It’s January, folks! Who’s housecleaning and decluttering this month? Clutter free, restful  spaces are so worth the effort it takes to achieve them! In fact, if your house is cluttered, there’s a very good chance your life and brain are cluttered as well. You can read more about decluttering and minimalism here.

Years ago, I was reading a book on organization. The writer brought out the point of how necessary it is to have margin in our spaces if we want things to be organized. This thought has always stuck with me.

The dictionary defines margin as a spare amount or measure allowed or given for contingencies or special situations.

So imagine with me that the pages in a book had no margin but were completely crammed full to the brim with words. No extra space was given. Would it be pleasing to read such a book? Indeed not! It would be totally overwhelming!

Or think of a book shelf that’s crammed so tightly, you can’t even slide a book in its rightful place. Few people will take the time to carefully pull the books apart to find a spot to slide it in place. The most popular method is to simply plop the book on top of the other books and expect magic (or mom) to put it away properly. 

But what if you kept that spare amount of space beyond what is needed, and that shelf is only three-fourths of the way full? Now you can easily slide the book in its place, no problem. Plus, the looks of that shelf are pleasant to the eyes.

If we have every spot in our homes filled to the brim, it will become crowded and overwhelming. For most of us, the truth is that we don’t need a bigger house; we need less stuff! 

As we keep margin in our drawers, closets and pantries, we will find it much easier to keep organization in place. That extra space beyond what is needed will go a long way to keeping it orderly. Sure, we still need to maintain our spaces and keep after those stray pieces floating around. But it’s much easier to quickly organize things a bit when you’ve got extra space to work with! If you don’t believe me, try organizing clutter in a tiny spot. Remember, if you’re not willing to part with any clutter, you will simply be “stuff shifting” instead of organizing. I love the saying-  the easiest way to organize your stuff is to get rid of most of it! There’s a lot of truth to that!

I’m going to share a couple of pictures around our home that display margin.

So what if we gave ourselves margin not only in our houses but also in our calendars and schedules? Giving ourselves margin in our lives gives us permission to pause and enjoy the golden sunbeams streaming in the window. To look in your child’s eyes and listen closely to their chattery talk. Unhurried. To chat with our neighbor or spend extra time with a friend who needs a listening ear. To embrace the moment. We can even tend to the tasks at hand with more love and detail. All because we are not hurried and harried!

This is something I’m trying to implement in my life.  How much more smooth and less stressful things are when we give ourselves those 10 extra minutes to get to town. Those 5 extra minutes to get everyone out the door or those extra minutes alotted to supper preparations are so worth it! One way we ourselves practice this is to arrive at church by 9:15. This gives us 15 minutes of margin, should we have delays.

Avoid over filling your social calendar. Make you and your family’s life as stable and predictable as possible. Children thrive and feel most secure in normalcy! And dare I say most adults do too?! There may be the peculiar few who love the “fly by night” experiences on a regular basis, but most of us do well on routines and schedules!

When we’ve already been gone two days this week, can we say “no” to another day of being gone? There is a fine line between sacrifice and selfishness, and I’m not advocating that we always put our own needs first. But it is good to remember that our own families are our first responsibility and shouldn’t be shrugged off easily.  When we give ourselves that needed space to stay home and take care of our responsibilities, it does much to lower stress.

But it takes intentionality to keep our schedules from overload! Can we say “no” to another shopping day or coffee date with friends? I hope so! I realize though, that many times, there are legitimate reasons for our days of being gone. Church and school related activities are beyond our control. And we certainly should support these events if at all possible. Prioritizing is super important when it comes to those busy seasons. Then is when it’s necessary to keep projects at home to a minimum so we’re able to give our support to the church. 

I set up a daily schedule for myself to try this year, with plenty of margin. (I’m not perfect with it) and it takes discipline to follow, but how much better my days go when I do! It takes discipline to stop my work and go take a nap. To stop that sewing (which I love) and go start cooking supper (which I don’t particularly love.)

I’m not talking about a schedule so rigid we can’t deviate- we do need to be flexible. And that’s what margin is for. As we allow extra time for those interruptions and unexpected things that come up, we can handle the day with lower levels of blood pressure and stress.

Whether it’s in our homes or schedules, overload generally happens by default. Margin, on the other hand, involves action and discipline to achieve and maintain. But oh, the freedom it brings!

Let all things be done decently and in order.

1 Corinthians 14:40