong together. So you organize things. So for example, I think she was giving the example of like baking. So typically baking like you store you might store your flour and sugar and um different items. I don't know, different places, but you kind of put it all together all right next to like the blender and everything because you bake if she bakes all the time she bakes bread then all of them are all together in a kit. So then you know so organizing by kit by hobbies um I think is a new new thing and it sounds really exciting. I might try but okay thank you so much for being so

amazing. Hopefully you guys learned something um or are inspired to tackle your homes. Um it is possible again to live in a home where you feel like everything is organized and inventoried. Um and so hopefully you know we can get there. So let's go ahead and pray to close and all right. Our loving father in heaven we want to thank you so much for this time together. Thank you for every family, every person that's represented here. And we ask, Father, that those of us who are on an organizational journey for our items, the things that you have so lovingly and graciously given to us, that we will be good stewards of it. That you'll help us to have homes that are orderly. That um a place where angels would love to dwell, a place where we can minister, a place where we can invite um others to to enjoy the time in our spaces. That we will be able to provide that um for others. and we just thank you for your

love and your grace. Continue to be with us throughout this camp meeting. Bless um all the programming and we just ask that you'll help us to be faithful to you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Thanks so much everyone.