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high quality. Hi, good afternoon everyone. Um, okay. So, my brother I I need to kind of do like a disclaimer. Okay, so um I want to kind of explain my topic all these things. So, my brother had asked because you know he's part of Riverside what um if I could do an afternoon talk. He's like yeah it's very flexible. It's like whatever you know like anything. Um and he was like a lot of the kids their kids will be you know in the classes and so just kind of make it light and so I thought of something that I think would be very relatable to each of us. I am an educator and I'll talk a little bit more about that but I was thinking like okay not everyone here necessarily has children or are in school or whatever. So I thought everybody has like stuff right we all have things at home. We all have possessions. Okay. So, I'm like, why not do a home organization talk? So, this is

going to be a reflective study on home organization and hopefully it's very interactive. Um, so yes, we're going to do a two-part. Okay, I'll talk a little bit more about that in a sec. But, um, kind of like this is this feels a little bit like first day of school for me. So, I kind of want to know where you're all coming from. So maybe if you don't mind, if you would indulge me by raising your hands, which region of the US you come from just so I know how many people are out of state, how many Midwesterners are here, you know that I can relate to. Um, so who's here from the west region?

Who's from like Oh, okay. A lot of people west coast. Yes. Okay. Yes. You know, however you identify is fine. You know, you can choose. Um, how about the Southwest? Oh, nobody. Okay. How about the Midwest? Midwest. Okay. A couple people. Yay. Um, Southeast. Okay. Yay. All right. So, I mean, probably Southeast they'll go to the East Coast camp meeting or there. Okay. And then Northeast, a few people. Okay. Welcome. All right. So, a lot of um people from the West Coast, but that is great. we have a good group. Okay, so here I want to start with a little disclaimer that um I don't have a degree in closet engineering.

Okay, so we're doing this on home organization, but this is like a hobby. I just, you know, it's like I did self selfress research. Um and I don't believe having a tidy pantry will determine your salvation. I know this is like a camp meeting and stuff, but you know, this is not like so important for Jesus to save you. He can save you nonetheless. All right. And if your garage is messy, I don't want you to feel judged at all. You know, we're all here working together um towards a towards you know, whatever goal that we have, right? And um there I don't think there's one right or ideal way. So don't worry for those of you fretting that I'm going to force you to do the Conmarie method on your home and you know or you're panicking right now thinking like my spouse is not going to make me clean the whole house. All right. Okay.

So this is my family. um just by way of introduction. So this is our most recent family picture that I thought, okay, let me just share it. Um and this is at at our middle son. He's in the middle. His name is Micah. He graduated from high school. And um Israel's here like um pastor had had mentioned before. We've been married for 22 years. And our oldest son is Manu. He's the one on the end there. Um he's 20 years old, junior at Andrews. Micah, our middle son, is going to be a freshman at Andrews this fall. And our youngest is Ty. He is um a junior in high school. So, our oldest and youngest are actually helping out here. So, you may see them walking around. Um Ty is helping with the juniors and Manu is helping with high school. Um all right. So, and we live in Michigan. So, I don't know if you've been hearing much about what's going on

in Michigan, but we currently have massive Canadian wildfire smoke that's been coming in. So, like the whole state of Michigan literally smells like smog. And um so it's been terrible. And then we also have um the cycllospora. I don't know if you heard of the cycllospora parasite. Yeah. Like our middle son actually got that. Um so he's working at camp in Michigan. So the symptom is explosive diarrhea. So for like up to a month. So that's terrible. And so we're and then we have like record-breaking like heat like heat waves. So we're so thankful to be here in this beautiful place. So thank you for inviting us um to be here. All right. The last time I was here, I was mentioning to Arthur um is was Cayam after our Cayam. We were part of the sixth batch. Anyone here went to Cayam?

Yes. Okay. Yes. So, that was the last time I was here, but I'm so happy to be back um there. So, I don't know if there's really anything else that is I want to share. I did study education. I'm a teacher by trade, so I taught primarily elementary and middle school. So, that's kind of my target age group. All of you are a little bit older than that. Um but I'm currently back in grad school full-time. And so, that's kind of um a shift. I'm in my third year. And yeah, so I'm teaching also in the teacher prep program at Michigan State University and um working on my um PhD there. So that's kind of a little bit about me.

