enjoying home

Our family is transitioning into a better use for our home: enjoying it! There's always been so much talk (from the grown-ups) that we have too much stuff and we need to thin our belongings. But it goes beyond that: we need to take pride in our home and enjoy living in it. So we're: moving things (and kids) around; planning on some not-to-expensive upgrades to rip out nasty grey carpet and install wood floors; re-paint the bedrooms; liven up spaces with properly hemmed drapes and colourful pillows; switch out the artwork that went up by default when we first moved in (nearly 11 years ago); and pay attention to both how we use the space and how we'd LIKE to use the space. As the children get older, the lads just turned 6 & 8 last weekend, we need to make them more responsible for housekeeping and animal-keeping. We've tried a few iterations of chores but have discovered that while the younger lad loves the daily routing of being responsible, he hates the 'one-time-big-clean-up', whereas the 8 year old isn't into the daily clean, but doesn't hesitate to help out with the weekly overhauls (and loves it when he ends up finding something he'd been missing or all but forgotten about). How we treat our home and family reflects on us and what we make important to ourselves.