Home organising and rhythm setting

There is something about my personality and life experience which means I need a sense of rhythm to my life. Since becoming  a parent, that need has become acute. I have tried to push it aside and live by ‘going with the flow’, but it hasn’t worked for me, especially with the demands of a growing creative business.

So I am setting my intention to work towards a life with more ryhthm. Of finding a pace to life that feels more realistic and respectful of where I am at in my stage of life (with two young children to nurture,  a family home to maintain and ‘art’ calling me). A way of running my life so that it feels more balanced rather than being so deep in one area of life that I  neglect the rest. A way of living that decreases stress and increases calm. A pattern to life that respects my need to know where I am at and what I am to give my attention to at a given moment rather than feeling that I have to deal with / develop / achieve everything right now (recipe for overwhelm if there ever was one).

I have tons I want to say about what rhythmical living means and does not mean to me but for now, let me tell you how I have begun:

  1. By clearing the physical space in my life
  2. By developing a way to intuitively plan my use of time.

On the latter, I am playing with different  ‘tools’ to do this and I will let you know what works and what doesn’t!

As for clearing the space…oh my! I have done my best over the last 5 years since having children to keep some sort of home organisation going. But, truth be told,  many, many corners of the home have been filled with things tidily shoved away. Seeing these hot spots of neglect have left me frequently hyperventilating (you know that feeling, when you can’t find what you need or you open the cupboard door and things tumble out?)

So, in my quest to clear the metaphorical dance floor of my life so that I can dance my rhythm without tripping, I have spent the last 10 weeks sorting, de-cluttering and tidying. So far I have tackled:

  • the kitchen cupboards (happily, in good preparation for this course on Vegan living that start tomorrow)
  • the utensils draws in the kitchen (yay! The draw has not got stuck once since!)
  • the understairs cuboard (including using the genius system from my friend Kate, for organising medicine into two boxes – ‘internal’ and ‘external’)
  • all our paperwork and filing has been gone through and stuff chucked, organised or archived. I feel like I need an enourmous round of applause for this as its over 5 years worth – phew! I think that we may now be able to actually find a piece of paper when we need it!
  • I have sorted my jewelry and made this display frame from a beautiful piece of lace  (hand-made and given to me by a dear lady in Finland) which I have mounted on a wooden frame.

I adapted this idea from Heather at Beauty that Moves who showed how she used a small bit of lace in an embroidery hoop for hanging earrings. It’s so lovely seeing all the various sparkly bits (many with feelings attached) on display – it is like using all your jewelry to make a work of art!

  • my artists studio has been thoroughly cleared out and I have nearly finished sorting all my tiles (will post pics of the inside when I do)
  • kids toys have been thinned out, sorted and tidied including all the girly nick nacks (how many bracelets and necklaces can a little girl have? Mmm…about as many as her mummy maybe?)
  • our hat gallery is back!
  • my sewing area is finally cleared, sorted and set up and I will finish our family snuggle quilt for the living room by next winter…

Still many house projects to tackle but it feels sooo good to have made such headway, particularly as I have a busy time coming up with my art in the next few months (some exciting news to share soon!).

PS. The picture above my sewing desk is by Nikki McClure , an inspiring self-taught artist and children’s author who makes the most beautiful paper-cut art. The picture was a 40th birthday present from friend, blogger and fellow Tooting creative Gillian. When she gave it to me, it welled me up – there is something in the picture that touches me deeply.

10 Responses to “Home organising and rhythm setting”

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  1. Em says:

    I love the jewellery storage, its like an ever-changing piece of sparkly art!
    Are you planning on becoming vegan?
    I am as of tomorrow into my 9th week of veganism and feeling so much happier and healthier because of it, I'd recommend it to anyone who has the time to spend preparing interesting meals.
    Em xxx

  2. Mag says:

    Jewelery on lace ? Great! I enjoyed reading the post. Frankly I cannot live without meat or at least fish. I believe that the best diet is the Mediterranean one, on which there has been a lot of scientific proof, research and I have seen it work on people, grandparents, etc. There is no real substitute for the benefits that derive from meat or fish. Wisdom is in the balance.

  3. Concetta says:

    Thanks both – as for the vegan thing, about twice a year I do this as a way of resting my system and I must admit that more and more my body wants a hugely plant based diet. We don't eat much meat and my optimum I think is a pretty vegan diet with fish added. Being Italian, am used to the Mediterranean diet which uses tons of fresh veg anyway! 9 weeks Em, that is good going. What made you switch?

  4. Mousy Brown says:

    Great post! Boy do I need to do some of this – just as soon as I get to stand still for a second I am going to start – maybe thats where I go wrong!?? 😀

  5. Rachel says:

    Wow- super-impressed by all this, glad I'm not the only one who has to inflict violence on her utensil drawer to make it close! I love the lace jewellery display….going to look in the loft for some of my old embroidery hoops! Looking forward to hearing how you manage time, something I struggle with daily…
    xx

  6. Kerri says:

    great idea on where to put the jewelry! i'm not sure i'm patient enough to put things back properly tho.?
    i'm in clearing my space mode right now too. it always feel so good to do that.

  7. Louise Gale says:

    Ooh love the lace and jewelery organizer! I recently did a whole clearing also, its so good for the soul isnt it. Xx

  8. Amelia says:

    Wow, lovely powerful image I can see why this choked you up . . .

    Glad you're setting rhythms and clearing out. hhhmmmmm, I need to do this too . . .

    Amelia.x

  9. Dana Barbieri says:

    What a great way to display your jewels! Love it! Yay for you for all the clearing. It feels great I know.
    xo

  10. Concetta says:

    Thanks guys for your encouragement – Spring is a good time to do this eh? And its…very…nearly…here!!!