The 52-Week Home Project {Creating a Haven at Home}

I have dreams and visions of what of I want my home to look and feel like, mainly being a place of rest, shelter and love for the people who live inside.

I want my home to be a place where my family can come after a long day and be welcomed by warmth and love. A place where memories are kept, love is watered, faith is nurtured, creativity is encouraged, hugs are embraced and laughter is contagious.

Sometimes though what I want my home to feel like and what it actually is are quite opposite.

Currently instead of feeling calm, peaceful, and restful my home feels more like a volatile storm!

OK so that may be a slight exaggeration but I can affirmatively say my home doesn’t feel calm and peaceful.

Instead it feels disorganized, cluttered, uninspired, dark and dreary. We love our home, don’t get me wrong, and couldn’t imagine a better home for our family to live in. However over the past several years as we have added three children in a relatively short amount of time, the amount of stuff has also tripled.

Gone are the organizational systems I once had in place, gone are the cute (and really impractical) decor items on the coffee table and gone are the blank spaces.

In their place are closets overflowing with things that I didn’t have the time to deal with or put away properly. Home decor has been replaced with baby gear and toys, and every single spare closet, shelf and drawer has been stuffed to the max.

Does this sound familiar to you as well?

Not only do I want my home to be decluttered of the excess but I really just want my home to be filled with the things that promote joy and love. As a Christian, I want our home to be a place that also represents the heart of God as well.

After thinking through the goals I have for the year, I knew I needed to also create a challenge that would help me take control of my home once again.

The 52-Week Home Project

As I’ve scrolled through Pinterest, I’ve found tons of pins all about decluttering and deep cleaning. There really is no shortage of inspiration and motivation there! The problem is many are based on a timeline, like “Declutter & Deep Clean Your Home in 30 Days!”

Sounds great…  right?

The problem is after reading the article instead of feeling inspired and motivated, I feel defeated.

Most of those cleaning and decluttering plans call for a large amount of time in a relatively short span. I don’t know about you but I don’t have several hours a day to tackle large and continuous deep cleaning projects.

I barely have 10 minutes some days!

When I thought about what type of home challenge that would fit into my days, I knew it has to be something that would be similar to the old phrase, “Slow and steady win the race.”

I may not have hours each day  but I do have pockets of time each week. So instead of trying to tackle my whole home in a short 30 days, I’m using all 52 weeks of the year.

The 52-Week Home Project is a challenge that I will be working through for the entire year, and I’d love for you to join me as well!

While decluttering and deep cleaning are parts of the challenge, the heart of it is to really create a haven in your home.

How Will It Work?

Every Sunday I will share the assignment for the week, along with the progress and reflection from the previous week. So all you have to do is come here to the blog every Sunday afternoon.

That’s it.

You don’t have to sign up for anything, pay for anything, download anything… nope, all you have to do is just show up with a willing heart!

The Weekly Challenges

Each week I’ll share a new challenge to help us tackle one small area of our homes.

Some weeks it might be a deep cleaning task, some weeks it might be a decluttering task, some weeks it might be a challenge to help you create a space you love, and some weeks it might be a combination of a few different challenges.

I’ll share the new weekly challenge here every Sunday as well as a progress report of the previous week. What’s the point of a challenge if we can’t hold each other accountable, right?

Then I’ll invite you to share in the comments how your progress went so we can cheer one another one in this journey.

This is NOT a Decorating Challenging

I have almost no money in our monthly budget to redecorate with so this isn’t necessarily a redecorating challenge. The main focus is about creating a haven at home by creating spaces that reflect the atmosphere we wish to emulate at home.

Some weeks we may creatively redecorate or design a new space by shopping our own home or using frugal and creative tips to repurpose old pieces. And then some weeks we may only clean or declutter existing spaces.

The goal for the 52-Week Home Project is to have a home that is not only more organized but also runs with more purpose and intention and just feels more peaceful and calm.

Your Home Is a Sanctuary

Do you know worship happens in your home every single day? The faith of your family is being nurtured and matured everyday inside the walls of your home which is why it’s so important that we view our home as a sanctuary. 

Along with cleaning, decluttering, organizing and adding touches of warmth through small decorating challenges, we’ll also be reflecting on how we can most glorify God in our homes through praying over our homes, decorating with inspiring Scriptures, creating an atmosphere of worship and how we can model Christ’s love in our homes every day.

Pin This Post

If you follow along with the blog, I’ll post each new post every Sunday but I will also link the new weekly challenges below so you can Pin this post and come back to it throughout the year for quick easy reference.

