They are everywhere this time of year, those colorful storage bins. They are the promise of an organized life and all we have to do is neatly pile our stuff inside, close the lid and put a label on the outside. That would be nice but it is not reality! It takes training to be organized and stay that way. It goes hand in hand with interior decorating and can help create spaciousness in your living space. So I have some great organization tips to pass along to you.
Create a desk/bill paying area in your home. Keep all your important and time sensitive mail and bills together there for ease of locating. You will find that if you have a designated area for those important things, you will not spend time searching around the house and risk losing your paperwork. If you can have a file cabinet with manila folders to hold all important documents in alphabetical order in the desk area, all the better for organizing. You can put a hook there for your house keys and never search for them again!
Everyone can find a small wall area in their home for organizing coats, hats and backpacks. You don’t need much space. Coat hooks are available at your local home improvement store and are very inexpensive. So, there is no excuse for not having your family’s coats, hats and etc. hanging neat and organized!
Don’t you just hate trying to find the right suitcase/travel totes when you need them? I got you covered. Store your suitcases one inside of the other when not in use. They will be easy to find all together and take up less space in your home. While you are at it, put your jewelry travel cases and other carry-on travel items with your luggage. Everything will be at your fingertips when you need travel.
This is one I love. Instead of throwing all your laundry together and waiting for laundry day to sort the wash, buy a hamper with divided bins. Then every time you add a piece of laundry to the appropriate bin of the hamper, your sorting is automatically done. Laundry day just got a whole lot easier!
Now, as ambitious as all this organization stuff may sound, I have a greater reason for doing this neatnik kind of work. The unseen benefits for me are a simpler, easier lifestyle with less work in a home that is definitely easy to care for. That is the ticket for me! Maybe the idea of less work sounds appealing to you too. As someone once said, life can be messy- let’s clean it up!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Interior Design Expert Memorial Wall
This is the wall I designed for my client who wanted a memory area of her deceased brother's life. From the collection of pictures, mirrors, musical notes and Wall Words emerged a lovely tribute. The words were special to the client. Any words or quotes can be designed to fit the decor. It was perfect in every way for her.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
2011 RESOLUTION: PUT YOUR HOME ON A DIET!
2011 RESOLUTION: PUT YOUR HOME ON A DIET!
This is the time of the year when I wish all of you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year while planning to start my annual diet. Don’t we all start dieting and eating better this time of year? Well I have a diet for you that will not deprive nor starve you. The work will be done by you but not to you! Make sense yet? We are going to put your home on a “diet”. This is a really good resolution for 2011.
One of the things that I notice about my home and that of many of my clients is that there is too much stuff in each room. Book collections, doll collections, and jars full of seashells are just some of the things that take over and clog up our decors. Many of us are collectors and savers of beautiful and unique treasures that we love to put on display for all to see. That in and of itself is great. Then we all know what happens next, our families and friends get wind of what we like and shower us with more of them on our birthdays and Christmases until we cry uncle! But we love all of them and try to show the whole collection off to the world that passes through our door. There is a problem with that. I will explain it by relating a little story about one of my clients. She had 2 china hutches in her dining room and lots of pretty dish sets and pewter/silver pieces. When I started moving them around for her, I discovered she had this lovely 3 piece silver tea service right in front of me that I had not seen due to the large amount of items in the cabinet. It was so beautiful but could be appreciated among all the other things. Hmm, sounds like the perfect example of the saying “less is more”.
So here is how your home diet works. Look at your stuff and collections as “calories”. Your job is to reduce the number of household “calories”. This will let you feature some of your treasures but not all of them at once. The pieces you leave out will stand out and probably garner some compliments from people who say they had never seen those pieces before! They were hidden by the excess stuff. The ones you put away for now can be rotated out at a later date and have their chance in the spotlight. There are added bonuses too- less for you to have to dust and the streamlined look in your rooms can be very soothing to the soul.
So once you are on a roll, keep it going in your closets and drawers. Your favorite charity would appreciate donations of stuff that result from this special household diet. The results are seen immediately in your rooms. Too bad our own personal diets don’t work so well and so quick!
This is the time of the year when I wish all of you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year while planning to start my annual diet. Don’t we all start dieting and eating better this time of year? Well I have a diet for you that will not deprive nor starve you. The work will be done by you but not to you! Make sense yet? We are going to put your home on a “diet”. This is a really good resolution for 2011.
One of the things that I notice about my home and that of many of my clients is that there is too much stuff in each room. Book collections, doll collections, and jars full of seashells are just some of the things that take over and clog up our decors. Many of us are collectors and savers of beautiful and unique treasures that we love to put on display for all to see. That in and of itself is great. Then we all know what happens next, our families and friends get wind of what we like and shower us with more of them on our birthdays and Christmases until we cry uncle! But we love all of them and try to show the whole collection off to the world that passes through our door. There is a problem with that. I will explain it by relating a little story about one of my clients. She had 2 china hutches in her dining room and lots of pretty dish sets and pewter/silver pieces. When I started moving them around for her, I discovered she had this lovely 3 piece silver tea service right in front of me that I had not seen due to the large amount of items in the cabinet. It was so beautiful but could be appreciated among all the other things. Hmm, sounds like the perfect example of the saying “less is more”.
So here is how your home diet works. Look at your stuff and collections as “calories”. Your job is to reduce the number of household “calories”. This will let you feature some of your treasures but not all of them at once. The pieces you leave out will stand out and probably garner some compliments from people who say they had never seen those pieces before! They were hidden by the excess stuff. The ones you put away for now can be rotated out at a later date and have their chance in the spotlight. There are added bonuses too- less for you to have to dust and the streamlined look in your rooms can be very soothing to the soul.
So once you are on a roll, keep it going in your closets and drawers. Your favorite charity would appreciate donations of stuff that result from this special household diet. The results are seen immediately in your rooms. Too bad our own personal diets don’t work so well and so quick!
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Interior Design Swag Window Treatment
Swags are a timeless and beautiful addition to any formal room in your home. The ones pictured here are where the swag is placed over ( on top of) the cascades. You can see the full, graceful effect of the swoop. This is that new peau de soie type fabric. The colors and the soft hand of it are just so graceful.
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