All right. So here is the verse that kind of we derived the title of this talk and um I'll read it for us together. It says, "Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after the all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." So again, this question is how do we manage all these things? We know that we keep God first. We know that that's critical and important in our lives, but we have all these things. Then what? Right? So this is what this workshop is about. How do we manage all of these things? This workshop is certainly not meant to be prescriptive. Again, I want to let you know like everyone has the freedom to do their own thing, right? But hopefully we can learn something. Um and and the most important thing for me really is that

we're in community with one another, that we can connect with one another and share together. Um and so that's kind of the goal. Okay. Okay. So, we're going to address kind of like the theoretical and um practical purposes of um how we organize our things. Okay. Here's our agenda. I know this sounds like um the format of a journal article um because I thought I don't know in the middle of late last like late one of the nights last week that it would be fun um but in a very twisted way. I realized when I woke up later. Um but we're going to kind of start with an introduction um a genealogy of home organization trends through the years. Okay. And we're going to kind of talk talk about a biblical framework. Um and then really the bulk of it will be findings from kind of like my own journey. Um and then we're going to kind of go more into the practical insights, implications, and conclusions.

But of course, we're going to make it very interactive. So again, I am not an expert in this field. Um, and I'm also I want this to be a space where we can connect. So I give you permission to share. Please interact, raise your hand, ask questions. Um, and hopefully we can learn together. All right, good so far. We're going to do a group activity. Okay. Hopefully, we can solve some longstanding um tensions in your home. All right. So, for each item I display, I'm going to be featuring a picture, right? And so, once I show you that picture, I'm going to have you decide for yourself. Don't look at your partner, okay? This is for yourself. Um, decide whether it's some an item that you should keep, store, display, donate, sell, repurpose, or toss. See how I'm giving you so many options, guys. Okay. All right. So, this is going to be just to get us into the mo zone, the mode of organizing. Okay.

Decluttering. All right. So, are you ready? Um, do you guys mind standing up? Would you guys be okay if like for each of the things you stand up? Get our blood pumping a little bit. Stand up. Yes. Okay. So, all right. So, I'm going to show the picture. You're going to give you some time to process and then we're going to go one by one. I'm going to say keep. And if those of you who think you would should keep it, you're going to stand up, sit down, you know, and then we'll go store, display, donate, so forth. So, we're going to kind of take like a little tally of where we're at, you know, how many heartless souls we have in here.

Okay, ready? Let's begin. Baby clothes, but this is a context. You don't need the baby clothes anymore. Okay, your children have outgrown the baby clothes. But what do you do with all these boxes and boxes of baby clothes? I'm going to give you a minute. You guys ready? You have your answer in your mind? Okay, ready to stand up? All right, keep All right. Okay, keep a few outfits. Anybody else? Oh, yep. Okay, look at these brave souls. See, is this a safe space? I want this to be a safe space. Okay, anyone can stand up. All right, good. How about store? Anybody going to store them? Display, donate. Why is everybody thinking this is the right answer? Oh, okay. Thank you. How about sell? Sell a little side hustle.

Okay. Rep. You guys are all financially stable, so you know wants to sell. Okay. Repurpose or toss. Just chuck it. Okay. All right. All right. Thank you so much. All right. On to the next one. See, there's no right or wrong answer. See, I didn't say good job. You know, it's just everyone be free. All right. Okay. those electronics, you know, like all those cords, you know, like the USB cords that now they all turn to the USBC, but there's you still might use the USB. Okay. All right. Ready? Keep raise your hand or stand up. And maybe, you know, you have to think about like you might know the right the right answer theoretically, but maybe you have that that that drawer at home. If you have it, you better stand up because you kept it. Okay, that was your decision. Okay, so keep who kept them? Let's be honest.

Okay, thank you. How about store? You just store it just in case. Okay, you'd store it for a rainy day in case all of a sudden you need that one thing with that USB cord. Okay, donate. Sell. Repurpose. Oh, were you a cell? Okay, nice. Okay, repurpose or toss. Oh, people are just tossing it. They don't care about the environment. See, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Okay. All right. Next one. I'm glad you're being honest. Okay. This is the china. Maybe this is like the fine china from your wedding or something. Or like maybe like um I don't know, your parents brought it over from Korea. You know, it's very special. But what do you do with it?

Because you don't ever use it. You're afraid it's going to crack. All right. Stand up if you keep it. Okay. Okay. You give it to your daughters. I like it. Okay. All right. Store. You're just going to store it very safely with all that foam around it. Okay. Display. You put it in that china cabinet. Display. Okay. Donate. Donate. Okay. The heartless people. I told you. I'm just kidding. Okay. Sell. Sell it. Yeah. You might make, you know, on the Antique Road Show. You never know. It could be worth a million. Okay. Repurpose. Okay. Or toss. All right. Toss it. Okay. All right. Next. You guys are doing great, by the way. Thank you.

Okay. This I'm going to describe. This is a um to make it relatable. This is a little lamb that was made by your child and it was it was during camp meeting. You know, it was like a little camp meeting thing. It's so adorable. Okay, ready. And they Okay, ready. Keep. Keep. Who's going to keep that? Okay. Store. Okay. People are going to store it. Okay. Display. Put that on that fridge. Okay. Donate. Somebody might want it at the garage sale. Okay. Repurpose. Repurpose. Okay. Toss. Oh my my my my. Okay. Well, how about Okay, this is actually um from our son. Okay, what if we up the auntie a little bit? And on the back of it, it said, "Happy birthday, Daddy. I love you."

