SOLC 2013 Day 10: My functional home

I once kept a vision journal, as suggested by Sarah Ban Breathnach in her book Simple Abundance.  I sat on my bed with a blank artist's sketchbook, surrounded by magazines.  With a pair of scissors, a glue stick, and not a lot of deep thinking, I cut out pictures that appealed to me.  There was really no rhyme or reason; it was an exercise in visualizing your tastes, wishes, and ah-ha moments without the need for artistic ability.  Since I tend to subscribe to "women's magazines" that tout the latest home decor, decluttering strategies, and fashions that fit the average mom, those images fill the pages of the journal.

I should probably pull it out and look at it sometime.  It's probably covered in dust.

Don't get me wrong--I loved reading Simple Abundance, and it helped me through a time in my life when I wasn't sure what I was doing and where I was going.  

But day to day life took over, as it always does.  Laundry still needs to be done, and gets separated once weekly in big piles up and down the hallway.  Books get piled by the places they're read.  Pencils and pens and scratch papers migrate from desk to table to phone to fridge, and back to the desk.  Plants are watered weekly, but wait for their yearly spring  appointment on the back porch for rinsing-off and repotting.  Areas that are used more often are dusted:  the entertainment center, side tables in the living room, hallway pictures.  Those that are just piles waiting to be dealt with....well, it's a good thing no one is asthmatic in this house.  

There are multiple tote bags of mine in the hall, from various road trips and conferences, that never got fully emptied and put away.  With our seasons still in flux, all thicknesses of coats and jackets are hung on pegs and draped over the stacked bins that are *supposed* to keep the hallway organized.  My desk in the study is a meeting place of crochet patterns and recipes printed off the web, middle school son's report cards, to-do lists, more books (one on organizing--ha!), and gift tissue I haven't put away yet.  

Our kitchen and linen closet are probably the most organized places in the house.  For some reason, in those two spaces, there is a place for everything and everything is in its place.  Maybe eating and drying off are the two most important activities in our family(?).

Maybe I'm afraid to pull out the journal, because our house won't look like my visions a decade ago.  Or maybe I just don't care, because my house is a functional one, with signs of living and working and playing and resting.  Signs of a loving, happy-most-of-the-time family.  

Now if you'll excuse me, the laundry is calling...