Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Baby Steps to Becoming a Purposeful Home Keeper – Day 19

I'm picking up my Baby Step series and today is the 19th day of this series.

The past few Baby Steps have been about using a notebook to help establish and maintain order on the home front. I started my Simple Home Notebook in France and since coming back home to Arizona, I’ve re-written my sections into a new notebook that has lines.

Every woman has to have a plan in order to build her home and stay on purpose. Right? And, what’s the purpose? To create a home that is sanctuary and to leave a (good) legacy that lasts to our family.

I finished writing down the purpose of each serving center which I decided to rename: Sanctuary Space.

I have my Kitchen Sanctuary, Master Bedroom Sanctuary, Master Bath Sanctuary, Dining Room Sanctuary and so on.

Calling the space Sanctuary helps remind me of my goal to create sanctuary in all the space of our home.

On each Sanctuary space page, I’ve written the purpose and my goals for that space.

For example in my Kitchen Sanctuary I wrote these goals:

1. Monday Menu planning – allow room for spontaneity and Tuesday shopping.

Here Amy has grocery saving money tips. Org. Junkie Queen, Laura uses Mondays to inspire women to menu plan and here Toblerone shares her menu planning tip using Google Calendar. I’ve just recently started employing Google Calendar and I LOVE it.

About eighteen years ago I was a fan of once a month cooking, but weekly menu planning works best for me in this season of my life. Rachel writes about Batch Cooking here.

2. Maintain a well stocked and organized pantry.

3. Keep my linen closet neatly organized.

4. Plan, plant and regularly attend to our vegetable garden and incorporate the produce into meals.

5. Organize my recipes and evaluate my present system. I like what Lindsay has done here.

6. Keep my countertops (working space) free of unnecessary stuff. De-clutter, de-clutter and do it again is my mantra.

8. Purge old spices and maintain the alphabetized organization. Maintain the organization in my other storage cupboards.

9. Create beauty at my family table with colorful and delicious food – to have the display as wonderful as the food and the company around the table.

10. Keep it all simple.

Simplify is a running Lylah theme and Lindsay has an excellent post on her Kitchen Simplification process.

As this Becoming a Purposeful Home Keeper series just about wraps up, I’d love to hear how it’s been helpful for you to think about creating sanctuary and being on purpose in your home.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a wonderful collection of kitchen resources, thank you so much for including the batch cooking link. I think the most important thing for me is to realize that having a sanctuary in my home starts with me and my attitude. I want to keep my home orderly, but also freely give smiles and hugs.

carrhop said...

Great resources! I too have a household notebook and have utilized and been blessed by several of the resources you mentioned here.

I love the idea of sanctuary. Awesome way to shift perspective!

Blessings!

lindsay edmonds said...

Thanks for the sweet reminder Lylah to think of each room as a sanctuary! I would love to see your lists for the other rooms too. Thanks for the links and all your sweet comments on my blog lately. By the way, things are really moving forward with our church's involvement with ISI, thanks to you!