Okay, we're going to redo. Okay, we're going to redo. Let's see. Let's see how many people um switch. Who's going to keep that now? Oh, it's pulling on the heartstrings. Okay. Store. Store. Okay. Display. Okay. Display it. Yeah. Because you know your child loves you. You got to hold on to that for those teenage years, you know. Okay. Donate. Sell. Repurpose. Okay. To repurpose. Okay. To maybe put in a scrapbook or something. Okay. Or toss. Who will still toss it? All right. Okay. Yes. So the actual answer for this this is this is um Israel's and he did keep it as you can see I found it but he's he's uh has hoarder hoarding tendencies a little bit. Okay. It was like new year new you and you were like this is my year to get into shape and so you bought that latest exercise gadget to lose the those 10 pounds that you've been trying to lose.

Okay. But you have not touched it once. What do you do? Okay. Keep because you believe in yourself. All right. Keep. Okay. Store. Just store it because you know one day. One day. Okay. Display. Display. Donate. You're donating. Okay. You're realistic here. Okay. Sell. Sell. Okay. Um repurpose or toss. Okay. Maybe you'll just let me get rid of it now. Okay, we're almost done here. Let's see. How about the books? Maybe I'm striking a chord, right? See how I'm helping you with all this decision- making? I'm already helping your marriages, your home life, everything. Okay, so these are not just like um the books that you've read and that really are sentimental. These are specifically books that you have never finished or you have never picked up. Okay, so think you've never finished it. It's so boring. You just fell asleep or you never even like started. All right.

Keep. You're keeping it. Okay. All right. Store. You're going to store it. Hi, Ernie. He was also Cayam's sixth batch with me and Arthur. So good to see you. Okay. Display. All right. Donate. Oh, okay. Sell. So, okay. Repurpose. I don't know how you could repurpose a book, honestly. Okay. Or toss. Just toss it. All right. Couple more. I believe three more. Okay. These are extra kitchen gadgets. So, think about your kitchen drawer. The one that you know you try to like open it gets stuck. You It's like, okay, so what? These are all the extra ones because you know you have two sets of those measuring cups. You don't know why. It's just it's so beautiful. Like sometimes you like this one, sometimes you like that one or those teaspoon ones, you know, you need the plastic one and the metal one for some reason. Okay, but you have two. So what are you going to do with that extra set? The set that you don't like as much. The set that you never use actually because you only use the one set. Okay. Are you going to keep it?

Oh, these cooks. The cooks want to keep it. Okay. Store. Okay. Display. Donate, sell. Oh, donate. A lot of people are donating. Sorry. Sell, repurpose, or toss. Who's just going to toss them? Just get it out. All right. Nice. Okay. Two more that I think are, you know, might be a little more challenging. Those souvenirs. you know, you go traveling and stuff and it's like you went to Paris for the first time and um maybe on your honeymoon or something and then you got that brought that little turfell back, you know, Eiffel Tower. Okay. So, who's going to keep them? All these sentimental people. Wonderful. Wonderful. Who's going to store them? Maybe just stick them in a box.

Okay. Who's going to display them like proud? Like, you know, you're just going to beautify your home with them. Who's going to donate them, sell, repurpose, or toss? After a while, you're just like, we have the memories in our brain. Okay. And finally, this is always the tricky one, I think. All those pictures, the printed out pictures, right? um you have the box of pictures maybe in your drawer or in a box in the basement or in the attic or whatever. Okay, so um maybe you're a little bit too lazy or maybe you envision that you are going to digitize all of them and have them all organized in an external hard drive, but you've never done it in the past like 10 years. All right, keep who's going to keep them?

Okay, who's going to store them? store them. Okay. Who's going to display them all of a sudden? Buy a bunch of frames and or figure out a way to do that. Who will repurpose and who's going to toss them? Okay. All right. Well, thank you so much for indulging me. Now I kind of get a feel for the land of where you're all at. Um we're going to take a little bit of time now to kind of go through like what the home organization um popular trends um and philosophies prevailing philosophies have been in the US to kind of see like where we get our own philosophy. And the whole purpose again is for you to be thinking about your own stuff all of your things at home and what kind of governs how you manage your things. Right? If we kind of consider all of our things as inventory that belong to you. Okay. Um because we know God gave us all the things but now what

