Motivation Monday: Loving my Non-Pinterest Worthy Laundry Room

What a way to sell my blog post, right? It's true, though! After 3 days of cleaning out, lowering shelves, and figuring out a new laundry system, I love walking into this space now. There may still be torn floor pieces and unpainted walls (Laundry room is an unfinished room in the house), but I now appreciate its function. 

How did this neglected room get a little love? Here are some tips for loving a non-Joanna Gaines room in your home.

1. Realize what is changeable/not changeable about the space

For me this was realizing that I needed to clean and simplify it, despite having a $0 budget to paint, or get it the way I want it. Sure, I would love new floors, fresh paint, and a more minimalist designed laundry room, but I did what I could with what I had around the house. 

2. Make the room functional for you. 

For me that was lowering the shelf that held the rod for hanging items. I am a short 4'10" girl, and I had a hard time hanging clothes. I also looked up new ways for doing laundry to help me be able to use the space more efficiently. I'll let you know at a future date if this system works for me!

3.  Create something for the space to help you want to spend time there.

Who wants to spend time in the laundry room, am I right?! However, I took down the old, broken blinds and let in beautiful natural light. Then I painted a canvas I already had here at the house, to bring in some color. It's still an unfinished room, but it's now bright and colorful!

4. Now go do it!

Now comes the part where you close your phone/computer and tackle that space that hasn't seen much love. Whether your budget is a thousand dollars or zero, there is always something we can do to love our space a little bit more. After all, it isn't about the house or the room itself, but about the people who live there. Maybe I would love some subway tile and a farmhouse sink, but I'm more thankful for the little people who live here!

Here are my non-uniform hampers. One day I would like to change this, but for now, it works just fine!

Dollar store baskets are perfect for taking clothes to different rooms!

Here are some things on my Amazon wish list for the Laundry room for the future! Perhaps your budget is bigger than mine 😉

Motivation Monday: How to Keep Your Kitchen Counters Clear

I am a self proclaimed minimalist wannabe. As much as the idea of a sparkling white clean home, with having nothing but the bare minimal sounds nice, when it comes to putting it in practice I often come up short. A youtube creator I follow, suggested clearing everything off our kitchen counters for a couple of weeks, just to see how we felt.

I decided to take the challenge, but do it in my own way. Now I am here to challenge you to the 'Youth Pastor's Wife' version of clear kitchen counters.












Here are the steps:

• Clear off everything (and I mean everything, but maybe the microwave!). I put everything on my kitchen table so that all the counter tops were bare. 

• Decide what things are absolute necessities to keep on the counters. (I decided a coffee pot was a necessity, however, most say you can simply store it when it's not being used. I have an itty bitty baby, and I want access to the coffee pot, one handed!)

• Necessities include:dish soap, microwave-I added my canisters, because they add some color.

• Only add back things that you enjoy, or that you use on a daily basis. (I love seasonal decor, as well as a couple of other decor items.)

Here is the key. While many minimalist challenges want you to not have ANYTHING on the counters, my challenge is to have the counters as bare as possible, while still keeping what you love on display.

Here is what's on my counters:Microwave, paper towel holder, dish and hand soap, coffee maker, canisters, salt and pepper shakers, recipe holder (for decor) and a trivet (also decor), and lastly, a spring centerpiece. This may sound like a lot, but it is pretty sparse compared to how it was before!

I absolutely love my counters now! I don't think I could ever go back to piles of paper, several coffee gadgets, mug display, random kitchen gadgets and decor cluttered around.

So I challenge you to a kitchen counter clean out this week! Follow me on instagram (@youthpastorswife)  and tag me in your photo. I love to see these posts help people!

Before I end this post, I want to share some of my favorite kitchen cleaners. I absolutely love the Mrs Meyers soaps and all purpose cleaner, and I've recently discovered the Method degreaser. The degreaser made cleaning my stove and oven a breeze! I am adding link on amazon where you can find these products, but if you would like to check out Grove, I am also including my referral link. If you try it out for a couple of months, you get free shipping, as well as a bunch of other free cleaners for just trying them out. I am not sponsored, but I really enjoyed trying out more of these natural based cleaners, at an inexpensive price point. I think it's worth a try, even if you just do it for the 2 months they give you for free!








Referral Code
(note: I get $10 for anyone who decides to purchase, however, I am not sponsored by them)

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Hope after Loss

March 19 marks the day, last year,  I saw two pink lines on a pregnancy test. Most get excited, nervous, shocked, but for me it meant that I was at a crossroad. This would end in either a baby, or a loss, as the last 3 had done. Emotions weren't as present as they had been before. Hardly even shock. The only think I could think was 'Lord, can I go through this again?!'

