a tidying manifesto
Hello, friend.
Welcome to Dunham Dwells - and this twice-monthly newsletter where we talk tidying, life, books, and more. Today, I wanted to share with you a little of why I’m so passionate about tidying.
A Tidying Manifesto
Surprise: the purpose of tidying is not so that your house looks good. This is not about being neater-than-thou.
The purpose of tidying is not even so you can find your scissors or your sharpie pen or whatever you keep losing among the piles, not exactly.
The purpose of tidying is to give you the space you need, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally.
The purpose of tidying is so that your home can serve you, instead of the other way around.
The purpose of tidying is so that you can go about your life and what you are called to do, which is not tidying your own home forever.
The purpose of tidying is to bring clarity and focus on what matters to you.
Tidying your home can change your life.
If clarity and focus sounds like something you could use right now, I would love to invite you to an online workshop I’m hosting a week from today called Don’t Burn the House Down.
And I mean it. I know that the anxiety of the world and the clutter of our homes can be really loud and sometimes make us wish we could just burn it and start over, but I also know that we have a lot to be grateful for and a mindset shift can do a lot of good in a time like this.
The workshop will be an online gathering where I’ll teach about focus and clarity and of course, tidying, and then we’ll have time to brainstorm, discuss, and come up with a plan to discover and focus on what matters.
I’m so glad you’re here. Deep breaths. We are in this together.
Here’s to what matters -
Amy
p.s. what I’m reading this week
Every newsletter, I’ll share what I’m reading right now and what it’s teaching me about tidying.
This week I read A Woman is No Man. It’s about a woman and her daughter and both of their struggles within their Palestinian-American family. I read it for a book club, and I am so glad I have that book club to keep me accountable to reading the whole thing. This book is hard. I’ve wanted to set it down so many times. But I also think it’s an important look at womanhood, religion & culture, and human decency.
What does it have to teach me about tidying? The book talks a lot about choice, and whether or not we really control our own fate or destiny. The conclusion I believe is reached is that we do have a choice, even if that choice is, as Patrick Henry put it, “Give me liberty, or give me death.”
This is true even in something as every day as organizing our homes and our lives. Sometimes it might not feel like there is very much choice in the way your home is arranged or the things you own, but the fact of the matter is that clutter and possessions that weigh you down are a choice that you get to make every day. Cleaning up, getting rid of things that weigh you down physically or emotionally, is a choice that you can make. What is one thing that is weighing you down that you can choose to drop today?