Last night Kevin and I put away the Christmas ornaments.

There, I said it.

We put away some of our Christmas stuff in early January, but a nagging plastic bin topped with an array of Kevin's childhood ornaments mocked us from the corner of the livingroom. Last night, we sat down to the task of reboxing those ornaments; it took us about an hour. After that, we sorted our mail, emptied a bag of junk we'd brought in from our car and vacuumed. The end result was a clean, Christmas-decoration-free living room.

Historically, it has been primarily the wife's responsibility to keep the house tidy and make the house a home. I still feel this pressure, though Kevin assures me it's OK that we share the duty since we both work full-time outside the home. Still, we're a couple of busy, social butterflies who struggle to keep up with the housework.

Maybe that's why I felt convicted (while at the same time strangely encouraged) when I read: "From House to Home: The Art of Dwelling Well" by Jenny Schroedel. Her charge to make your home a sacred space got me thinking. Schroedel writes:

Generally speaking, domestication has not come naturally, which may be why Victoria Moran's Shelter for the Spirit captured me. Moran doesn't buy into the retail myth: she believes that making a home is about learning to live faithfully in your space, ordering your environment in a serene and hospitable way. She explores the spiritual dimensions of homemaking, manifest in the concrete, everyday details like cleaning, cooking and entertaining.

Schroedel's advice is practical and specific. Things like working in short cleaning sessions and creating hospitable light. As I discussed the article with Kevin, he affirmed his desire that our home be a place where we can refuel and a place where people feel blessed when they enter. Achieving that kind of home will require that we set aside more hours -- like those spent last night -- to catch up on household tasks. But we discovered an unexpected joy in cleaning together. Not only did we feel a sense of accomplishment at putting away those pesky ornaments, but we also enjoyed the conversation and teamwork of doing the job together. In my opinion, it was an evening well-spent.

How do you make your house feel like a home? Do you prefer to split up the duties or work on tasks together? How do you fit homemaking into a busy schedule?