do we do with it and how what determines what we do with it, right? Okay. So the first one um is efficiency and function. Okay. So if we kind of go back in time to the 1900s to the 1950s, the prevailing question was really how can my home work better? Okay. So the modern home was shaped by technology appliances changing family roles. So, a lot more women in the workplace now. So, women are like, I don't want to be doing a bunch of house chores. I'm also working. So, the key ideas really here are there is a place for everything. Um, you design spaces around function and purpose. Um, you reduce any unnecessary effort. You want things to be done quick and you just improve workflow. So, this is a picture of what um the kitchen looked like back in that time. So, you can just see everything's right there, neatly organized. the decor is really the the appliances, right? Um and and what and so maybe some of you have this this philosophy a little bit. You carry

it with you. Like my home just serves as a place for me to get my stuff done and be efficient so that I can go out and work and do what I need to do. Okay. The next thing here is um the trend of professional organization. So this is really kind of where like the professional organizers started coming into play. All right. So again 1980s to 2000s how can I create systems to help me manage life. So there is this shift that we see okay because people are getting more and more busy both you know um both the the husband and the wife the kids everything right um so there's a shift from household efficiency right to personal productivity and systems and so we are looking to create repeatable patterns like I just want to be able to go home be able to these are my different patterns of how I organize my items. um we categorize belongings. So all this stuff goes there, all this stuff goes in this room, all this goes

in this drawer. Um we develop routines and we we really reduce decision fatigue. Um and so when I think of decision fatigue, a lot of times I think of um President Barack Obama because he only like I remember him in an interview he had mentioned he just goes to his closet, he grabs a like a suit, a shirt, a tie. It's like right there for him, you know? it's like all consistent because he doesn't want to have to make another decision, right? So that that's kind of like the ultimate level of like you're not even wanting to pick what you wear. Okay, but that's kind of what was a prevailing mentality here during this time. Let's just stay organized. And so this is where like it was all about the containers, containers, containers, bins for this. Um, and that's the way to organize, right? We know where everything is. everything has a place and I can access it whenever I need to.

So maybe this is something that you notice about yourself as well. Like I want to know where everything is right away. I want it quick. Um and everything is organized. Okay. The third one is the minimalism and decluttering. Okay. So this came into play in the 2000s to to fairly recently. It's still very popular right now, right? The 2020s. So the question is what do I really need and often times that affects our mentality as well like sometimes we think it's like oh this is my personal preference but it's actually you know the cultural pressure around like do you really need that why don't you eliminate okay so um so cons as consumer culture expanded like the price of things got so low we think of fast fashion right now where people are making clothes like for so cheap people just like they they're sick of something they just toss it and they buy more and more clothes. Okay. Um but it's really

easy to throw away and eliminate because we have access to whatever we need. Okay. So people people at this time began looking for freedom from the access because they recognize the more stuff that we have the more burdened I become right managing it's becoming stressful. Okay so I hate the clutter like stress gives me clutter or clutter gives me stress rather. Okay. So the key idea here is own fewer things. If you own fewer things, you're going to have less stress. Um remove what doesn't spark joy. Okay? So we'll talk a little bit about the conmie method. Um buy intentionally, right? So maybe the this is also like when we think about the capsule closet. I don't know if you've heard of the capsule closet. So my sister actually has a capsule closet. She's a my sister is an extreme minimalist. She literally only has like five shirts, five pants, you know, like her clothes is just it's very very simple. Okay, but she doesn't have to decide. She knows what she's going to wear to work. It's like a uniform. Okay.

Um so, um prioritize experiences over possessions. So, again, this is a trend. I remember as a kid, my kids were growing up as well. It's like quit buying them all the toys and the Legos and these and this and that. Just give them experiences, right? Because they don't need the position. So, this is a really big cultural push that we've been experiencing at this time. And then homes really look like they're ready to be put up for sale, [snorts] right? Like you live in a home that is like dustless and has nothing on nothing on the counters. Um, and so this is the minimalist mindset. And then finally, we've entered a new phase now. Um, and this is pretty recent 2020s to the present where we have the beauty and lifestyle design. And so this I think it's kind of like a a push back from the minimalism. Um, and people have coined this time minimalism because we know that there are some people who are maximalists. And so it's kind of right in the middle, right? The minimalist.

