I'm a wee bit excited about 30 minutes well spent this week! It may not look all that awesome, but it’s a tiny miracle around here.

With all the fun we've had talking about the 2019 Home Checklists, I've been super motivated to keep up with our home and I'm loving feeling more organized. I also watched some of the KonMari show on Netflix after hearing a few friend's mention it (I've read parts of the book before), and decided to try her magic folding method out too. (So far so good ~ I'll let you know how it goes!)

My daughter Reagan’s drawers are always a MESS. My other kids are pretty great little organizers and minimalists by nature… this girl is NOT.

So when I realized school was cancelled due to frozen roads on Wednesday (and I didn’t want to see her watching TV or on her iPod all day), I grabbed her before I sat down to work to get this marked off our list.

BEFORE . . . 

DURING . . . 

AFTER . . . 

(Even she said “wow. My drawers are so much easier to open now!”)

I've been putting off this job for months, but I’m so glad I decided to re-arrange my schedule since we could both work on it together for a bit!

(She now has ROOM IN TWO DRAWERS which is craziness to me!) 🙂

We even pulled together a donation box and got rid of everything that didn't fit.

And, if you're interested you can still go HERE to check out the checklists I'm using in our home in 2019, and see how we're getting our home and finances in order this year.  I'm cheering for you!

Note from Laurie: I shared this over in the 2019 Ultimate Home Challenge Group (remember, that group closes down tomorrow night!) but thought it might be a blessing here too. If you'd like to join us, print your 2019 Home Checklists right over HERE before the pricing goes up tomorrow too. I *promise* this will be the best $12.95 you will spend in 2019 (the folks who've join us have just loved it so far ~ and I know this home organzing/cleaning/budgeting system will work for you too!)

IN CASE YOU FEEL LIKE EVERYONE ELSE'S HOME LOOKS FANCIER THAN YOURS HERE…

Do you see what's missing in almost all of these pictures? 

****Furniture.****

I wanted to share this, because this is our first little home starting way back in 1997 when I was just 21 and James was 25.

We had a *ton* of student loan debt and were trying to live on one income (I never made more than minimum wage), and I remember being the happiest girl ever sitting on the back stoop the first day we drove up ~ brown paneled walls, brown carpet, brown linoleum and everything.

WE PAINTED EVERYTHING (EVERYTHING) WE COULD POSSIBLY SLAP PAINT ON WHITE. 🙂 Our next house was worse than this one, so for the first 7 years of our marriage we pretty much lived covered in white paint.

We lived without any furniture for 3 years, and it really wasn't until our current house that we've spent money on furniture at all. (See the ladder in the Christmas tree pic? That's because someone gave us Christmas decorations but we didn't have anything to put it on! The following year for Christmas when I opened my ski coat we had wallpapered the dining room but still couldn't afford furniture ~ until we got the dining room set James's grandparents had. We just sold that a month ago after waiting 23 years to buy our own!)

I'm on the floor with the dog bc the only couch we had was pretty awful, and I refused to let James put it in the family room because I knew then we'd get content and never fight for a decent couch 🙂 (I was seriously the worst wife. Bless that poor boy. We eventually got the plaid couch for $300 and I remember feeling like the richest girl on earth just staring at my beautiful stuff!)

Here's the thing. We LOVED what God had blessed us with. We cared for it. We didn't spend oodles on anything. (Most of the paint was even from the mismatched paint section, and those paneled walls took exactly 7 coats to cover. YIKES!)

And do you know what? That girl back then was no more or less valuable than the girl who sits on real furniture in a little bit nicer home today.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE – take pride in the home you've been given *exactly* the way it is.

Clear off the countertops.

Go to Goodwill and find a new to you piece of decor to fill up a space (you'll be amazed at what you can find if you happen in on the right day!)

Grab some paint in the mismatched bin and fluff up a cabinet with some fresh paint. (Hint: use KILZ PRIMER first – or chalk paint is AWESOME and super cheap at Walmart!)

DO NOT FEEL LIKE ANYONE ELSE IS EVEN ONE SINGLE OUNCE BETTER THAN YOU if their kitchen is cuter than yours. James and I were just as awesome back then as we are now, 🙂 no matter what our home looked like (and honestly, those were the sweetest days!)

And the truth? You (and your exactly-perfect-for-you-right-now home) are crazy awesome today too.

I pray this weekend gives you some time to love on your space a wee bit ~ I'm cheering for you!

