My dream home

Hi again,

I checked what Marie Kondo tells us to think about when creating a dream vision of our house to motivate us to tidy. She says we should find a picture or two on a home interior magazine that really inspires us and says it all. I have such pictures in the end of my older blog post that are still quite adequate. So I didn't care to search for new ones.

Although just a couple of weeks ago I saw pictures of Marie Kondo's Tokyo home. It is very inspiring to look at those pictures. I love the white and decorative details. But for me, I need more color in my house.

What I didn't do the last time around was to ask myself why. Marie Kondo advices going to the core of every part of your dream by asking why, three times with every idea. So let's do that with my vision.

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I love plenty of free floor space. I also love when fresh air and light can freely float in to the house. I love white surfaces with playful details in color. I find joy in empty drawers as well as cute boxes with precious things in them.

WHY? I feel that in a house of fresh air, light and empty surfaces my thought is also free. And I'm free to do what ever I want. Mindful and beautiful details help me concentrate on the essential. Seeing things with colors makes me smile and cheers me up. WHY? I want to be in a good mood and not distracted to be able to do right choices with my life and my time. WHY? I think it is important to live life as it was intended. I basically want to have room in my head and space to communicate with my people and my heavenly Father.

In my house I want to read, play games and music as well as discuss with my family. I want the kids to have plenty of space for moving and playing at home. I wish the toys to be beautiful, inspiring and durable so that I can enjoy seeing my kids play with them.

WHY? I want my kids to feel included and loved at home. I want to encourage them as well as myself to good activities. I want us to see what is important in life. WHY? Because I believe that is the route to good self-esteem and good relationships with others. WHY? So that we can thrive in life, in our relationships.

I want to cook in my tidy kitchen where I have only the necessary items and clean surfaces. I cook healthy food and stay on top of my food reserves at all times. I want to provide healthy and delicious food for my family.

WHY? The nutrition is important to our bodily well-being. Food is something we should enjoy with thanks. Respecting the dinner time is important in keeping the family in communication with each other. WHY? I want our family to have good communication. Providing good food to share together helps with that. I want everybody to stay healthy. WHY? Again, I think that is what we need as human beings.

I also want us to spend time outside. So leaving the house with all the necessary belongings should be easy and delightful. I want us to spend time also outside on our own yard, enjoying our own home outside.

WHY? It is good for our health to get fresh air and exercise. It is also a great thing to do together that people of all ages and circumstances can enjoy. God's creation is right at our own backyard and all around for us to admire. WHY? To encourage the feeling of belonging together with each other and the creation and God. WHY? Well well, that is already enough reasoning, don't you think?!

Getting ready for the day and having a good night sleep happen both in the bedroom I share with my husband. That is also the room that is the closest of being my own space. There I want to have only my dearest belongings that help me rest and recreate. Fresh air and light is especially important in this space.

I also want to be creative in my house. I love knitting and crocheting. I would like to take up sewing and reading again as my hobbies. I also love bullet journaling. Would it be possible for me to establish a place in the house for all of these interests of mine?

WHY? It want to feel confident about myself and that results from taking care of myself. I need to remember what is important to me and do what I appreciate. WHY? I believe God has given each one of us special gifts and talents and wants us to live using them according to His will. To be able to do that I need to take care of my body and mind. WHY? I think this is already as deep a reason as it gets...

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One thing I want to add in my dream vision is that I want my house to be filled with people. I have a nice house with plenty of room to invite friends into. To do that I need a functional kitchen and an easy-to-clean house. WHY? I love people and enjoy getting to know them. I also love getting people to know each other and creating social networks. WHY? I believe spending time with each other and serving each other is what God created us for. WHY? ...And we are there again. No more reasons required.

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This exercise really showed me that it is possible to get to the core of your values and beliefs by considering how you want to live in your own house. I don't know if I went too deep but that is just how my mind works. This definitely was helpful because now I can tell myself in the process why it is really essential to go through the whole KonMari Method. In the end I will have a house that encourages prayer, creative work, play, music, healthy habits for body and spending time with each other. Oh wow, that sounds almost like Heaven!

Now I realized I haven't thought too much about just me, how I want to be and feel in my house. Let's see. In the Bible it describes the virtues of a grown Christian and that is what I desire to be. But those are inside and not visible. When it comes to visible things, I put value in beauty because I think God has given them for us to enjoy. That is why I like to have beautiful clothes and accessories and take care of my appearance. Taking care of my body with exercise and healthy food is part of that. I hate all kinds of extra nick nack so I never have plenty of jewellery on - neither does my house.

I guess that is it for today. I'm amazed about what kind of look into myself this exercise was! And I hope I was being true to myself although knowing this text will be there for everybody to read might make me want to present myself better than I actually am. But hey, this exercise was about dreams!

KonMari Project, Round 3, in English

Hi everybody,

I've been gone from my blog for a long time. That is mainly because I have not had an idea on what to write. My life has been fairly organized after discovering first KonMari and then Bullet Journal. So I have not had the need to clarify my thoughts or my nooks and grannies by blogging about them.

Now I have decided to reach for the KonMari Consultant certificate and that is why I am back. The first steps in the process are reading the books of course but also completing the KonMari Method in my own home and provide pictures about it. I decided to use my blog as a template to report those pictures and also to keep a journal on my progress.

Of course I have that kind of pictures already here in my blog. However, they are not from this house. I want to make sure my current state of earthly possessions is presentable and sparks joy for me.

I chose English and only English to be my language from now on because, if I become a consultant, my first clients will be speaking English. And it is not inspiring to write the same text both in Finnish and English as I tried to do earlier.

I do not know when I will be attending the KonMari seminar which is the first big step of becoming a consultant. But I know for sure it is not this spring or summer. So I will have plenty of time to do the round 3 before that. I also assume that it is not going to take as much time as the previous rounds since I know what I am doing and there is way less things to work through.

The first thing to do when starting the KonMari project is to visualize the desired outcome. What I want to do in my house when it is tidy? How do I want to live my life after finishing the tidying process? How does my house look like then? And so on. So today I am going to find answers to these questions.

***

I love plenty of free floor space. I also love when fresh air and light can freely float in to the house. I love white surfaces with playful details in color. I find joy in empty drawers as well as cute boxes with precious things in them.

In my house I want to read, play games and music as well as discuss with my family. I want the kids to have plenty of space for moving and playing at home. I wish the toys to be beautiful, inspiring and durable so that I can enjoy seeing my kids play with them.

I want to cook in my tidy kitchen where I have only the necessary items and clean surfaces. I cook healthy food and stay on top of my food reserves at all times. I want to provide healthy and delicious food for my family.

I also want us to spend time outside. So leaving the house with all the necessary belongings should be easy and delightful. I want us to spend time also outside on our own yard, enjoying our own home outside.

Getting ready for the day and having a good night sleep happen both in the bedroom I share with my husband. That is also the room that is the closest of being my own space. There I want to have only my dearest belongings that help me rest and recreate. Fresh air and light is especially important in this space.

I also want to be creative in my house. I love knitting and crocheting. I would like to take up sewing and reading again as my hobbies. I also love bullet journaling. Would it be possible for me to establish a place in the house for all of these interests of mine?

***

That is all for today. I maybe come back later on to add or finetune the vision. I have to say that most of these things are already on their way as I am already relating to my belongings the way KonMari has inspired.