Meet Chelsea
“Keep your room clean.” “It’s the wife’s job to maintain order in the home.” “A cluttered house leads to a cluttered mind.” “Get rid of everything you don’t need.”
Sound familiar? Learned from a young age and then reinforced throughout adult years by magazines, tv, and spousal expectations, the bar is set high for the state of your home. It becomes ingrained in your beliefs that you should always strive to maintain the perfect Pinterest pantry, no matter your life situation.
Working a full time job? “You have time after work.”
Have a housemate who refuses to assist with chores? “Step it up; It’s your responsibility now.”
Overwhelmed and don’t know where to start? “Just get started with literally anything.”
The story of my previous life, which slowly came to its end once I finally opened my eyes and stopped living in denial.
I looked around me, truly seeing for the first time what my living space had officially transformed into. As the transition was not overnight, I had grown desensitized to the collection of mess around me. I didn’t know what to do, where to start, or how to get out of this unknown state I had sunk into. Completely overwhelmed with no help, no one to turn to, and no support, I just kept trying to push through. Boxes and trash surrounded me. I was intimated by the chaos in my own home. How did it come to this?
I felt immense guilt for not living up to the expectations and responsibilities that society and others placed on me. Shame overtook due to the loss of control of the household. Embarrassment became my new normal because I wasn’t capable of keeping up with maintaining order.
Depression sank in as I realized this life I was living was undesirable, even dangerous. Ending my day by curling up in bed in a room where I felt suffocated by the chaos around me, only to start my next day in the same manner. Overwhelmed by the piles of laundry I could no longer remember if it was clean or not. Closets filled floor to ceiling with unpacked boxes, overflowing into the living space, stifling any motivation previously present. Dishes scattered all over the counters and filled the sink. Items I loved, cherished, and had fond memories attached to were nowhere to be found, buried, or stored away.
Life became a vicious cycle of empty promises of “I’ll get to it later.” My inner magic and inspiration vanished. The disorder around me isolated me from those I loved and the life I yearned for. The sparkle left my eyes and my passion for hosting guests became a distant memory. Who would want to visit such a disaster of a home, especially when even I didn’t want to be there? Over time, I transformed into an empty version of myself, barely recognizable to those who truly knew me.
With my health, mental state, and life on an incredibly steep decline, I knew something had to be done, but what? What could be done when it was literally all on my shoulders? A girl can only do so much on her own.
I needed order. I needed calm. And what I realized I truly needed was safety. But change doesn’t happen without change, and that’s exactly what needed to occur.
Change can come in many forms, but for me it came with the ending of a relationship and a relocation across the country. With my old life ending, my new life beginning, and starting over in a new location with a clean slate, I slowly found peace and hope. Each piece of my shattered life was picked up, one at a time, and carefully placed where it belonged. It was long, slow, and tedious, and I could not have done it without supportive people around me.
Then, one day, which started like many others before it, my mom said something that shocked me and instantly changed the trajectory of my life. “I finally see the sparkle in your eyes again. You were so hollow when you moved down here, but it’s like you’ve come back to life!” It was then that I began to realize the correlation between my decline and living in chaos versus my ascent and having order.
A chaotic home breeds a chaotic life. The world outside is chaotic enough, your home should be a safe space that you can retreat to and recover. But what do you do when the organizational systems taught to the masses makes one person feel cozy and safe, yet it makes you feel suffocated? When a pristine home that looks like a page out of a magazine, unlived in even, feels uninviting and cold to you? What do you do when you are raised to maintain an organized home based on your guardian’s preferred methods, but find that those are not aligned with your natural tendencies?
The answer came to me after multiple years of researching the different systems taught in books, online, and on TV. Each of them presented differently, but ultimately with the same message; you declutter. You get rid of the items that aren’t a necessity as they are just cluttering your space, and a cluttered home leads to a cluttered mind. Sounds great on paper, looks amazing in pictures, but was it realistic for the average person? How do you take people who enjoy collecting into account? What about your housemates, and their preferences and tendencies?
That was it, the missing factor.
I have created a more scientific approach to developing, implementing, and maintaining your household organizational systems. It rejects the societal view on “organized” and embraces your (and your housemates’) personal visual and complexity preferences when it comes to keeping your home orderly.
It’s been a long journey filled with many bumps, bruises, and roadblocks, but I wouldn’t change a thing because it all led me to my new life. One where I have become the sparkly and magical organizational guide that I am today with a much more joyful life and so much promise ahead of me.
Chaos breeds chaos. If your home feels chaotic to you, your life will surely follow. You should feel at home in your own home. You deserve a safe space from the world around you.
So journey with me, transforming your home from overwhelming and chaotic to organized and calm.
