Let Me Tell You A Little Story...

Once upon a time there was a young girl who came from a very musical family. The family took such pride in their gift of song, and this little one also showed great promise. It was decided that something grand should be done....

A beautiful, expensive instrument was purchased for her to play, and placed prominently in their home. This purchase meant that the girl would grow to be an accomplished musician, it would be a sign of elegance, refinement, prosperity. It would be passed on to future generations so that they too could carry on the family tradition....

But here's the problem:

THAT'S JUST A STORY.

Just a few months ago I looked across the room at a baby grand piano that I have had in my home all my adult life and the better part of my childhood, and saw the truth of it for the first time. The truth is that that piano was clutter.

Despite its presence in my life, that piano never made me refined or elegant, and it never got me on stage at Carnegie Hall...THANK GOD.  The values and story behind its presence in my life were not mine. My life and the story I want to tell with my days is much more along the lines of belting out gospel and blues tunes in the kitchen while my husband plays the guitar.

When this moment of clarity hit me, all of a sudden it was clear that taking up 30 square feet of my home with all that wood and ivory was ridiculous.

SO....

it was time to call the piano movers.

In its place is now an empty corner that is full of possibilities...

What story does your stuff tell about you? And most importantly, is it true??  Holding on to things that are just holding you back makes it much harder to tell the true story of you.

Holy Wow!-- A Whole House Redo

What if you found the perfect house, one that had everything you had written on your "Must Have" List?? Well, maybe there were a few exceptions.... A kitchen that was stuck in 1987 may not have been in the plans...

(can you hear the Duran Duran soundtrack playing in the background??)

Perhaps a fireplace that resembled Darth Vader run over by a steamroller wasn't what you had envisioned either...

.....and purple and red weren't your first choice for a color palette to be sure.

I don't really know that anyone would include a mural of tropical birds on their wish list...but, alas, the downstairs bathroom had one!

It was thrilling to be asked to help with what was essentially a rebirth for this contemporary house. Many things were needed to get it up-to-date and up to speed...

The kitchen was first space to be completely redesigned, and I was excited to make some very meaningful changes:

To bring in more natural light, a skylight was installed over the island...

A new banquette/eating area was also put in the design to make the kitchen the most functional and inviting that it could be.

Those dear bathroom birds have flown the coop, and now the guest bath has the clean, modern look we were after...

AND the rest of the first floor has a new lease on life as well--a new color palette, new fireplace facade (raised hearth included for a toasty place to sit), new higher baseboards that elevate the whole look, hardwood floors refinished...and many other upgrades. Which ones can you spot?? 

Don't be discouraged if everything is just right...except for everything that is ALL WRONG. Rethinking your house and giving it a chance at rebirth can be just what the doctor ordered!

Time To Nest!

Just a little collage of quick snaps from a recent project.... This was so much fun--working with Susan and her family as they prepare for baby #2, due to arrive shortly!! Since she felt the need to nest, and wanted coaching on how best to direct her energy and her budget, a few Saturday sessions were scheduled. In no time things were looking so much more welcoming and lovely.

It seems the perfect time to feather our nests right now, no? Warmer weather, longer days, and new life springing up everywhere!! Such blessings!

Why Your Kids' Rooms Matter

With it being Spring Break this week...there has been a lot of TOGETHER TIME :), and it has made me revisit the whole "life lessons we can learn from things shoved under the bed" thingee.  Here is a repost from an article I wrote last year at about this time. Enjoy! Children can be frustrating. Good thing they are cute.

Having an eleven year old and a thirteen year old, I know that I can be perceived as pretty frustrating, too...especially when I start saying things like:

"You know your room really needs some attention. You are going to need to do some straightening before you do x, y or z...."

(insert eye roll and deep, disgusted sigh here)

SO, WHY BOTHER? I mean, it is THEIR room right? We could just close the door and pretend that the floor isn't buried in stinky socks and crumpled tissues that missed the trash can by just inches...

The challenge for me as a parent (and I wonder if it is for you too) is to deal with the mess and the children with patience and positivity, so that peace and order are the results...NOT resentment and hard feelings. Here are a few tips to help all of us until they go to college (we'll deal with when they move back home later...) :

• Don't Proclaim "GO CLEAN YOUR ROOM!"  instead offer specific instructions, and help your kids think of cleaning their rooms as smaller, more manageable tasks. Things such as putting all the books on the bookcase, gathering all dirty clothes in the hamper, putting all trash in the wastebasket are tasks that are easy to understand and do, and help an overwhelmed child to break down the big job into something doable.
• Encourage Routines--having the habit of putting ten things away each night before climbing into bed, or making their bed each morning as soon as their feet hit the floor are tasks that only take minutes of time, but have the wonderful result of keeping things from getting completely out of whack.
• Remember that clutter and disorder is something all people, big and small, have to learn to manage--it is easy to feel frustration instead of empathy when faced with a pre-teen who is "bored" with chores and annoyed with YOU.  We all have sorting and cleaning to do each day, week, month, & season that enables us to enjoy our stuff (not be controlled by it), and it is pretty rare that we look forward to the work involved.  Working together while exhibiting a can-do attitude can help your child develop a sense of mastery and see that taking care of these things is important, but not a big deal.

The benefits of a less chaotic environment can be far-reaching, and working together with our kids to achieve this can have many benefits for us and them!

Keep It Together! --Your Homework For This Month

There has been something I have noticed lately that is creating chaos and clutter in my client's houses, and I bet you may have the same thing going on in yours....

So what could be better for us to focus on for our homework this month??

It is really easy to make the mistake of storing similar or identical items in many different places all over our house.

Let me explain how this creates problems for us:

For example, you are a tea drinker & you have a stash of your favorite blend right next to the stove where you heat the kettle every day. You also have a few different boxes on 2 or 3 shelves in the pantry across the room....

OH! and there is also some that you bought a while back (just to be sure you wouldn't run out) on the shelves near the basement steps.

When your supply near the stove gets low, you find yourself at the grocery store buying more, because you aren't sure if you really have more in the pantry. You haven't checked in a while...

This scenario could be repeated for many, many different items we keep on hand in our homes. It seems especially true for food items, but it can also be the case for things like lightbulbs, cleaning supplies, sewing notions, scrapbooking items, office supplies....you name it! Not being able to see at a glance the total of what we have and not knowing there is a central location where they are kept leads to confusion, lack of clarity, the wasting of time, the wasting of money .....and, of course, clutter.

Your assignment this month is: 

1. PICK ONE category of things you know you have scattered in various places around your house
2. COMMIT to one central location where these things will now be kept (preferably very close to where they will be used) and 
3. PUT THEM ALL IN THE SAME PLACE.

This can be as simple as finding all of the cans of soup you have on different shelves in your pantry and making sure they are stacked together. Set a timer and devote just 15 minutes to this this weekend.

HOORAY!