If you really want to get organized, it isn’t about doing big tasks. It is about the small habits that you develop that are repeatable. If you want to feel like you are living in a peaceful home, it is the tiny little things that you do each day that make all the difference. It is putting things back in their place when you’re done with them. It is taking 30 seconds to tidy up before you leave the room. It is making your bed to signal to yourself that the day has begun. This is what prevents clutter and keeps your home peaceful.
It also comes down to psychology. There’s a reason why habit stacking is a thing. When you stack a new habit on top of an existing habit, it makes it easier to maintain in the long run. Wiping the counters every evening while I make my tea ensures that I don’t have to think about whether or not I should do it. Sorting the mail while I wait for the kettle to boil means that I don’t have to find the motivation to do it. When you take away the daily decision-making, it makes it easier to just do it. After several weeks or months, it just becomes a natural part of your daily routine.
The main difficulty in maintaining a peaceful home is that things just keep coming. It’s birthdays, holidays, and seasons, not to mention the occasional surprise gift. The cure is regular quarterly mini-declutters, where you take a short amount of time every quarter to review a room, remove items you haven’t been using, and tweak the systems to fit your current habits. Quarterly mini-declutters keep the creeps from getting out of control, and help you appreciate what you’ve accomplished so far. Plus, it makes it easier to keep your home tidy, and that’s something to feel good about!
Another key daily practice to support long term balance is to consume consciously. Ask yourself if the thing you are bringing into your home is necessary, if you have a place for it, and if it will replace something you already have. This practice alone will greatly decrease clutter in the future and ensure that you are only surrounding yourself with items that align with your beliefs rather than impulse purchases. Paired with the practice of gratitude, where you express thanks for the things you already own, you will find you need and want less and less over time which will enable you to be even more content with what you already have. This will help you see your home as a sanctuary of what you need and love instead of a storehouse of goods.
The best part about perpetual habits for home harmony, ultimately, is that they can be fluid. As your life morphs, shifts, and pivots over time because of a move, a new baby, a new job, or whatever, these habits morph, shift, and pivot with it, always holding onto the essence of gentle aid. They go from a mindful practice to a mindless gift that your home continues to be throughout life’s twists and turns. Perfection, again, is not the goal here; instead, a sense of peace is a result of the habits themselves.