Go HERE to check the checklists out, and leave me a comment button if you have any questions at all. Thank you so much for allowing me to be a small part of your journey ~ I'm praying a beautiful 2019 for you!

Here's what we tackled today. . .

(Don't have a printer but really want the list? Go HERE to learn how to print these lists at home without spending too much.) 

The paperwork (this is the “junk area” of our kitchen where stuff winds up all week . . . and apparently longer because I found this coupon for free Skittles that I requested back in November and totally sadly forgot to redeem!) 🙁

Getting a few items mailed that have been waiting for weeks (I am the worst at mailing things ~ for whatever reason it makes me crazy!)

(All tidied up!)

Dinner . . .

Cleaning all the electronic screens . . .

And checking the daily things off my list!

I also fluffed up my office a bit (my sweet husband sent me flowers. Not gonna lie ~ it's been a bit of an exhausting weekend at our house so these totally made my day ~ my favorite flower has always been tulips!)

I also really really love the private PPP Home Checklist Facebook group ~ if you've been on the fence about joining us and printing your own 2019 Home Checklist, I promise these sweet ladies will make it worth every penny. (Truly, it will be the best $12.95 you spend in all of 2019!)

 If you missed my FB Live you can watch it HERE.

And, if you missed it, in the craziness of this week I didn't get to add in Day 5, but here's a peek at me tackling my favorite chore of the week yesterday!

If you missed yesterday's FB Live you can watch it HERE.

Go HERE to check out the checklists, and leave me a comment button if you have any questions at all. Thank you so much for allowing me to be a small part of your journey ~ I'm praying a beautiful 2019 for you!

Here's a peek at what we tackled today in the Ultimate Home Checklist Challenge today ~ I seriously am loving this list!  (Don't have a printer but really want the list? Go HERE to learn how to print these lists at home without spending too much.) 

I also really really love the private PPP Home Checklist Facebook group ~ if you've been on the fence about joining us and printing your own 2019 Home Checklist, I promise these sweet ladies will make it worth every penny. (Truly, it will be the best $12.95 you spend in all of 2019!)

Here's what I finished up today . . . 

And, I'll pick two lucky winners who sign up for the PPP 2019 Ultimate Home Checklist today to win one of the binders that I put together on Facebook Live, so if you've been debating this one, today is the day!

Go HERE to print your checklists and join our 2019 Home Checklist Private Facebook Group too ~ I promise you will love this!

(Also, this is just a random pick of a new pillow and some of my other decor I shared over on my Instagram story today – if you're on Instagram, I'd sure love for you to follow me there)!

If you missed my FB Live you can watch it HERE.

Go HERE to check the checklists out, and leave me a comment button if you have any questions at all. Thank you so much for allowing me to be a small part of your journey ~ I'm praying a beautiful 2019 for you!

As I was walking around my tidy-picked-up-home after really focusing on these 2019 Home Checklists the last few days, I was reminded of just how much God cares for us each moment of our lives, every step of the way. 

Growing up my mom worked full time as a single mom, in addition to caring for myself, my three brothers, and our aging grandmother.

On Saturday mornings she often worked, and at a very young age I started making Saturday morning chore charts (way before Pinterest-ed chore charts even existed), for myself and my brothers to tackle each Saturday.

(You can bet they thought I was super awesome as I handed them their lists.)

(*Ahem.*) 

I don't remember the lists perfectly, but here's what I do remember always made the list:

• Tons of glass & a large bottle of Windex. We lived in Florida, and had a Florida room with large glass doors, which needed to be cleaned top to bottom just before being smudged up again in a minute or two. (Those doors had a little flower on them so you wouldn't walk right through the glass ~ anyone remember those?)

• The Pepto Bismol Pink bathroom (well, all the bathrooms made the list, but that Pepto one always comes to mind first.) 🙂 We shared a pink tiled bathroom and I remember scrubbing that pink pepto-bismol tub 'til it shined underneath years of grit.

• The blessed Pledge dusting. Oh my goodness. I have always always always adored the smell of Pledge. Pretty sure I went through an entire canister at least once a month, and found wayyyy too much joy inhaling that yellow can's fumes. 🙂

• The vacuuming. 

• Tidying up the kitchen.

• Taking out the trash. 

• And of course, the laundry, which I'm pretty sure never got done. (I don't think I did much laundry ever. Pretty sure I've always hated that one and it's still my least favorite now.)

