Hi. I’m Beth. I’m a wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, in law, and organizer. I have worked as a teacher, secretary, baby sitter, dog sitter, and translator. I’m an American who’s very interested in other cultures. I’m a Christ follower who’s very interested in how people approach themselves, others, Higher Powers, and Life. I like learning languages and learning the cultures that go with them. I think human personalities are fascinating, and I love to see how each person expresses their unique combination of energy. I’m for sure an introvert.

What’s my story?

I developed my own system for bringing order out of chaos mostly during the time spent raising children. We used our house so much, and had to learn to work together to keep it sane and functional.

I had an experience recently that taught me a lot about how people feel about organizing a space or a life.

The experience was trying to build this website. It was SO HARD. I would sit down with what I thought was a reasonable goal (“Get the logo to show up on the Home Page.”) and go around in circles for a long, long time. Most days I left the work zone with no measurable progress, just a ton of tension in my body because I could not get the pixels to do what I wanted them to do.

One day, it dawns on me–THIS! This is how people feel about closets and pantries and trying to go out of town for a weekend. Those tasks don’t frighten me anymore (although they certainly have in the past), but they are mysterious, slippery, and foggy to lots of people. So, when you are looking at a pile of belongings, or a garage, or whatever, and feeling the desire to leave the area and do pretty much anything but organize it, I can relate. I know the feeling, but for me it’s in a different context.

Does that mean I think I’m “better than you”? No. Absolutely not. I think our brains work differently, and I happen to be able to zoom out when putting a space together or reworking it. There are very likely a dozen ways your brain works that fascinate and inspire me. Maybe you are one of those people who can actually remember the plot of a movie a week or so after watching it. Maybe you can name more than three models of cars, and possibly even change the oil. You might be able to survive in the great outdoors for days and days. See?? Fascinating!!

I am SO THANKFUL that there are people who speak the language of designing and editing websites. And I’m super thankful that a few of them are in my life and have the ability –and willingness–to unlock some important virtual doors for me. Thank you, Kevin! Thank you, Jim! I have Super Hero Capes for you guys!

Will you see things on this website that could be done better? For suresies. In my world, we go for function first and beauty later. I hope if you return in a month or two, you’ll see improvements. I hope to keep growing my web skills, probably not to “professional” level, but at least past “I need to go cry now” frustration level.

If you have a space in your home or workspace that could use some better function, that’s making you crazy, maybe I can help. Piles of random stuff don’t scare me. I LOVE to make a space look, feel, and function better with a little thought, some good questions and decisions, and a lot of work. It’s FUN for me. Energizing, even!

If you have a website that is confounding you, I’m sorry. I cannot help with that. But there are people nearby who can! It’s a beautiful thing.

How did I get here?

Let’s go back about fifteen years and take a look into my house. It’s 1008 square feet, and six people live here: Dad, Mom (me), daughter age twelve, son age nine, daughter age seven, and daughter age four. Two children and one spouse have the amazing brain that we sometimes call ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder), which, among other things, means life is always interesting. Sometimes we would have a child from another country come stay for a few weeks in the summer. (Because, as Nia says in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, “we weren’t weird enough.” ) The son and daughters are homeschooled, so we are in the house a lot. And out of the house a lot, too. We play. We read. We learn. We cook. We bake. We sing. We sew. We build forts. We eat. We bathe. We knit. We snap at each other. We dance. We have tea parties and birthday parties and half birthday parties. We dye fabric (just once or twice–so fun!). We play some more. And every once in a while, we clean up. We make up songs to sing while we clean. There are certain times of the day that we routinely move through the house and put things back where they go. It takes a lot of effort. We talk about “making art” with everything we own, such as placing folded clothes in a drawer in an appealing way. We talk about making the house welcoming to ourselves and others who come in. We have inspections. We talk about letting go of things that we’re not super interested in anymore, so we can have space for the things we like the most.

