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Monday, May 17, 2010

Minimize it Monday: More Hot Spots

Such a busy time in my life. So glad I am embracing the minimalist mind set. I could not imagine how many things I would be bringing into my home on a daily basis have I not decided this year is the year to LET GO.

Just to clarify, my minimalism is a sensible one. I am not the kind that wants not a speck of dust in an empty house. No, no, no. Far from that. I want to live a little you know.

I still hold on to things that have sentimental value to me until I am ready to let go. You may think it is not a realistic way to purge. But it works for me. I let go of a lot of stuff that I thought I would hang on for life. It was not as hard as I thought it would be. Once I have said my good bye to the items, they are free to go to another home or to file 13. I do make sure to check if some one else can use the item before dumping them. After all, that is part of the "green" effort I am trying to make.

Stuff is one thing, maintaining the home is another. Keeping my home in a functional mode is my role I believe the Lord has commanded me to do. Not perfectly, but diligently I shall keep my home a place where my family want to linger regardless of the square feet.

I have been doing FLYlady's method more years than I want to tell you. Even though I can't follow her ways completely (which is good because FLYlady's life and my life is completely different), I do follow some that work for me. Hot spot dealing is one of them. After years of trying and failing in keeping the hot spots clear, I finally came up with a plan a few weeks ago.

Acknowledging that I am not a super mom, I graciously asked my two older kids to take up some hot spots which they gladly did! Praise be to God! I assigned them some spots a few weeks ago and they have been keeping up their parts. It was such a wonderful scene to see when the kids announced someone must remove their stuff from their hot spots or else the stuff will be donated! I love my kids!

Last week I have assigned each of them another new hot spot (I keep in mind the location so the spots are in the similar area for them to take care of - part of my one-motion strategy) and they delivered again.

I hope in this busy season of my life that I would be able to instill a degree of minimalism into my children's mindset. Be it so that they could handle their own homes when the time comes or be it in a mission field, that when the Lord calls, they will be ready to heed it without all the stuff that would slowing them down.
Joshua's new hot spot - right next to the other three he has.


It has been cleared for the entire week!  Good job Josh!


This is a hard place to keep clear as it is right next to Peter's play things.

But Christine managed it!  Thank you my dear girl!

4 comments:

*Nikki* said...

I follow FlyLady too!! I can't go strictly by her way either...but GO YOU for having your kids help out. They need to learn how to keep a house..I was never taught so it is tough for me to put things up when I am done with them!!

Super Mom Academy said...

loving the hot spot clean-up and assigning! And it takes a village to make a super mom. Because we all have our strengths and when we share our gifts (which our gifts from God) we can't help but be the best mom's we can possilby be. And to me that is a super mom.

Unknown said...

I love what you are doing with your home. All your clean hot spots look wonderful!

~ Melinda ~

Jen said...

♥ Nikki, Yeah I am very grateful for my kids, big and small. They really understand the value of team work and totally take ownership of their bathroom now. That makes my heart sing. :)

♥ Pam, Thank you for your kind comment. But truly I don't think I am doing anything super. I have known friends who could do so much more with their children than I could, but I do like to hang out with my kids and I am glad that they like to hang out with me, too. :)

♥ Thank you Melinda! Home management is one area I enjoy doing besides scrapbooking! :)