12/16/2025
When your house makes you twitchy…
I absolutely love our cozy living room, especially this time of year, but right now it kind of looks like Christmas threw up all over it. There’s garland on top of garland, bins stacked in the hallway, and almost every flat surface is covered in something sparkly, red, or pine-scented.
Maddie is thriving in the chaos. She wants to decorate everything, and I honestly love that about her. She’s all in. But the truth is, it was starting to make me twitchy. The clutter, the visual noise, the unfinished projects sitting everywhere—I could feel my shoulders tightening and my patience thinning.
So I did something simple that helped a lot. I gave myself a time block of a few hours and told myself, "This is all I need to do today." I put away what I could. I cleared off a couple of surfaces and made some visible progress. And then, when I hit that wall where I felt done, I didn’t force myself to keep going. I didn’t guilt myself into powering through.
Instead, I grabbed a box, labeled it “Christmas Break Projects,” and I put everything else in there. Then I opened up my calendar and scheduled a couple of hours during the break to come back to it. Not right away. Not this week. But soon enough that it wouldn’t sit there until spring.
And that was enough. I decided it was okay to stop. I reminded myself that “good enough” still counts. That one small decision helped me feel like I could breathe again.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed in your home right now, I just want to say—you're not alone. The holidays can bring so much joy, but also so much extra stuff. And sometimes, the best thing you can do is pause, take care of a few small things, and give yourself permission to finish the rest later.
It doesn’t all have to get done today. You’re allowed to pace yourself.
Sometimes, putting it in a box for later really is the best next step.
What's overwhelming you right now? Maybe we can brainstorm how to make it a bit better
