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This is the 5th week of the Love Home Challenge. I hope you are already feeling better in your home, but we aren’t done yet! Let’s keep this party going.

This week is all about Functionality. We will focus on adding or fixing functionality that will help you Love Your Home more. The best assignment options will happen when you customize my suggestions, because you know your life best.

Think about the fixable things that bother you most about your home, but you haven’t got to them yet. This week you’re going to fix some stuff.

The beautiful thing about fixing these functionality issues is that it usually takes less time and effort than you think they will, and they feel the most rewarding when they’re accomplished!

Weekly Assignment Options

Let’s see what I have planned for you this week!

Any progress you make this week will have a huge impact because you are going to pick projects that matter most to you.

Remember: Complete projects one at a time and complete one before moving on to another.

The Options – My Ideas

1. Make Kitchen Features More Convenient

Sick of reaching to the back of the cabinets for appliances and ingredients? Install roll-out drawers. Pots and pan lids in the way? Solve that.

I recently showed you all the things I installed right away in my kitchen when we moved in. I solved so many potential kitchen problems right away!

2. Make Laundry Easier

Are your dirty laundry hampers in convenient locations? Is your laundry basket easy to carry around? Are you doing laundry efficiently and saving time?

Stop being a masochist! You may have to do laundry, but don’t make it harder than it has to be. (If you need help, I have so many Laundry Tips on the blog.)

3. Take Away the Booby Traps

Are your child-safety locks still making it a nightmare to open rooms, cabinets, toilets, doorways, and other things, even though your babies can open them too? Uninstall them! If you’re worried about visiting children, don’t store dangerous things down low. 

{FYI: I’ve never installed child locks, I’d rather re-arrange my stuff or re-direct the child than deal with those things! I get why people do it, it’s just my personal preference not to booby-trap my house against myself.}

4. Add Hardware

I hate clawing at drawers to open them – do you hate that too? I also think it takes years off the life of the drawer and cabinet. Drawer Pulls and Knobs make sense on cabinetry and furniture! This week, I will finish installing all the new pulls and knobs when I install the re-finished cabinets.

Don’t just think about the kitchen, you use your bathroom every day too. Think about bathrooms! And think about furniture too. I often also change out what comes standard on my furniture because these are such inexpensive changes that can make such a difference! All you need is a drill!

5. Have Piles of Paper Everywhere

Create an Inbox and a System to Manage it! I have explained my HM Process in detail, which is the main way I keep up with paper. This process works!

6. Get Things Out Of Your Way

How is taking out the trash? Do you have an obstacle course in your path? Think about the daily routines you have and get things out of your way!

7. Make Beds Easier To Make

We had to go with bunk beds to make the girls’ bedroom work in this house and let me tell you – those things are awful to make! I practiced bed-making with my girls (11, 11, and 9) and we changed expectations to make things more reasonable based on what I was seeing. The top bunker doesn’t use a top sheet and she folds her quilt instead of trying to lay it flat on the bed.

Sure, I could have ‘required’ traditionally made beds, but if it’s too hard, and it isn’t going to get done. Altering expectations to something reasonable is very helpful because now the bed gets “made” and the room regularly looks tidy.

How can you make things easier for everyone to be successful at bed-making? Suggestions: use fewer decorative pillows, have a spare set of sheets for bedding-laundry day, and create individual-specific expectations.

Note: The solution was not for me to volunteer to make their beds for them every day. These girls are very capable!

The Options – You Pick

I have shared some suggestions and guidelines above for helping you fix some common frustrations, but you may have something else entirely on your mind.

Walk around your home and brainstorm, but the first thing that comes to mind might be right because it is obviously ON your mind. Let’s relieve those stresses this week and get this mental clutter OFF your mind.

What I’ll Be Doing

This week I will start putting up the cabinet doors in the kitchen!

I also need to finally get the tools organized in the garage. Every time I have to use a tool to install something or hang a picture, I have to look for it in a pile in the garage. It is a waste of time and energy! I need things to be organized so they’re is easier to use.

I really miss my beautiful garage in Arkansas that was already organized. Ugh. I know how to do it, I just need to do it here too.

Your Turn To Decide

I am so, so, so, so curious about what you’ll be doing this week. Please share!

Just think where you’ll be this time next week if you go for this. Won’t that be amazing?!

From my home to yours,
Mary