I called my mom, and let Little Man stay with her as I headed towards the doctor's office to get a lab test done. I had gone for infertility before, and was designated as high risk, since I had 3 losses. The last loss had seen me be put on progesterone, and it was imperative for me to get tested as quickly as possible to hopefully keep the little one.

I got the call back that afternoon telling me that my HCG was 12, only 1 more than it had been the last time, when I had lost the last one. My heart sank, with only a glimmer of hope being that my progesterone levels were normal.

I waited 2 days, tested again, and had an agonizing day and a half wait for the results. The office had something going on, which prevented the nurse getting back with me. I was deep in prayer the entire time. I asked God for a 30 (numbers should double in 48 hrs) to give me relief that this pregnancy was 'It'. I asked, and asked, and asked. The day was the longest day ever! 4 pm on a Thursday, while teaching piano I got the call 'Your numbers are normal, you are good to go! We will see you at 9 weeks!' I could hardly contain myself in front of my student. 'What were my numbers?' I shakely asked. '48.' 48! My numbers had quadrupled in 48 hours!! For the first time, in the 2 years since we had been trying, it looked like we might have a baby!

Everything went smoothly. Both my pregnancy and delivery was very easy, especially compared to my son's! The first time I went for an ultrasound was the most emotionally joyful day I had in a long time. I saw a perfectly formed baby and I broke down. After 3 babies in heaven, I thanked the Lord for letting this one stay.

She's here now, and already 3 months old. She's beautiful, and perfect. Definitely worth the wait.

Is there something in your life where it feels as if God has stopped listening? I pray you will understand that He truly is. The timing may not be right, or it may be something He is saying 'no' to, and we must simply understand that we don't understand. I don't understand why I had to lose 3 pregnancies, but I do know this: God is good. Whether it looks like that or not.

Monday Motivation: Tackling the Kids' Bedroom

Kid's rooms are so difficult to keep clean and organized. As soon as you clean them, they are destroyed 5 minutes after the kid enters it again. I have tried to make sure my son cleans up after himself, but I had let it kind of go the last couple of weeks.

A fussy baby had me focusing on the front of my house and ignoring the 4 year old tornado blown room. When we decided to upgrade our son's bed to a twin size, it was time to tackle the beast.

This picture was taken about 20 minutes after starting and I was about ready to throw all his toys in a trash bag! Thankfully I had somewhat recently set up a cube organization system, and that helped with knowing what needed to go where so that everything could fit back in the room (neatly!) again.


Since Little Man's room is small, I knew some of the big toys had to go. We've decided the tool bench can be a playhouse toy, instead of an inside toy. A diaper box and a trash bag worth of donation toys later, and the room was finally looking better.

An empty room is so satisfying!! 

While looking for a new bed, my in-laws mentioned an old metal bed frame that was in storage. It had been in storage for many years, and I was nervous about it's condition. However, it was a beautiful painted red, and besides a few dings and scratches, in great shape! It was perfect for Little Man's superhero bedroom and perfect for our budget too!

Here is the bed with the cube units. Finally everything has a place, and everything is in its place. Once books or toys don't fit we take out that category and figure out what needs to be thrown away/donated. And when I say 'we' I mostly mean me. Sometimes I do get my 4 year old involved, so he knows how to sort through his own toys. If he was allowed to make all donation decisions, he would have an over crowded room, though!

Note: One of the cubbies was in the living room at the taking of this picture.

I really love my sons little superhero room. I love it even more now that more history has been added. Not only is the chifforobe from my mom, when she was little, but now this bed is my husband's uncle's when he was little. And to complete the history, are the two rocking chairs: one from my childhood, and the other my husband's grandmother's when she was little.

Hope this inspires you to organize your own kids room!

Remember:

Kids don't need every toy they've ever been given. 
Just keep the toys that they've played with in the last few months. 
Get storage that your child can keep up themselves!

Here are some of my favorite organizational pieces!

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Monday Motivation: Post coming soon!

Monday. Ah, that day of the week where the freedom of the weekend comes crashing around you. For me it's my husband going to work, leaving me to parent the two littles, all while homeschooling Little Man, keeping the newborn clean and fed, the house in a semi decent shape, and teaching piano. While I feel truly blessed to stay at home with my babies, stay-at-home moms can still feel the Monday blues. 

That's why I decided to pick blogging back up and start with a new theme. While at a different day of the week (shooting for each Friday) I will do more of my Youth Pastor's wife-ey thing (something more spiritual), and on Monday, you'll see something that will hopefully inspire you. This can be homeschooling, home improvement, money management, or journaling. 

My hope is you'll learn to see Monday, not as the dark day it can sometimes feel, but a day of possibility to carry you through the week!

Let me know some topics you would like to see!