It would be easy to be super impressed with this 9, 10, 11 and 12+ year old girl who hopped up pretty eagerly on Saturday mornings to start tidying up the house, but the truth is, I simply have always loved a list.

I was also pretty overweight from a very young age (more on that here), didn't have oodles of friends or family connections, and was just a pretty awkward-lonely-not-at-all-confident kid.

So for me, cleaning on Saturday mornings and checking off a tidy list let me at least feel accomplished that day.

There were so many hard, oh-so-hard things during that season for me, and a few too many tears cried as a kiddo who didn't have exactly the same experiences as many other kids did.

(Because of family I won't share too much, but they were just difficult years.) 

However I'm thinking God used that season of so many sad days to secretly prepare me for exactly today.

And I believe He does that for each one of us, every step of the way.

I want to encourage you today.

I don't care if you join me for a little home organization in 2019.

I don't care if you ever load your dishwasher, ever wipe down your kitchen sink, or if you leave that kitchen sink filled to the brim with 82 plates of scraped-on-soaked-in-crud.

I truly don't care if you hop up to exercise, prep one single meal, or run one load of laundry today.

But I do care about this just for you.

I want you to know that right-now-in-this-moment-today, whatever mess you're in, whatever sadness or hardship or just-not-so-awesome stuff you're walking through right now, God has a perfect exact purpose in what you're surviving today.

I promise. 

It didn't occur to me until today when I walked through my spotless-tidy-happily-fluffed-up-kitchen, that this little-handy-easy-to-use checklist was really just a little girl's dream that started during a rocky season too.

And if He was watching out for me way back then (and could mold even this mess of a momma!), I have absolutely no doubt that He's right there hanging out with you too.

(And by the way . . . if you are looking for some motivation this year to tidy up those hidden spaces, get dinner made, work out a bit and enjoy a sparkly clean kitchen, I truly believe this list might just what you need today. Go HERE to print your checklists and join our 2019 Home Checklist Private Facebook Group too.) 

If you missed my FB Live you can watch it HERE.

Go HERE to check the checklists out, and leave me a comment button if you have any questions at all. Thank you so much for allowing me to be a small part of your journey ~ I'm praying a beautiful 2019 for you!

It's day two of the 2019 Ultimate Home Checklist Challenge (I'll be sharing my updates each day throughout this first week), and I am LOVING feeling so accomplished today!

I have one sick kiddo home + had some kind of sad news this morning, and realized I can't control so many things in my life each day, but at least for the most part, I can control my home.

And feeling like it is under control just makes life on the tough days a wee bit easier to take. 

This morning we cleaned the countertops (I'm leaving our “travel tree” up in the corner . . . I'm never quite ready to let Christmas go and it's all that's left of our Christmas decor!) . . .

Started dinner  . . . (thanks to my Eat at Home Plans ~ I'm making the Stir Fry Broccoli Pork from our November Freezer Challenge ~ use the code NEW if you'd like to save 30% on Eat at Home menu plans right now! )

Did a little dusting and vacuuming . . .

And wiped up the bathroom sinks + finished the rest of my checklist too.

(Honestly? My favorite part was reading Ruth 2. I am loving having one chapter of the Bible to check through each day to manage and think I may actually stick with this one because there's just something about a checklist!) 🙂

If you missed my FB Live you can watch it HERE.

If you need some encouragement to tackle your home too, I'd sure love for you to join me!

Right now, get access to ALL THE ROTATING HOME CHECKLISTS FOR 2019 FOR JUST $12.95 (regularly $19.95) and join me. 

YOU'LL ALSO GET ALL MY BUDGETING SPREADSHEETS + DAILY SCRIPTURE READING THROWN IN FOR FREE TOO.

And?

YOU'LL BE INCLUDED IN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP FOR 2019!

Craziness.

HERE ARE THE TWO OPTIONS YOU CAN GET TODAY ONLY AT THESE PRICES:

—->>> PDF PRINTABLE VERSION $12.95 TODAY ONLY (FOR YOU TO PRINT ONLY – WILL *NOT* BE SHIPPED ~ REGULARLY $19.95)

—->>> SPIRAL BOUND PRINTED VERSION $29.95 TODAY ONLY(SHIPPED TO YOU ~ REGULARLY $34.95 but we don't have many of these at all so order soon if you're interested in this one!)  SOLD OUT

Go HERE to check them out, and hit the leave a comment button if you have any questions at all. Thank you so much for allowing me to be a small part of your journey ~ I'm praying a beautiful 2019 for you!