Function over Beauty

Don’t you love those times when you receive the same message from several different sources? I do! Some people call them confirmations. I call it a sign!

I can’t even remember all the places I heard/read this mantra over the past week, likely in a book and on a couple of blogs. The phrase is this “Make your house work for you and stop working for your house”. And at first, I couldn’t wrap my brain around this concept. But when I did, BOOM 🤯! Why am I working so hard every single day to keep the chores done and keep our daily schedule organized and keep us on-time? All I could think was “Why is this so hard?”. Why wasn’t I getting to spend enough quality time with my son? I was getting up earlier to do more, and staying up later to finish picking up toys or loading dishes. Yet nothing I was doing was making a real difference in our daily hectic life, except wearing me down! So something had to give. And somewhere along this journey of learning how to declutter, I came across that phrase “make your house work for you and stop working for your house”. And then I heard it again and again. Now when something like that happens to me, I take it to heart. God put these words in front of me repeatedly for a reason, I am going to heed them. But where to begin?

We all want functional AND beautiful homes! Our home is supposed to be a reflection of our style, right? To me that translates as “another way for our visitors to judge me”. I’m not saying that your house can’t be beautiful! But too often, we put beauty first. Why not step out of that perfect house misconception and design yours to function as a home for your family? Take a look around. Ask yourself what’s working for your family and what isn’t? All these boxes in my tiny hallway we are forever moving around and stepping around, is just one of the things not working for my family! And that was proven today when Chisum fell on a drill and cut his knee. That wouldn’t have happened if he wasn’t trying to weave through the chaos that is our hallway (at max speed). A little boy should get to run and play, in his own home, knowing that it’s safe to do so. So today’s goal, and likely for the next week or so, was to get as much off the floor as possible, beginning with that death-trap hallway!

Now I have already begun the process of removing the excess [useless] stuff from our home. That’s step one. If it’s not serving a purpose in your home, or bringing you happiness, you don’t need it! With the first stage of decluttering done, I am focusing on choosing items that can function in more than one way. For instance, choose nesting boxes for shoe storage in lieu of shoeboxes, which come in all funky shapes and sizes! Not only are they pretty storage boxes that come in a variety of designs, but they can nest or stack, thus serving more than one purpose. I’ve got a set of these for shoe storage in my closet, and this set on my bathroom vanity-one for makeup and one for hair stuff. (I wish I had taken a before picture of my countertop with all my products scattered everywhere!) My new morning routine no longer includes lipstick rolling off the countertop, because everything is neatly contained and organized and all I have to do is shut the lid when I’m done! And the same for my hair products and brushes. Then simply stack and walk away knowing it’ll be one less thing I have to do when I get home!

I may have started with the two smallest rooms, the hallway and my bathroom, but these two rooms have to work hard for me every single day. There’s something magically deceptive to the mind’s eye when the floors and cabinets are void of objects-it suddenly appears clean and pulled together. And for me, starting my day and ending my day in a messy bathroom, is a lot like crawling into an unmade bed, which I know will make me restless! And I need all the beauty sleep I can get!

I didn’t do anything fancy to my bathroom, but instead focused on making it functional for my daily needs. I recently decided that I rather like decorating a room prior to painting it as this allows me room for error. And that means less holes to putty and touch-up after a fresh new coat of paint when I mismeasure and hang a frame an inch to the left! I can truly decide if I like the design without the guilt. Someday I’ll get to remodel this master ensuite the way I’ve dreamt it could be since I first laid eyes on the house, but for now function wins over beauty. Besides a gallon of paint and some fresh towels will instantly bring this room to life and thus suffice until I win the lottery!

Here I chose to frame out my towel hooks and make them look like living art, adding a fun little bit of interest! And over there I hung a shelf to house all my pretties! Little tokens of love and things that make me happy, like this memo board, currently with a piece of Chisum’s art and a birthday card from my in-laws, as well as a favorite photo of my main man!