The Christian Home is a weekly carnival hosted at The Legacy of Home. It posts every Monday, set up like a magazine, and focuses on home life.

I am to be  a Featured Columnist! Here is how I was introduced by Mrs. White  in the About Page:
Homekeeping
Featured Columnist – Angie from Petra School. 
Cleaning. . . Laundry. . . Ironing. . .Mending. . .Schedules. . . Chore Plans. . . How- to. . Before and After features.

Which – is sort of funny. For those who know me, and have known me for over 10-13 years – you are laughing right now.  Me? Angie? A columnist for a magazine sharing Homekeeping? 

I say it is the power of the Lord, and the upbringing of my Mom, and the desire to live a chaos free life that has gotten me to this point.

I invite you into our humble home – and I will show you the tips that have changed our lives these past 10 years. 

For beginning – if you are sitting near 3 dirty plates and 2 dirty coffee mugs, if there is hair on the floor and books in a pile – Then – I know you!  I was just there this morning. However, in the past few years, I’ve come to put a few habits, daily habits into place, that keeps me at least “15 minutes to clean”.

10-13 years ago – we had dirty clothes piled on the back porch, mold growing on the bottom layer, clean clothes in baskets on the couch, half folded clothes on the dressers. Dishes on every surface, and gunk baked into the stove. We’d shove the dishwasher and oven full of dishes if we knew company was coming over, and used the shed or garage or spare room to store all of the junk that didn’t have a place. I had to stage the photos of the boys, to try not to show the environment we were living in.

I knew what a clean house looked like. I knew what I wanted. But I didn’t know how to get there using daily habits. I knew how to go through and spend hours cleaning.  I didn’t know how to spend 15 minutes a few times a day to maintain it.

That is what I’d like to share with you all.  How to keep your home, for your family, for company, and for yourself.

Have you  heard of Fly Lady? Have you tried it? I mean – really went through the baby steps? Kelly’s Missions are great. Went through them for 2 months before I picked up the habits – and every once in a while I follow her for another 30 days.  Go to the SITE and take a look around. A lot of what I share, I learned from Fly Lady.

This is a pretty normal shot of our dining room. I should have taken before and after pics of our School Library, and of the Basement that were cleaned this week – I’ll think better of giving you before and after shots.

If there are any cleaning, planning, clutter busting, home making areas that have you puzzled – Feel free to comment or email, and I will tackle them.  This is not your Martha Stewart answer session  – this is just a mom, a lazy one at that, who homeschools 2 boys, and a hubby who are messy, while I – am an OC crazed Label Gun wielding fool. This is how I make my home a haven for me – my family – and my guests.

This article was submitted to The Christian Home Issue 15 .