Husband/Dad works early early mornings, and sometimes tries to rest in late afternoon. Mom needs afternoon rest because she just does. So we have Rules for Quiet Rest. Do NOT disturb Mom or Dad EXCEPT in cases of blood, fire, large amounts of water, and broken bones.

We teach the kids how to sweep, how to take the trash out, how to load or unload the dishwasher, and how to set the table for dinner. One time the “how to clean a bathroom lesson” was in the form of a silly skit.

Basically, we add a little structure to the craziness of life, and hope it works. I think the most important pieces for me were that 1) we take care of our home together and 2) we make it fun and reasonably quick.

So, as I look back on the years of raising beautiful children into amazing adults, I am thankful for all the things they taught me and all the ways they are still teaching me. I am thankful that God kept us alive and sane enough when things were so so nutty. I’m thankful for friends that encouraged and supported us and accepted this crazy house as the offering of love that it was. I don’t know if the legos and doll clothes on the floor truly didn’t bother them, or if they just pretended. Either way, I love my gracious friends and the kindness they showed us. That’s how I got here.

And Then…

So, we’re tooling along fifteen years ago, a family of six in a three bedroom ranch house, and we’re feeling like we’re always bumping into each other. So Husband and I decide to try to sell this house and move into a larger house. This is the first house we’ve owned, so our first attempt at selling a house.

What needs to happen? We replace the carpets. We do a little painting. We store some stuff that we can do without for a while, to make the house look airier and more spacious. We clean. So much. We develop a really strict “how make the house look like pretend people live here” routine and practice until we can do it in thirty minutes or less. We hire a realtor. They take some photos and make up some flyers. We wait for potential buyers. The realtors show the house ten or twelve times in the six month contract period, but no buyers offer to buy. (Why do they call them buyers?)

If you lived in Central Virginia in the winter of 2009-2010, you will be familiar with the term “Snowmaggedon.” A region that averages less than 12″ of snow per winter had at least three snowfalls of two feet or more in a two month span. The December 18th storm was particularly memorable, because it stranded people driving home from work and it was FAST in shutting down roads. I remember going to my local grocery store earlier that day, in my usual state of weather-ignorance, just doing my normal biweekly shopping. The lines to checkout extended WAY down the grocery aisles, approaching the meat coolers at the back of the store. It was crazy.

Anyway, Snowmaggedon was not friendly to the housing market. Who goes out in three feet of snow to look at a house for sale? Not many people at all. We probably got fewer viewers due to the fierce weather. But I don’t think that’s the real reason that our house didn’t sell. I think it didn’t sell because it was a good place for us to be. We have amazing, wonderful neighbors. And by staying in this house in 2010, we were able to make a job and career change in 2011 that would have been out of reach with a larger debt load. The job and career change made life more meaningful and more joyful. Would 500 or 1000 additional square feet of living space have added joy and meaning to our lives? I can’t say. I didn’t experience it.

So, we experienced six months of living in the house– while it was also meant to be picture perfect. Wow that was stressful. I was so exhausted and ready to live like the ordinary medium-clean people we are. So with the decision to stay behind us, how do we find contentment again? And how do we–in very practical terms–make this space support our story and our family?

We clean out. We let stuff go. We get more and more clear on what’s important and what’s fluff. It’s not easy. It’s very frustrating at times. But slowly, we start to feel more and more at home because we know ourselves better. We know what we like. We know what we don’t like. We keep things because they serve our larger goals and help us tell our story. We go for pretty simple gifts at Christmas and birthdays because we don’t want to be overcrowded again. We develop seasonal rhythms of assessing our possessions and letting go of what’s not helping anymore.

Do I think everyone needs to live in the smallest possible house? I do not. Do I think it’s wrong or bad to switch to a larger house? Certainly not! I’m just super, super grateful for how God directed our unique story, encouraged us to stay in this house and live a life that aligns with our values. And along the way, we learned how to be content. Could we live a meaningful, joyful life in a larger home? I bet we could. But now we are a household of three, and the house fits us great. And we still have amazing neighbors, which I noticed is a really sweet gift.