A few years ago, I began looking around at the home that my husband and I built together and thought “How did we accumulate so much stuff?!” Every wall had something hanging on it, every surface had cluttered decorations, and every room had more furniture than it needed. How did we get here? And more importantly, why had I not noticed this before? This home that I have always found comfort in was now giving me anxiety by the overwhelming clutter.

I began researching how to live a minimalistic lifestyle and learned that it can look different for each family. Minimalism doesn’t have to mean getting rid of everything you own and live with a mattress on the floor of an empty room. It just means you get rid of the excess and learn how to simplify. Let’s face it, life is busy! And if we have more things in our home that we need to manage, it creates more stress and chaos. Throughout the past couple of years, I have learned to keep less “inventory.” Why do I need 15 beach towels cluttering up our small linen closet when there are only 4 of us living here? Did we really need 5 different sets of sheets for our bed? When in the world would we ever need to have over 50 containers of Tupperware?! I was ready for a change and all I needed to do was get my husband on board. This was easier said than done because he has struggled at times with letting things go. It is either sentimental to him or he thinks we will use it someday so lets just keep it. Here is where you might say that opposites attract because I always enjoy getting rid of things.

It was a slow start at first, but little by little our home was becoming a place where I once again felt peace. And I was overjoyed to see that my husband was loving the outcome as well.

Once our home was completely finished, meaning we had highly simplified every room, closet, cabinet, and drawer, I thought I was done…but God wasn’t done with me.

How many of you live with a mind that just won’t shut off at night when it’s time to sleep? Or while you’re watching a movie with your family and you’ve got a checklist going through your head of ten different things you have to get done? That was me. I realized that my mind was never at rest. Anyone coming into my home could see that we lived a very clutter free life, however, the daily clutter in my head was a hundred times worse than our home ever was. Minimizing my home was easy but how do I start minimizing my mind? JESUS! I realized that this wasn’t something that I could do on my own. I needed Jesus to help me. I began by just asking him to take it from me and giving my worries and to-do lists over to him. I realized that the more time I spent with Jesus, the more my mind was at peace. John 14:27 says “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” Our lives are busy, and the world teaches us that busyness is the way to live but God wants us to be in constant peace. By simplifying my home, I was trying to find the peace that only God could give me. I am so grateful for His grace in my life and so thankful that I now get to rest in His loving peace.