Proverbs 31:27

Simplicity Unwrapped In The Laundry Room

~ Teresa ~ 4 Comments

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A couple of Tuesday’s ago I shared with you how I love the concept of Simplicity and I wrote about finding simplicity unwrapped in the Kitchen.  Then Last week I wrote about simplicity unwrapped in the dining room.  Today, I will once again, be joining Emily and others for Tuesday’s Unwrapped.

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Occasionally, I have a day that I love to putter around my house, even the laundry becomes a chore that brings contentment.  I love those days when making a home is peaceful rather than feeling like drudgery.

A few months ago my husband and his siblings had an estate to sort through.  It was an unassuming ranch house, but the lady who had lived there had managed to accumulate a lot of stuff.  The house had sold so all that stuff had to go somewhere.  Thus began the journey of sorting and selling.

Needless to say we accumulated a few lot of “new” things for our home.  Part of our stockpile was old linens.  Some of them in good shape, some not.  Most of them had gathered years of dust and needed laundering.  So, I found myself on an ordinary weekday (it may well have been a Tuesday) deciding that today was the day to take care of the linens.

I soaked, spot treated, washed on gentle cycle, some pieces by hand, then I hung them all up around my laundry room to dry.  Some of them came clean, a few had stubborn spots that wouldn’t budge.  A few I’ll still need to work on when I find a warm sunny day so I can use lemon juice and salt for the “rust” spots.

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On this day that I enjoyed puttering in my home, it even inspired me to organize my laundry room and make it more efficient.  Once the linens were dry, I found storage for them, knowing that I didn’t just want them to stay hidden.

Since then I have found ways to incorporate them into my decor.  A couple are over the backs of chairs, some on dresser tops.  I look at them and know that I have unwrapped not only the gift of bringing a little piece of the past into the present, but the gift of contentment while puttering around my house on an ordinary day.

What about you?  Have you unwrapped the gift of contented puttering lately?

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Puttering in grace,

Teresa

“And this mess is so big…”

~ Teresa ~ 4 Comments

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“But all things should be done decently and in order.” I Corinthians 14:40

I had a closet.  It was horrid.  It started out with good intentions. But a year of searching for this and that and a few more items stuffed in, and well, I’ll let the pictures tell the story:

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The This closet was originally going to be my pantry. But…Mr. Piano needed storage for the stuff that will someday go to an office.  I wanted custom shelves…but, my brother never seemed to have the time for the shelves and they cost money…. the crates started out in a neat stack with a few things on top.  But… (yes, there is another but) eventually, Mr. Piano needed a piece of music from one of the bottom crates and the rest is history. Long story, short. We lived with it as is. Until we couldn’t. 

This past weekend I decided to organize the closet and use a utility shelf.  I wanted to paint it white, but I wanted the mess organized more, so I just went with the utilitarian gray.  Someday, I still have hopes of this being a custom organized pantry.  In the meantime, it is in much better shape.  I’ll let the photo’s show you:

100_1946 100_1945 100_1934 100_1939 100_1942 100_1941 100_1944This closet is now, officially, the most organized spot in my house.  This is sad.  I walk by and peek in several times a day just to calm the chaos swirling around in my head and my house. It is amazing how quickly the organizing thread can unravel.  It only takes a year give or take a  month or two.

(Yes, we have a curtain for a closet door.  Okay? Thanks.)

I’m pretty sure this closet is a metaphor for something.  Something that may be askew in my life.  Is it possible that while I’m organizing the hidden places in my home (and the not so hidden) that I will also be on a journey to find balance in those hidden places deep in my soul?

Balancing in Grace,

Sadie

“She watches over the affairs of her household
    and does not eat the bread of idleness.” –Proverbs 31:27