You know that feeling when you walk into a clean and organized home?  For me, it’s almost as if a hush comes over everything and I just want to stop and stare.  I actually get a feeling of joy and happiness that starts in my chest and spreads outwards.  It is a true sense of peace and tranquility.  Because my surroundings are so wonderfully neat and tidy, my perfectionist tendencies are at bay because not one thing is out-of-order or begging to be changed.  I can almost hear the harps…

And, then, I wake up.  That is my dream.  Certainly not always my reality…

But, every so often, when the moon is in just the right phase and all the planets are aligned… if I’m really lucky, I can get ONE room in our home to give me that feeling. Unfortunately, everything doesn’t always come together to make that possible.  It’s way more rare than it is common.  But, it’s a good goal to have, regardless.

So, in order to bring more joy into our home on a more regular basis, I started looking around and thinking about what is truly needed to create a Home of Joy.  Along the way, I discovered there is a lot more to joy than just looks.  (Pretty sure there’s another lesson wrapped up in there somewhere…)

But, for now, here’s a quick list of what I came up with this time around…

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