There are hundreds of wonderful, helpful, gorgeous, wise, [fill in the blank] books out there to inform and inspire your homemaking. Here are four I go back to time and time again for encouragement, a heart check, and the occasional decorating porn. May they call you to joy as you live, love, and lead from the very place God has set you in your favorite pajama pants.
A Simplified Life by Emily Ley
There’s nothing quite like the way the fall months pile on demands and deplete our energy and resources. If we’re not careful, the physical and emotional clutter can wreak havoc on our bodies, relationships, finances, and homes. Enter this lovely, practical guide from Emily Ley. Full of approachable strategies, systems, and methods for permanently clearing the clutter, organizing your priorities, and living intentionally in 10 key areas—from your home and meal planning, to technology and finances, parenting, faith, and more—Emily shows you how to create margin for what matters most.
“What if we traded perfect pantries with matching bins and pretty labels for easy routines we can actually keep, routines that can connect our families?”
My Life for Yours: A Walk Through the Christian Home by Douglas Wilson
Every room in your house is purpose-suited for something unique. Is the Gospel transforming how you live and love within each space? One walk through your home’s halls beside Douglas Wilson will give you your answers, and your marching orders. A short but impactful read, My Life For Yours is for anyone looking to set an intentional tone—from the front porch to the junk drawer—as you serve and rest within the walls God has given you.
“There is a vast difference between a living room arranged for conversation and a living room arranged for television watching. Promote what you want to promote…The point is to structure the living room so that it’s conducive to genuine relationship.”
The Nesting Place by Myquillyn Smith
For anyone still learning to see the beauty in the lived-in, loved-on and just-about-used-up things that make a house a home. Spoiler alert: It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful. If you love this (and I know you will), look for Myquillyn’s much-anticipated follow up, Cozy Minimialist Home, coming out October 23rd wherever books are sold.
“Is your home just another place of unmet expectations, to-do lists, and exhaustion? Or is your home a haven, the safest place on earth, a place to come back to, a place to heal, a place to create, a place to risk and simply be? You get to decide.”
This is Where You Belong: Finding Home Wherever You Are by Melody Warnick
I’ve lived in a lot of cities (8), and every move has come with a choice: Will I choose to love my new spot on the map or not? In This Is Where You Belong, Warnick offers 10 strategies for increasing a sense of “rootedness”—ranging from shopping locally to traveling by bike or foot to getting involved in the community—no matter how short or how long you are there. This book makes you think differently about how you participate in your city, what you can find to love about it, and how you can up your game to love it more. A great gift for the “movers” in your life—especially if the rolling stone happens to be you.
“Wherever you are, experience joy. Milk your city for all its worth, for as long as you’re there. Whether or not I stay in Blackburg forever, I can reap all the emotional, psychological, and physical benefits of place attachment while I’m here. I can soak up every last drop of pleasure to be had in my town. I can choose to make myself belong.”