Fall Cleaning Guide for Home & Spirit: Free Room Cleaning Worksheet
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Hello Friends,
I’ve been working on the Mabon House Fall Cleaning Guide for Home & Spirit. I have to say, it is a fun project! And it’s inspired this week’s free printable - a room energy assessment worksheet - which is like, the most horrible name I could have come up with...but again...writer’s block :) Lemme know if you have a better name.
I created this worksheet based on an example from Arin Murphy-Hiscock’s book The Way of the Hedge Witch. If you have never read any of Arin’s books, I highly recommend! She has a wonderful mix of practical and magical resources for creating a lovely home.
Basically this is how I used the worksheet to refresh the energy in my living room:
Do a Quick Declutter
I did a quick pick up of the room (i.e. I finally moved the pile of laundry off the living room sofa) and took care of anything that didn’t belong in there, including books and notebooks on the coffee table, aforementioned laundry, empty tea mugs (#dontjudgeme) shoes and some heavy blankets that we only use in the colder months. Next I removed most the rooms decorations and knick knacks, which tend to accumulate over time. I stored these on my dining room table, until I was ready to decide what would go back in the room and what would be stored or donated.
Assess How the Room Feels
Once the room was mostly picked up, I closed my eyes and just let myself feel the energy of the space. Using the worksheet I jotted down how it felt, which was cluttered and stagnant. Even with the windows wide open and the sun shining in, it just felt tired.
Think About How You Want the Space to Feel
Next I wrote down how I wanted the space to feel. Because it is the living room and is used by everyone in our family most evenings, I wanted it to feel comfortable and inviting, but also be spacious and have more energy to it. I wanted to feel good when I was relaxing in the space, not like I was just waiting to go to bed.
Clean the Surfaces
Next I made of quick to-do list which included:
Vacuuming and dusting - this is self explanatory, yes?
Rearragning the furniture - I moved the sofa to the opposite wall and took out a bookcase from one corner and that seemed to do the trick. Suddenly the room felt way more spacious, without feeling sparse.
Adding back in decorations - Once the furniture arrangement suited me, I added back in some of the decorations, still keeping it on the light side.
Adding in Your Own Magickal Elements
As I’ve mentioned before I don’t do much in the way of spells or other rituals. I just kind of go by my feelings. When a space feels good, I stop. You can certainly go beyond basic cleaning and rearranging with activities like smudging your space or casting a protective spell or two. Again, The Way of the Hedge Witch is a great place to start, if you looking for some guidance and inspiration.
How do you break up old energy in your home? Share with me on Instagram @mabon_house!
Do You Believe in Law of Attraction?
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One of my favorite “witchy” books is The Modern Witchcraft Spell Book by Skye Alexander. In it she explains spell work as another form of Law of Attraction.
When a witch does a magick spell, she doesn’t send sparks flying from her fingertips…Instead, she attunes her own innate abilities with the forces of nature to elicit a series of controlled coincidences that will achieve her desired result.
As I’ve mentioned before I don’t identify as a witch, I do identify with LOA, especially the whole “thoughts become things.” And I can relate to the idea of casting spells to help harness the energy around you. I mainly don’t do spells for manifestations because I am not that organized and don’t like following directions. You should see me baking - it’s a hot mess.
Anyway, along with LOA I definitely believe in a higher power, be it the Universe, God or Goddess. I have been humbled by life too many times to think I am in this alone. Which brings me to my my favorite LOA story: How I Manifested My House.
Following my divorce (more than a decade ago) I could no longer afford the house we lived in, so I went back to renting. Which bummed me out hard. I loved my house - it was the only home my kids had ever lived in and we were all so sad to see it go.
Fast forward a few years and lots of ups and downs later and I was ready to buy a new home of my own. So I sat down and wrote out exactly what I wanted: A white farmhouse, five bedrooms, front porch, big kitchen, chicken coop, gardens. All of this with a mortgage payment that was no more than my current rent.
Now, I live in New England, and there are oversized white farmhouses pretty much on every corner. It is not hard to find one for sale. The tricky part in this case was finding the one farmhouse that was in my pretty limited budget while also in turn-key condition. As much as I love DIY projects, I didn’t want a fixer upper. I didn’t have the time or power tools to go all Joanna-and-Chip-Gaines on the place.
sidenote - not my house. You can see my actual house here
AND the house had to be within a two mile radius of the downtown because, quite frankly, I really like the convenience factor. As the only driver of four very busy kids, I didn’t want to spend all my time in the car driving to and from town if I bought a place way out in the country.
So I wrote out my list, thought about it. Visualized it. Created a pinterest board for it. Said a little prayer and Let.It.Go. Then I proceeded to call a real estate agent and started seeing houses.
And lo and behold the second house I viewed checked pretty much my whole list. It was the ONLY house on the market in my desired area, in my price range, and with enough bedrooms for myself and my kiddos. It had the prettiest porch in the world and lots of flower gardens and a chicken coop AND a greenhouse (the Universe just threw that in as a bonus, I guess).
Have I been able to manifest everything my heart desires? Um no. But my belief in LOA has made me much more aware of the thoughts floating around in my head and heart and has helped me redirect to more positive energy, when needed. I’ve brought about massive positive changes in my life as a result. Plus visualizing what you can be, do, and have is FUN.
Have you ever tried LOA or manifesting? Or do you think I’m super weird? Either way, I’d love to hear more about it. :)
Spring Cleaning My Time & Energy
I took a big step this week and closed down my other blog, The Barefoot Office Mom (BOM) after running it for six years, which in Internet time is like a 25 year commitment.
The decision was one of those serendipitous moments when you just KNOW it’s the right thing to do.
I had been grappling with too much stuff on my plate for a while now. I am creative person and as such, love chasing shiny new ideas. And if I’m not careful I can spend a lot of time and energy (and occasionally money) fleshing out ideas and projects that, if I’m honest with myself, aren’t going anywhere. And the BOM was falling into that category.
It had somehow gone from a passion project to just another item on my to-do list, like get groceries or making a dentist appointment.
And in the process the BOM was taking up a lot of mental space that I could of used on other stuff - like Mabon House. I was constantly feeling bad that I wasn’t writing more for the BOM or making more printables or getting on social media enough with it.
I found myself with a general sense of dread whenever I thought of it. But I kept on keeping on…thinking if I just work a little harder, get a little more organized… it’ll be fine. It will work itself out.
Do you ever tell yourself that story? If I just work harder…..when really you need to work less. Or think less. Or do less stuff. This is hard for women - we are programmed to go, go, go. Be productive, efficient, make the world go round (but don’t expect to get a fair wage for any of it).
I keep a post-it with a quote on on my work computer that reads:
“You can do anything. But you can’t do everything.”
Sometimes you have to let things go in order to move forward. And it can be really hard if it is something (or someone) you have invested a lot of time and energy into.
For me, the decision was easy when I gave myself some time and space to think about why I was doing what I was doing. Once I decided that it was time to close up the BOM, I immediately closed down the site, my other etsy shop and my social media profiles. I didn’t give myself time to mull it over and second guess my decision. And when it was over there was a HUGE sense of relief. And space. And it was lovely. And the right thing to do.
What about you? Is there something that you hang on to, out of habit or obligation? Do you think 2020 will be the year of letting it go?
