the life changing magic of having help tidying up

"I think that the home is the first layer of mental health," she said kindly as she looked around my messy house with piles of laundry and art supplies. I nodded because I knew she was right.

I had texted Alice in a moment of vulnerability, asking her to come help me get my house back together to help me manage my bad depressive season. I have just finished weaning myself off of my anxiety meds, and between that, being snowed in, and having sickness run around our little family, I have had a really hard time keeping the dishes from overtaking our little kitchen and us from sleeping on piles of unfolded laundry.

Alice came over the next afternoon armed with her workout shoes, and took me through a heart stretching vulnerability testing set of questions, and listened to me as if I was laying down on a chaise in her psych office. She then laid out the plan of attack by helping me identify my "problem areas". The place that was giving me the most stress was our bedroom-- a big room right beside the front door and living room that we hadn't yet given a second thought. It holds our bed, all of our clothes, all of Everly's clothes, and my home office (I know I know, lecture me more about that one later). Because of it's location and my tendency to just shut the door when people were over, it had just become sort of the "catch-all" room. As we discovered later, it was also my tendency to believe that my business was less important than our other pursuits that caused me to push all of my art work to a messy corner in a forgotten room. All that being said, we decided to start in that room.

We began by placing all of the clothes on the bed. Literally all of them. "Get those out of the back of your closet!" Alice said.

"Noooo," I resisted. "That's where all my hopes and dreams live! As soon as I stop nursing I'm going to lose weight and fit back into those."

"A closet is a TERRIBLE place for your hopes and dreams, Caroline." Alice said, smacking me in the face with real talk.

With that ringing in my head and in a spirit of body positivity, I ended up getting rid of any piece of clothing that didn't make me feel like a million bucks. I got rid of three trash bags. I was so worried that I wasn't going to have anything left to wear, but when I looked in my neatly folded drawer, my heart was filled with so much joy knowing that no matter what I chose to wear, I was going to like how I looked and felt. It was incredibly liberating.

Surrendering my control and admitting that I needed help was a difficult hurdle, but I am so glad that I got over it. Looking into my room and seeing that it is functional and beautiful makes me want to both keep it clean and expand the tidiness into the other rooms. The glorious order of it all is addictive, and she tailored the organization to my habits and needs (unlike the countless organization books and blogs I'd read before).

We've just finished the bedroom at this point, but I'll be having Alice back several more times to help me tackle my other crazy rooms/give me more emotional therapy. If having a clean house is something that you've always dreamed of and never been able to attain, or if you just need a fresh organization to your cozy home, Alice provides affordable and personalized guidance that you can grow from and learn to have a tidy home.

You can hire Alice here, and to celebrate the launch of her new business I'm partnering up with her for a giveaway of The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, the book that provides the backdrop for a lot of her work! The giveaway runs from February 12th to the 19th, and if you win you'll get a copy of this national bestseller shipped straight to you. Enter below!

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