Reclaiming the House

Earlier this week I shared that my word for 2022 is reclaim. 2020 was rough and 2021 just about broke me. I feel like I’m slowly crawling out of that deep pit, clutching the edges with my weary, filthy fingers, and ready to rise up and fight.

First up: the house.

I love the Christmas season but I struggle in one area, the clutter. By the time Christmas comes, I want to trash bag the house. Collect all the rogue ribbons, wrapping paper snippets, and box everything up. This year was extra hard because not long after we decorated the house, we had a leak that ruined our dining room ceiling. That meant the dining room table had to go into the hall. Fans ran for days. Extra chairs filled the living room.

Then our real Christmas tree fell. Time and time again. That fir would not take my adjustments and finally I propped it up against the wall and the couch. It made me hate the change of tree we made this year and the decoration process.

In the past my need to take down the decorations and deep clean the house has dominated my thoughts to the point the real point of Christmas would get lost. This season I made peace with the calendar. I breathed through the chaos and knew once it was New Year’s Eve day, the house was mine.

The dining room is still missing a ceiling and that means the table remains in the hall. And it’s okay. The live tree is gone. The decorations labeled and boxed. Tile waxed. Carpets steam cleaned. Furniture rearranged.

I reclaimed the house, but better than that, my thoughts. I didn’t let the clutter ruin me.

Victory!