I mentioned earlier in this series that sometimes creating white space takes a little bit of work. It isn’t just about going through and quitting everything and then calling it a day. Ta-da! White space!

We have responsibilities. We can’t just quit life.

But my need for white space is all about my family. Being able to give Hudson and Hayes more of my time, and not feel stressed over messes and schedules and clutter.

(If you’re new here, here’s a little catch up moment: We sold our house in October 2012 after 10 months on the market. We moved into Todd’s grandmother, and started building a house in April after searching for months for the right home.)

As we’ve planned our home and gone through the building process, the part of the house that I am most excited about is that we’ve created a place for everything while making the most of the square footage.

We don’t have an overabundance of rooms. There is not a craft room or a formal living room or even an actual mud room. But we’ve made a space for everything.

We wanted to maximize functionality with the least amount of space as we could. So we have a hallway just in from the garage. (We have a garage for the first time! A garage!)

Inside the back door is a laundry room. Just past the laundry room on this hallway is a small powder room, built-in cubbies and a built-in desk. This small 100 square foot space is my favorite thing about the new house.

these were my inspiration via here

We can come in from the garage and drop off book bags, purses, and shoes at the cubbies. Then I can drop off the mail and piles of paper that always steal my white space at the desk. I can always have my chargers in one location.

inspiration photo via here 

I hope that this will cut back on the time we spend looking for things and the constant feeling like the piles are running our lives. Do y’all know what I’m talking about? Those piles are just the worst!

Mail, kids’ “artwork,” reminders from teachers, church bulletins, magazines.

There are file cabinets and cubbies and cabinets and places for all the things that you don’t want to keep, but you can’t throw away. (Although I will touch on some plans for how to decide what I can throw away.)

But these things can be achieved without building a new house. What are some of your tips for managing the clutter? The things you can’t throw away.

And how do you decide what you can throw away?

This post is Day 11 in a series called 31 Days of Creating White Space. You  can read the rest of the posts here.

Thank you all so much for your encouragement on yesterday’s post. I was absolutely terrified to publish that post, and it was extremely difficult to write it. So thank you for the “me too!” moments. Truly.

Today I’m sharing my specific goals for creating white space in our home and in our family. I’d love to hear what some of your goals may be.

Clean it out! All of it.

The paper. The clutter. The closet. The bathroom cabinets. There is stuff that were are not using ever, and it needs to go.

Clear the calendar.

This month, so far, has been fantastic. When friends have asked to schedule a play date or a friend unexpectedly came to town, we’ve been able to go. We’ve been focusing on relationships and community. These are the things that matter to us as a family. Our family mission statement is to be a blessing to others. We can’t bless others if we’re all running around all the time.

Create a plan for when we move to the new house.

All of our belongings are currently in storage. When we see everything again for the first time in a year, there may be moments of pure shock. We certainly don’t need it all, and I need to make a list of what I know we can donate.

Organize and purge the toys.

There will be an entire post written on this topic, but I think everyone can agree that children play better and appreciate their toys more when they have fewer toys.

Make time.

I am coming up with a little plan to create more time in the day. This means waking up earlier and cutting things out of my life. The whole purpose of this exercise is to have more uninterrupted time with my kids, but I’d also like a good twenty minutes to myself.

Wake up earlier.

This goes with the above goal. But this goal is for the sole purpose of spending time with the Lord early in the morning. To make praising Him be the first thing I do each day. While sipping coffee, of course. Baby steps.

What are your goals to create white space?

This is Day 8 in 31 Days of Creating White Space.