A little spark to (re)light the fire!

First off, I want to thank @dreemsteem for inspiring me to do some more posting on here. I've already been getting the itch to be more active on Hive, but having someone else encourage it makes me that much more excited for it. With that said, on with the show (sorta literally)!

My wife and I recently watched the first season of "Ugliest House in America" on HGTV. The host of the show, Retta, visits houses declaring to be, you guessed it, the ugliest house in America. Retta picks one house from the three visited in each episode's region of the US to be entered in the finals. The winner of the final decision for the ugliest house gets a $150,000 renovation thanks to HGTV.

The young lady who won the first season for this show got such an amazing renovation, and it's really inspired me since. The owner of the house told the designer (Alison Victoria) that she had a preference for mid-century design and the way they pulled off converting the rundown brothel (literally) was fantastic.

As you can see, the house is looking a bit rough to start out. Between what you can see in this image, and the things you can't (like CCTV cameras all throughout the house), it was definitely needing some work. Fortunately, as I said, the renovating and updating went very, very well:

Without thinking about it, the Mid-Century Modern aesthetic has been making its way into my tastes as my favorite design style for years. Seeing this renovation get done, and looking at how clean and organized everything is, I got so excited for getting my family in our own house that we could give this kind of treatment to. Because my kids were homeschooled until just a few years ago, we are trying to be patient and wait to get a house in another two-to-four years so at least one of them can finish high school where we are currently living. Our area is pretty expensive, and we want something big enough for our current family of five, and one more child. But that's a story for another post.

I grew up in a rather messy house where my mom wouldn't even force me to clean up my room. When I met my wife, she was pretty grossed out any time she'd come over to my place because I just didn't know how to keep things tidy and organized. Years later, I learned how to keep things in better order. I've learned how to curate the things I own and purchase. My wife had been doing KonMari cleanings of our home before we had even heard the name of Marie Kondo!

My wife and I have even managed to get our kids learning our simple living/minimalist habits by the way we've raised them. Our oldest son has had a job for about six months now, and he's managed to spend less of the money he's earned in that time than I do in a week if I'm left to purchase whatever I want.

To wrap up, the finished product of the house in the show has got me anxious for warmer weather and some serious spring cleaning. Minimalism/simple living is an ongoing process and sometimes we all need little inspirational pieces to pop up out of nowhere and help us refocus. What's something you need to refocus on, and what sort of things help you to "spark joy" for it?

(All images are property of Max/HGTV)