Winter Solstice Home Organizing

December 20, 2024

The winter solstice is a special time of the year. In the Northern Hemisphere, due to the tilt of the Earth, we experience the longest night and shortest day of the year. The winter solstice has been celebrated for centuries as a time of renewal and hope, symbolizing the gradual return of longer days and increased sunlight. Metaphorically, this is the time to call in the light. It’s the most powerful time of year to set your intentions in motion. Do you want to be more organized than ever before? In this post, I’ll share my top tips on how to use the universal energies of the solstice to achieve your organizing goals.

Set Your Intentions: No matter how organized or disorganized your home is, take some time to reflect on what you really want in your home. Rather than thinking about physical items you want or don’t want, or all the piles you want to see banished, identify the emotions you want to feel. Clarity, peace, bliss, alignment, harmony, warmth… the list goes on. Pick one or a few words to focus on, and write those down.
Make 3 copies of this list. 1 copy is for keeping in a safe and sacred spot, such as under a crystal, in a special box, or in another sacred area in your home. 1 copy is for keeping top of mind, such as a post-it note on your computer, on the home screen of your phone, or somewhere that you’ll see it on a regular basis without really trying. The third copy is for burning… I’ll describe this below.

Raise your joy. The more often you can experience joy, the more often you will find yourself in the right place at the right time. Don’t believe me? Just try it. What do you have to lose? Just don’t fake it. Pretending to be happy when you’re authentically NOT happy will not help. But when you have the choice, pick joy. Your smile is your lucky charm. Turn on some music, pet a fur baby, talk to an uplifting friend. Make a clear action to raise your joy, even if it’s just for a moment.
Do some decluttering. This is a busy time of year. I don’t expect you to get your home absolutely spotless, but do SOMETHING to be a little more organized than you were the day before. Even if you just spend 10 minutes throwing out some junk, straightening up a drawer, or taking a bag of things to donate, that all counts! The point of this step is to show the universe you are going to follow through with your intentions. As much as I love spirituality, intention setting, and magical thinking, you’re still going to have to put the effort in. The deal is, by using the energies of the solstice, things are going to work out easier. You’ll experience fewer roadblocks. The analogy that’s coming to mind right now is like cutting butter. You’re still going to need the knife, but cutting a nice room temperature stick of butter is way easier than cutting a frozen stick of butter. The more the universe sees that you’re serious about your goals and that you’re willing to do the work to accomplish your desires, you’ll get rewarded along the way.
Feel gratitude…but please read this first. Even though you probably logically know there is so much to be grateful for, we all get in funky moods sometimes. Feeling stuck in a negative mood while you know you “should” just be grateful can feel like adding insult to injury, and can take you even deeper into despair. It can exacerbate shame and guilt like crazy. Just as I don’t want you to fake joy, I’m not asking you to just focus on all that you’re grateful for if you’re mood is in a dark spot. To feel authentic gratitude, you’ve first got to shift your mood. It may be as simple as just writing down 3 things you’re grateful for to help shift your mood, but I also know an exercise like that may feel incredibly shallow and disconnecting, depending on your emotional state. It might be hard to know what to do to change your attitude. You may need to talk to your doctor to see if there’s underlying depression or something else going on. Try getting out of the house. Go to the coffee shop, a walk in nature, to the movies, volunteer in your community, go to the gym, or do something else to help you center yourself. Or try EFT Tapping or a meditation. Winter is a hard time for A LOT of people, so if you’re feeling a little down, know that you are not alone!
Set your intentions in motion. Create a nice atmosphere for yourself so you can feel how powerful you really are. Try engaging all your senses, such as having something delicious to eat or drink, diffusing your favorite essential oils, wrapping up in a warm blanket, looking at some beautiful imagery, and listening to your favorite music. Have some candles nearby, or a fire going. I like to do a little prayer, say my intentions, and then set them in motion by burning the paper. You could also just say your intentions, light a candle, and then burn it in a bonfire afterwards, if that suits your situation better.

Check in with your intentions on a regular basis. Set a reminder to review what you’re working on periodically throughout the year so you can stay on track. You’ll have the universe on your side, but you’ll still need to put some effort in. Remember to follow your joy rather than forcing yourself to do things you don’t feel inspired to do. Notice how your inspiration will actually lead you to doing the hard things you have been avoiding, or you will find alternative solutions.

Sending you all love and light this solstice!