m e t h o d 3 1

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Finding your method is an ongoing process intended to help you live a life that works for you and your circumstances – however life happens to change. What works today may not work a month from now and what works for me won’t necessarily work for you… But building habits, regardless of what they are and whether they change, is one of the foundations of an organized home and lifestyle that will keep you smiling even when you lose that initial motivation to declutter or make a change.

I wouldn’t be able to help others if I wasn’t also on a journey to find my method! And because this is an ongoing process even for me, you can usually bet that I’m trying out a few different things at any given point to see if they help me simplify or elevate my everyday life.

Below I’m listing four habits I’ve been doing that have done just that and will soon be sharing a few other things I’d like to try or that I’m currently working on.

Pulling back the sheets and letting my bed air out for about an hour before making it.

Previously, I’ve written about why making the bed daily is my number one rule, but I recently added this little step as a way help my sheets stay fresh. Pulling back all the covers and spritzing with my favorite linen spray before I pop into the kitchen to make coffee each morning gives any sweat on the sheets and mattress time to dry out but also refreshes them with a light scent for when I crawl back in at night. Both of these little perks make it easier for me to want to actually make the bed when I finish my coffee.

So, take the photo above and imagine the covers are pulled allllll the way down to the foot of the bed.

The next thing I do is wash my face, then head into the living room where I have started:

Opening the blinds fully and tuning into a relaxing playlist while I make coffee and start making breakfast.

I’m easily affected by light and find it much easier to wake up/get moving when I let the daylight stream in. So as soon as I get up and wash my face, I head into the living room and open the blinds. In the photo above, you can see my newly added curtains as well. I don’t ever plan to close them but they have really cozied up the space. Once the blinds are open, I like to set the tone for my morning with a relaxing playlist, which I usually find on YouTube. My current favorites are this spring 2020 mix or this morning coffee mix; both of which go exceedingly well with the smell of freshly brewed espresso.

Drinking out of a glass instead of a bottle at home, and using the same glass all day.

During the rest of the day, I usually just drink water (and maybe two or three more coffees) and I have really enjoyed using a drinking glass instead of carrying around a bottle with me. It feels just a bit more elegant, which adds the slightlest touch of luxury and pleasure to a very ordinary thing.

And lastly, I’ve been:

Incorporating kitchen clean up into my night-time routine…

This has definitely been one of the hardest things I’ve had to learn to do because, y’all… I hate doing the dishes… Or at least I used to. Since moving into my most recent apartment, I’ve worked on making sure I take care of all the dishes and tidy up the kitchen before I go to bed every night. Eventually, I resorted to timing myself to see how long it took me to actually wash up after a meal… On average this task took 7 minutes… That’s nothing. Once I got over how long I thought it would take, I honestly stopped minding so much… Especially when I can use this dish soap, which is sadly only available during certain months of the year. When I wake up in the morning, pull back the sheets, open the blinds and head to the kitchen to make coffee for my husband and I, I can’t help but smile.

Now I just need to find a way to love dusting!