The true secret of happiness lies in the taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life. ~William Morris, The Aims of Art

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Welcome to the Red House. I’m glad you are here. I hope that this blog will become a source of respite, camaraderie, and inspiration for you. Commiseration too, because the reality of living is that nothing ever works out according to plan.

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How to live The Good Life

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I will share my organization strategies with you, often in real time as I figure them out for myself. I’m new to this, and I intend to share my struggles as well as my successes honestly. I might try something and realize that it is too much or not enough. I could be defeated by stress. We will find out what works together, and we will watch a house become a home, and over time become a work of domestic art.

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An arrangement of willows that I brought in for the table after coppicing is setting root.

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The value of doing something does not lie in the ease or difficulty, the probability or improbability of its achievement, but in the vision, the plan, the determination and the perseverance, the effort and the struggle which go into the project. Life is enriched by aspiration and effort, rather than by acquisition and accumulation. ~Helen Nearing, The Good Life: Helen and Scott Nearing’s Sixty Years of Self-Sufficient Living

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Is A Clean House Worth All This Stress?

Stress is a huge, negative motivator for me, but I’m trying to change that. I have struggled for most of my life with depression, anxiety and panic, and the tendency to dissociate to avoid those feelings. I am motivated by deadline pressure and by feelings of inadequacy, and when I draw from that motivation I do push hard and accomplish a lot, but at the end of that effort I feel drained, disappointed by the outcome my performance, and ready to crawl into bed and give up. I struggle to adopt and maintain new habits, and that makes me feel even worse about myself.

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Organization is Self-Care

I’m exploring ways to approach a to-do list with sweetness and beauty. That may really be at the heart of the Red House: How to make every chore I do an act of care for myself, my family, and this home where we live. A clean, comfortable living space requires steady work, done a little bit at a time so that managing the task list doesn’t overshadow the simple enjoyment of living.

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What does The Good Life mean to Me?

I want to look around and see objects that I have made with my hands or collected because they resonate with me and harmonize with the rest of the objects around them. I want to live in a house that is clean, smells fresh, and is ready to receive visitors for a cup of tea, but I don’t want to stress out about it. I want to eat food that I grew myself, or that was grown nearby, and that was raised and prepared with care by neighbors and small farmers. I want to make good choices about how I spend my money and my time.

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What does the Good Life mean to you?

What I am offering in this blog is not a universal prescription for living a good life. We all have different values and interests. I hope you can find something here that speaks to you. What does your heart need to feel good in your home?

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