Nesting for the Weekend

I am glad that it’s Friday. It’s been a long week filled with sleepless nights, emotional days, beautiful weather, meaningful connection. God brings us such good, awful, beautiful, and challenging circumstances all in the same day. His kind presence is sure throughout all of it even if it doesn’t feel kind. We walk out our beliefs by faith, asking for the grace to believe.

On Fridays, our homes deserve some attention. Our houses work hard for us during the week, providing us shelter, safety, comfort, and rest. As we head into the weekend, there is usually some clutter, laundry that needs to be folded, floors that need to be swept. My favorite days for doing more deliberate tidying are on Fridays and Mondays. I love to tidy on Fridays to give us a comfortable space to relax and enjoy the weekend. Not deep cleaning, but a good sense of order. On Mondays, I like to tidy up from the weekend. Basically, I bookend my Saturdays and Sundays with tidying.

The best space to begin is my master bedroom. Mine gets so neglected during the week, and much clutter accumulates. I will tidy my nightstand, the piles next to my bed (so many books!), hang up discarded cardigans, put away stray fuzzy socks, papers and such. It’s nice going to bed on Friday evening with a calm and serene space again.

After that room is to my liking, I tidy up all the common living areas which is our foyer, den, front room, sunroom, kitchen/dining room. I never do this alone. I delegate work to my children in each space. Shoes are put away. Books, papers, water bottles, blankets, card games. I work as quickly as possible to organize the “hot spots” like the white dresser in our dining room, our sunroom table, and two tables in our den. I run a vacuum almost daily around here and so that gets done too. I clean the glass storm door and the back doors too. I make sure the 1/2 bath is tidy. Laundry may or may not get attention until Saturday. By dinnertime, I want to sink into order, feeling like my home is a home again and no longer a school.

It’s important for my mental health to make those distinctions. I need boundaries between work and home. Home education or working from home can bleed into our lives to feel like we are “on” 24-7. It’s important to take some time on Fridays to shut all of that down. To transition in our homes, the way we use our phones, and find ways to recreate. For me, tidying my home on Fridays tells me that I am entering a new way of using my time for 48 hours or so. It’s a signal to put the books away, the push to produce, and to find weekend-ways to connect, rest, create. Yes, we use Saturdays to get things done, but usually from a different posture and energy.

Off I go. It’s time to put these words into practice. Even writing this here is a form of accountability for me to fulfill my promises to myself. I am loving my weekend self by putting some work into today.

Tidying,

Aimee