On Wednesday, I tidied my daughter’s room because we are getting the house refinanced and the appraisers were coming on Thursday morning. The room wasn’t too much of a mess, but she does tend to leave shopping bags and other stuff on the floor when she visits from Cleveland because she’s often in a rush. The room looked much neater with the bags in the closet and the carpet vacuumed.

Because our existing mortgage dates back to before the recession, we’d have done better to refinance before now, so as to get more benefit from today’s low interest rates. But when the house was full of clutter a few years ago, we didn’t feel as motivated to get things done generally. There was so much that needed our attention, it left us feeling overwhelmed. Now everything feels like it’s going much more smoothly—not just a better-organized house, but tidy finances too!

* Good Things is a weekly series featuring the many unexpected joyful things that show up when clutter and stagnation have been cleared away. It’s meant as a reminder that life is always full of happy little surprises, when there’s enough space for them!