Um, and so it's really about like taking back ownership of your home. It's like, hey, this is my space. um how do I want my home to feel? All right, so with the rise of social media, especially in Pinterest and all of these things, these home design platform forms like HGTV and um and so basically organization became really embedded and intermeshed with aesthetics, emotional well-being, right? Providing a safe, peaceful space for you and personal expression. So it's like look, if I want that um goddy looking vase right here, I'm going to do it. or if I want five of them, I'm going to do it. Right? Um and so again, the key ideas here are to create peaceful environments. It's like it feels like lived in, right? You want your house to feel lived in and well-loved. Um, and the design spaces really revolve around lifestyle and and you. Okay. So, here are some examples of some very beautiful homes on trend at this time where they look very warm and welcoming. Um I don't

know if anyone has read the book the the little book of hookah when hookah was kind of like a big thing like feeling that that Swedish um feeling of like expression of like being cozy you know so that also um is really um influential in this time. So, okay, I kind of talked a lot, but I the picture I want us to paint here is that there are all these cultural changes and shifts that have occurred in the US that have, you know, undeniably affected, right, our idea of how we ought to organize our home or what is the right way or what is the preference of the way that you organize your home. But I want you to think about your own home. Um, and do a, we're going to do a little turn and talk if you don't mind like finding someone around you. Um, if you, you know, like, and if you don't want to, don't worry. I don't want to pressure you. Um, but I want you to discuss out of which of the four trends or philosophies that we've just

kind of talked about, which one do you think you resonate with the most? Okay. Um, and and so kind of reflect on your own home organization philosophy. So these are the four. I'm gonna give you a few minutes to talk. Okay. All right. Go ahead. Okay, maybe we'll bring it together in about a Minute or two. Okay. Okay, let's bring it back together. Okay, th for those of you who are living in the same homes who are here um any any one um brave enough to share whether that you have two very differing philosophies in your same home. I'm the you guys are all on the right track. You married the right person. I'm just kidding.

Okay. Oh, you got trained. Oh, okay. All right. Okay. All right. Pardon? What did you say? Yes, there. Um. Yes. Okay. All right. So, we're going to talk we're going to shift a little bit now to um a biblical framework for home organization. And so, you know, at first I was kind of thinking, oh, is this going to be a stretch? like does the Bible talk about how we should how we had to organize our homes? I didn't want to like put it in there just because, you know, it's like oh because it's a camp meeting and we need to bring in the Bible. But I think that that I was able to identify four pretty good themes um that that was really useful for me as I was kind of reflecting on all of my stuff like all of the things that we have accumulated as well and um kind of like a responsibility right like what is our Christian duty for that. So, we're going to go over those together. And I just want you to take the time also to reflect. Maybe it resonates with you.

Maybe there are some certain um things in there that you that you haven't thought about um but you know, within the context of your own home. But this was really helpful for me to do this exercise. So, um the first one is thinking about who's is it? This question, right? Who's is it? We have all of these things and just this reminder of like all of the things actually that we have belong to God. And I know that sounds so cliche like we talk about that all the time, you know, but really what what shifts in our mind when we have the recognition that actually all of our things really do not belong to us. They're not like my things that I can choose what to do with it, right? They actually belong to God.

They're all given to us by God. So there is this theme of stewardship. So because we know that every single thing that we have belongs to God, how does that shift the way that we make decisions? How does that shift the way that we treat that um that junk drawer, the thing maybe the the assets that we have that we don't even care about or never even see, you know? So stewardship, you know, recognizing and these are just some verses. We're not we we're not necessarily going to go over every one, but you can kind of get a picture and I'm sure these verses are familiar to you, but if we apply these verses within the context of the things that we own, like the things in our house, right? So, wow, they're all gods.

Okay, so how does that shift again how we want to organize and order our the things in our home? Okay, stewardship is that first one. So, then the second one, how should it be arranged? Okay. So again, not saying that the Bible is like prescriptive, like the Bible doesn't say use this method, but um is it important that they're arranged in a particular way? And so we see this prevailing theme again of order where we know that God brings order out of chaos. We think about the detailed organization that he had of the tabernacle. So does he care about how we order our things in our house? Does he care? Is that important or is it one of those things we separate out? Like as long as we read the Bible and pray, we're good. But is that separate from how we manage all of our things in our house, right? All of our assets. Is that separate because that's just belongs to us and it's worldly. Okay, so thinking about how God

does care about order. Okay, he does care. Um he wants all things that we do to be done in an orderly manner. Okay, so just order and again as a principle, right? and whatever that may mean um to you. All right. Why is it arranged this way? So, is there like a is there a why? Is there um some sort of um some some sort of way in which we should determine how we arrange our home. Okay. Um and this is the theme of wise planning. So maybe there are some of us and this is kind of where I fall into this category where I don't really care like I'm not a good designer guys like my ho house if you come in it's pretty much not going to be designed well but am I actually putting thought like am I trying to think about all the things that we have and taking the time to intentionally plan where what we do with all of our things right in a way that it's like I do feel like

you know some sort of responsibility knowing it does belong to God, knowing that I am a Christian, right? Should that be some any different than if it was for a non-Christian. Okay, so wise planning um just taking the time to be diligent, to be faithful in being intentional. So hopefully that's what we're doing now, right? I'm like kind of like giving you the space right now to be intentional about that and like think about how you're planning your home. Okay. And then what is the purpose? Like why do we what's the purpose of how we organize our home? What's the purpose of how we [snorts] order the f like how how we arrange the furniture?