Weekly Challenges

Week #1

Technically we are entering into the second week of the year so I really should have posted this last Sunday, but life happened. So here we are one week into the challenge.

Last week my main focus at home was to pack away all the Christmas decorations and organize my kids new toys, along with purging some old ones. If you haven’t taken your Christmas decorations down yet, make that your goal for this week. For the rest of us, we will move on to project #2 below.

Week #2

Our first official project for the 52-Week Home project is an easy one but one that is desperately needed… take inventory and organize your cleaning supplies.

Are your cleaning supplies organized and housed in one location for easy use? Or are they scattered throughout the house making if difficult for you to even find them?

Start the year on the right foot by organizing the supplies and tools you use to clean your home. It won’t necessarily make it more fun to clean (if only it were that easy?!?!), but at least you know exactly where everything is, what you have and can easily grab the right cleaning tool quickly.

Project #1: Organize Your Cleaning Supplies

• Gather all of your cleaning supplies and tools in one location. Are there products that you are running low on that need to be replaced soon? Are their products you don’t even use that are just taking up space? What are your favorite tried and true cleaning tools that you just can’t live without?
• Get rid of anything you don’t currently use, is broken, empty or just not working the way it’s supposed to.
• Make a list of any new products or tools you need to purchase or make.
• Decide how you will store them. Will you make one centrally located basket of cleaning tools or do you plan on keeping a few baskets around the house? (For example, some like to keep a cleaning basket in each bathroom).
• Clean your vacuum. When was the last time you changed the filter or emptied the canister in your vacuum? Or cleaned out all the random gunk in the wheels? Your vacuum may not be performing the way it should because it hasn’t been taken care of properly. Taking a few minutes to clean the vacuum will dramatically improve the sucking performance.
• Put away all the cleaning supplies in spaces that make sense and are organized.

Next Sunday I’ll share my progress as well as give our next challenge in the 52-Week Home Project so be sure to stay tuned.

Don’t forget to Pin this post because as the year goes on, I’ll be sharing the links to all 52 projects below!

The 52-Week Home Project Weekly Links

**Both week’s one and two are included in this post. 

Week One :: Put away all Christmas Decorations

Week Two:: Inventory and Organize All Cleaning Supplies

Week Three :: Hall Closet Organization

Week Four :: The Simple Beauty in Setting the Table

Week Five :: The Big Box Challenge

Week Six :: The House Walk Through

Week Seven :: Linen Closet Organization

Week Eight :: Grace Week

Week Nine :: Organizing Kitchen Cabinets & Drawers

Week Ten :: How to Clean & Organize Your Refrigerator the Right Way

Week Eleven :: Kitchen Pantry Organization

Week Twelve :: Recipe Organization

Week Thirteen :: Meal Planning 101

Week Fourteen :: Organizing Your Wardrobe {Part One}

Week Fifteen :: Grace Week 

Week Sixteen :: Organizing Your Wardrobe {Part Two}

Week Seventeen ::Bathroom Organization {Organizing Your Wardrobe Part Three}

Week Eighteen & Nineteen ::  Organizing & Archiving School Keepsakes from the School Year

Week Twenty :: Create a Summer Bucket List as a Family

Week Twenty-One :: Grace Week

Week Twenty-Two :: Quick Clean the Kitchen Counters {Mini-Task}

Week Twenty-Three :: Quick Clean the Kitchen Sink {Mini-Task}

Week Twenty-Four :: Quick Clean the Laundry Area {Mini-Task}

Week Twenty-Five :: Quick Clean the Living Room Part 1 {Mini-Task}

Week Twenty-Six :: Quick Clean the Living Room Part 2 {Mini-Task}

Week Twenty-Seven :: Quick Clean the Living Room Part 3 {Mini-Task}

Week Twenty-Eight :: Quick Clean a Bathroom {Mini-Task}

Week Twenty-Nine :: Create a Monthly Meal Plan {Mini-Task}

Week Thirty :: Grace Week

Week Thirty-One :: Preserving Summer Memories

Week Thirty-Two :: The Big Box Challenge (Round 2)

Week Thirty-Three :: Fall Family Bucket List

Week Thirty-Four ::

Week Thirty-Five ::

Week Thirty-Six ::

Week Thirty-Seven ::

Week Thirty-Eight ::

Week Thirty-Nine ::

Week Forty ::

More to come soon! This list will be updated all year long as we count down to 52-weeks of home organization and making a haven at home.

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