Homes Fit for Hospitality

Flower decked cottage, Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme, originally uploaded by *Susie*.

Would you want to be a guest in your own home?

In order to show hospitality, we need to have a place ready for hospitality. That place needs to be our homes.

Now, you may echo one of the statements from my inaugural post,

“My house isn’t fit for company.”

And, if you’re like many of us, your house isn’t fit because you struggle with organization. In her book Houseworks, Cynthia Townley Ewers of OrganizedHome.com states that nearly 40% of us struggle with organization—we were “playing hooky the day that innate organization ability was handed out.” In fact, she describes what her home’s second floor looked like in 1983:

The two rooms that served as my home office, bedroom, and sewing area were knee-deep in crumpled photocopies, legal pads, fabric scraps, piled clothing, holiday wrap, stacked files, spilled coffee, and dirty dishes. Dust festooned the corners, and a narrow path wound through the mess to the islands of my desk and my bed.

Between the piles of mail and dirty dishes in the kitchen to the unfinished home décor projects in the spare bedroom, some of us have barely enough room to eat a meal with our families at the dinner table, much less invite someone to share life with us.

Now, if you fall into that 40% who didn’t get the organization gene, don’t stay in despair and disorganization! I would encourage you to check out OrganizedHome.com, peruse the book Houseworks, maybe even download some of Cynthia’s website resources and consider purchasing her book. It has been a big help to me as a fellow hostess who has to work at maintaining an organized home.

Now disorganization isn’t the only barrier that can impede our journey to hospitality. But before we move on, do you have any pieces of wisdom or guidance to share about home organization? If so, please comment below or email me using the link in the top right of this blog. I would like to compile all the wisdom you give in a future post. bjh