Um what's the purpose of how we fill the pantry? Okay. Um and then we see again over and over in the Bible kingdom first, right? We see that actually the Bible tells us, Jesus tells us over and over like don't lay up your treasure here. Don't arrange them so perfectly here. Actually arrange them for heaven. Um and then we also see this this thread where it's continuously practice hospitality. Give. If you have two tunics, give one away, right? If you have extra, give it away. If you see somebody in need, help them. Invite somebody to your house. Okay? So, do we actually um practice that in the way that we organize our home? Are we thinking okay what is the best way we can organize our home so that we can minister to others so that we can invite people in so that we can help those who are in need. Okay so when we determine um what do we not need? Are we keeping

in mind maybe we can give all these things to so- and so not because they're our best friend not this person who's our best friend but those persons because we know that they really need it otherwise they don't have clothes. Okay. So, having this kingdom first mentality. So, again, these are the four overarching themes that challenged me um as I was processing through um the importance of home organization specifically as a Christian and what that could look like. Okay. So, this is just kind of like a self-reflection. I want you to be thinking about like which of the four principles that we just discussed do you feel you need to emphasize more in your home? you think about your home and your space right now. Okay? What do you um need or want or have a desire maybe to emphasize more in your home? So, I'll give you just like a minute to just be thinking about that. Like what is something you could do in your home right now to maybe help you um in each of these things?

And if you process better talking to someone, you're welcome to. It doesn't have to be quiet. Okay. All right. So, and and these these themes, this framework is kind of going to be what as I share more of like my personal journey. Um, I don't know if we're gonna have time this time, but we'll definitely start next time. Um, like I kind of use these as this framework as the lens that I kind of like share my my experience. All right. So, now is more of a a kind of like a turn and talk again, a chat. Again, the purpose of today is kind of like to break the ice to get to know you, but also for you to start thinking about all of the things in your house, okay? And thinking about what maybe you've just been on autopilot because I know life is extremely busy, but um taking a step back and doing some self-reflection like what are the priorities that you feel influence how

you organize your home? Okay, another thing you can think about is especially if you're not married, if you lived all alone, how do you think your home would be organized? Okay, a lot of times we're deter like we we're bound by right our partners, our kids, the craziness, like you know, whatever. But like what do you think is your the priorities that you possess? Again, no right or wrong answer, okay? Um that influence how you organize your home. And I just named these ones because I was thinking of the ones that I feel like are the most common, but you're welcome to add any more. But I'm going to give us a few minutes again to talk and flesh that out with somebody next to you, a partner or a group of friends.

Okay. All right. Go ahead. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Okay, we'll bring it together in maybe one minute. Okay, perfect. Okay. So, we're going to now move on to um a little bit more of like my personal journey because again I will be kind of sharing like where my family went with our home organization. Um so this is a picture. Okay, this is so bad because I could not find a wedding picture of the two of us. like it's somewhere in some box, you know, stored in the basement that I um but that I found that on our friend's like Facebook page or something, but that's from our wedding reception. Okay, so that's kind of where I'm counting. You know, we were kind of adults by then. So, um I can go on a whole thing talking about our childhood, like if you think about your childhood home or your childhood initial childhood space, like your childhood bedroom. Um and you know, just the whole shift from then until now. Um, that's a whole whole thing we could unpack, but I'm going to start from when we first got married.

And then these are a picture of our boys through the years. Um, we have lived in three different homes. Okay. Um, and we've gone on quite the journey. I'm going to kind of divide our journey into three different phases and kind of elaborate on that. And I'm hoping that maybe um each of us in this room can identify with one of those three phases or maybe not. I don't know. Maybe you're in like a different phase. Um but just to kind of share the way that I processed through um planning this talk even thinking about man what has been our journey in home organization. Okay. So again our boys are you know like adults like my our oldest is 20 now. So he's getting ready to, you know, you know, he still lives at home, but not really. You know what I mean? Like when you're in college. So, okay, these are the phases of the Ramos family. Um, and I was thinking about all the things. I'm like, you know what? This is the best

way to divide it. Israel and I went through the broke phase first. We were so broke, guys. like we were broker than broke and um in a lot of debt and what you know and when we first got married too you know you just think I don't know you have we didn't really have a lot of the financial planning which by the way do any of you guys have kids in the juniors any juniors they were doing financial planning in there I'm like that yes that's what we need okay so anyway so we have the broke phase from 2003 2004 actually we got married in 2004 till about 2010 10 we're doing a little bit better. Then we have I call that the growing phase. So from 2010 and I I think I had it all the way to 2024 because at that point that's when our youngest son went off to boarding academy. So then we kind of became like kind of like empty nesters with our kids either in boarding academy or college.

