elf(a) on the shelf(a)

I have now celebrated 39 New Years, and many of those have started with a long list of resolutions that boil down to me wanting to be skinnier and more organized. I am not by nature an organized person and am not sure why I think that the mind-over-matter of a new year will suddenly change who I am. And it doesn’t, which is why “becoming more organized” ends up on the resolution list year after year. (So does “being skinnier”, but that’s for a different post and a different day)

This year, I saw the error of my ways and did not resolve to become a more organized person. Instead, I resolved to be more deliberate about doing organized things and finding tools that set me up for success, one room at a time. What to tackle first?

The Pantry

Our pantry is under a staircase and actually has a good amount of space. Sadly, the space has not been configured well, so it has been hard to fit everything in – cans stashed everywhere, stuff hidden behind other stuff... It’s one of those projects – maybe you’ve had one like this – where you know you need to do something – take some kind of initiative – but it’s so overwhelming, and you know that it’s going to be a hard process, that it’s just easier to leave it the way it is, even if it is ineffective and frustrating.

But thanks to my resolution and The Container Store’s annual Elfa sale, I was able to take a deep breath and jump into the “redo”. Saturday was EID (Elfa Installation Day), and the first thing we did was take a hammer to the existing shelves. I swear they hung on the wall with all their might – like they were revolting – they did not want to go! But after lots of hammering and prying, we finally got them down. And then the new shelves went in. The difference is astounding! It was like HGTV had come in to the house to do a makeover. We stood back and looked at the new space and had one of those why-did-we-put-this-off-for-so-long kind of moments, where the angels blew their horns, and I swear there was momentary peace on earth.

And because God is good about using everything in my life as an a-ha moment, He quietly whispered to me that he has some Elfa shelving for a few parts of my life that seem to be in a bit of disarray. Areas of my life where change needs to happen, areas that definitely need a “redo”, but just the thought of tackling it, the thought of hammering down those old “shelves” and the parts that are ineffective… well, sometimes it’s just easier to live the way I’ve always lived. But standing back, looking at my new pantry, I knew exactly what He meant. And I told Him to hammer away…