But um the growing phase really you know Israel worked as a pastor for several years and then he worked at the conference office. a lot of ministry happening. Um, and I was at home for a time. So, you know, when you're not working, you're also not making money. So, there's that. And then I went to work. Um, and then the kids were in school. So, that that whole thing, all of all that accumulates if you have young kids. And again, all the VBS's that they go to, school, all the clothes, all the uniforms, the whole thing um during that growing phase. Um, and then what we what I like to call the freedom phase. Now, Israel and I differ a lot on this because I actually love being an empty neester. Um, and he thinks I'm so heartless because he's like, I love having the boys home. I'm like, look, I love having the boys home.

Of course, I love having them home, but there's like just beauty in knowing that like when I come home, like the pillows are in the same place. Okay. Yes. And when I open the fridge, all the food is still there. like, oh my goodness. Those of you who don't have like teenagers that eat like like voraciously. It's like such it's it's so nice. I don't ever get mad anymore. I'm like, man, I am such a happy person, you know, in my freedom phase. Um but anyway, no, it's a whole another thing, right, when you're when you when your kids are moved on as well and you have more of the financial stability um there. So anyway, these are the three phases. I'm going to kind of break them down a little bit and then we are going to close because we're almost at the end of our time.

So, um I don't know. See what this this is tricky, okay? Because with a group of a bunch of Korean Korean-Americans, you know, I'm like, "Nobody's here is probably broke." Israel and I probably was broke like a pastor and a teacher, you know, but um this is a phase we we went through, okay? We were newly wides with very little assets because when we were in college, we borrowed all the furniture, you know, we we didn't have um a lot of things. We didn't have um yeah, we didn't grow Yeah, we we just we just came with very little. Let me just put it that way. And we had debt. So, we had our student debt. Um and we did have credit card debt. I will say we had some credit card debt that we're working through. Okay. So, we ended up buying a brand new house. we really couldn't afford. Um, and so my dad is here actually because my dad wanted to support me. So he helped us. He had to help us pay get a house, right? So that's kind of like already you're like

you don't want to be that person, but we were we were that couple that that had our dad help us. Um, I feel like we were making very little money. Um, and really really had like poor financial literacy. Okay. And I'm kind of just setting this stage um just to show that I don't know maybe you guys are all set but if you ever find your if you ever have a friend if you have a friend in this situation it's never too late to turn it around. Okay. Um and so we our home was basically furnished when we think about our home it was basically furnished with wedding gifts. Um things we got from our wedding and then we you know made a dumb decision to just buy furniture. Like we're like oh I guess we need furniture.

let's go to the store and buy it. So, we went into debt and bought all the furniture that we needed for this house. Okay. So, um on top of that, we had two cats that were mine, you know, and Israel had actually adopted adopted the cat for me. So, we had two cats, we decided to get a fish, we decided to get a dog, then I got pregnant, you know. So, if you can just imagine like our home was basically like, let's try to eliminate litter on the floor and make sure the dog goes potty outside. like that's kind of where we're at with with our home, okay? We're kind of like a hot mess, okay? We're like a zoo. Um and then I get pregnant, you know, so it's like then you have toddlers and stuff.

So So that was kind of the broke phase. Um then we had we switched over to what I would call the growing phase. So we're kind of getting it together a little bit, but we have three boys. They're all two years apart. Okay. Again, Israel's pastoring. We were living in the upper peninsula of Michigan, which is like very rural and very very secluded and isolated. Um, but we were there and then we ended up moving from that home to our home near Lancing. We moved back down. We purchased an old home um with a lot of property um and then our home finances began to stabilize a little bit because we really learned the hard way. Okay. Um, and we realized we needed to make changes. Um, but then with the growing boys, we started accumulating like a ton of things, like a ton of things. And it was really hard to manage all of the kids' shoes and clothes and stuff, and you go to camp

meeting or you go to a VBS and there's more stuff, and you want to keep everything, and then they start writing you cards. I mean, part of it's to blame like is us actually because I would be like, "Oh, it's daddy's birthday, so everybody write daddy a card, you know, like everybody get daddy a gift." Like, is that really necess I don't know. But I was like, you just think that's the right thing to do. So, all these things that start and then you get mad like, "Israel, can you organize your stuff?" You know, but it's like I don't know what to do with all the things. So, we had a lot of things organized. People I feel also like felt sorry for us. So, they would always give us a bunch of like their kids clothes, which I welcomed. I love secondhand. Okay, I will tell you that right now. I love that. So, I welcome that. But again, it's like all this stuff and then we

just don't have the bandwidth to like edit and go through all of them. So, I feel like we had a lot a lot of things and it was starting to build a lot a lot of stress. Okay, the kids are in school, all these papers. Oh my goodness, the papers, right? Things that come home every day in that take-home folder. You're like, "Oh my goodness, what?" So, that was that phase. And I think that's what really kickstarted us into we need to figure out a way to manage our home because it was getting crazy. And then finally we are now now we've kind of like made it past that a little bit. I will say for those of you who are not there yet like freedom is coming. Okay. Freedom is coming. Don't make me start singing the song. Okay. But freedom is coming. Okay.

So um and with the boys just being in boarding school or in college um yeah all the things now our home our mindset has definitely shifted right now because right now we're like how can we make our home so nice that they want to bring their friends to to our house like how do we make our home so nice that they want to come home like on breaks they want to come home right they don't want to go to their friends house over there they'd rather be at our place so there's this shift um for us and also So just finding opportunities for ministry like who can we invite over? Um how can we arrange our living space or or what can we do to use our home and the the outdoor space um to help others. Okay.

So these are kind of like the three phases that we're in. Okay. So, I don't want to do it by a show of hands in case people feel like, I don't know, self-conscious about it, but maybe you can just like talk to somebody next to you or just do a personal self-reflection. Maybe like which phase do you think you're in now? You know, where are you at um in your home organization? Is it something that you actively think about or it's like it's totally out of your mind because your life is so crazy busy right now? It might not be because of kids. It might just be because of life or career or whatever maybe. But I want you to just talk it out with maybe somebody next to you about where you're at as far as how you feel and your attitude towards how you organize your house. Okay. All right. Go ahead.

Hallelujah. Okay, maybe we'll wrap up in one it. Hallelujah. Okay, let's bring it together as we wrap up. All right. Okay. Well, I think we're going to close here. I'm going to let us out a few minutes early. Um, but I wanted us to take a couple minutes just to look at what we're going to do tomorrow. And this is very general I think um but um starting tomorrow I'm going to kind of get more into the practical of the different types of home organization um processes that you can go through. Um and I'm really going to talk about the journey that that our family went through. So I jumped on the whole, you know, Marie Condo bandwagon. I read all the books and everything. Okay. At one point all my all my drawers were like folded perfectly you know so that they didn't cause stress on you know and then I would hold the the pair of socks and say thank you socks for letting keeping my feet warm and then you know you discard. Okay. So we're

going to we're going to go over briefly if you if you don't know what I'm talking about. I'm going to kind of cover all those things and then I'm going to share a little bit why a little bit about why that was like psycho of me to try to do with kids and everything. Okay. But I will go I'll go through the Conry method. I'm going to go through a couple other um home and decluttering techniques and things that I think are a little bit more doable and kind of how you kind of need to find your own groove, right? You need to find what works for you, what works for your phase in your life right now, what works for you and your partner. You don't want to drag like Israel's been dragged through all of this with me. Okay. So, he's But he survived. He's happy. Are you happy?

He's He made it through. Okay. Yeah. So, but um so we're going to kind of go through all of that, especially if it's if you feel like, man, this is going to be useful for me because, you know, um in addition to all the spiritual enrichment you're going to get this week, you can go home and like tackle that that house. You can do it. Okay. So, that's kind of what it's going to look like. It'll be very very practical and I'll be sharing from my experience. Very very um you know, like like exactly like like like practical. I'm gonna I'm gonna just go through the steps and everything, okay? Um and then we'll take some time at the end again to do some personal reflection and think about what can you do like what is your next step. Okay? If you want one, okay, now if this group is if this group is reduced by a lot tomorrow, I'm going to

feel very sad. Okay, I that means I scared you all away. No, it's okay. I'm just kidding. No, if you do not feel if there's five of you, it's fine. Okay? If there's none of you that show up, if you guys are all go, that's fine. Guess what, guys? I'm gonna go out to eat or something. Okay. But no, but I would love for you to come back and that's kind of what it'll look like tomorrow just so you are aware. So if this is does not interest you again, please don't feel like pressure. Um but you know, if you're just so excited and inspired after today, I can't wait to see you tomorrow. Okay. Thank you so so much.

Let's pray together. I'll pray. Our loving father in heaven, thank you so much for this time we were able to spend together. And as we reflect on our homes and all the things in it, we are just so grateful to you for all the ways that you have blessed each and every one of us throughout our lives. And we want to um take this opportunity again to thank you and also encourage um each of us, Lord, to be more mindful maybe of how we deal with all the beautiful gifts and assets that you've given to us. help us as we um embark on this journey of organizing our homes. We know that there are so many iterations of how we do that and so be with us. Be with each family represented here. Bless them abundantly and also bless camp meeting. We just ask for an outpouring of your Holy Spirit to be here with us this week. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.