'QUiCK EDiT' YOUR ROOMS

What motivates you to make a change?  Most of us are compelled by pressure.  Panic ensues when we realize the house is a disaster and company is arriving soon!   Maybe it is a dinner party scheduled for next week that throws us into a tizzy as we realize the house looks more like a mud room!   Perhaps our motivation comes from the kids arriving home from college with a few friends in tow.   We can celebrate whatever form 'pressure' takes as long as it propels us toward improvement. A change for the better is a welcome one even if it involves rubber gloves and rolled up sleeves!

A 'quick edit' is a beginning step.   It works to restore peace, clarity and beauty by eliminating the top layer of visually distracting, stress inducing clutter. 

I have been proof-reading papers for over three decades.  One of the things I have learned is to ruthlessly edit.  Cut out everything that is not necessary and you have got a more meaningful story.  The same principle applies in our lives.  'Less' can become a showcase for more time, space and beauty.   I highly recommend editing one's life.  Today's edit tips focus on one slice of life: the home zone.  I'll let you in on a little secret:  Rather than filling our home with stuff...

Edit each room of your house, one per week.

If you have the time and energy to do more, GO FOR iT!

Time is a premium.   Set a minute limit for your project.  For starters, try to de-clutter a room in 30 minutes.  You will find that as you practice and repeat this process you will increase in speed and efficiency.

Skip the closets and storage for now.  Focus on the main living space, the areas you can see.  You can do a deeper level of de-cluttering another day.

Begin with the BiG things.  Is there too much furniture in the room?  If so, edit the pieces down to what is necessary.  If you love a piece and it serves a functional purpose, keep it.  If it is distracting, useless or taking up space, remove it.  Re-purpose and reuse it in another room or recycle it.   If you  have stacks of storage boxes full of stuff, remove them to a designated storage area.  Clear your space of the unnecessary items.

Clear all flat surfaces.  This includes: desktops, dressers, tables, chairs, mantles, counters and floors. Remove papers, piles, toys, clothes, knick-knacks, jewelry and anything not bolted down!

It is edit time!  Put the items you cleared off of surfaces on the floor and sort everything into piles.   

1- Keep and put in another room in the house  

2- Give away to a friend or charity  

3- Throw away  

Rebuild the room.   Put back what belongs in the room.  Keep it simple.  Items can create a vignette on a flat surface but should functionally belong there and/or adorn it (family photo, vase of flowers, etc.)   Resist the urge to fill an empty, flat space.  More is not better, it is just 'more'.

Finish the task by taking out the trash and putting the 'keep' items in other rooms.  Box up the 'give away' items and put them in the car for delivery.


Edit the walls.  Negative (blank) space is a visual resting place for the eye and serves to draw attention to a focal point.  Hanging art on every wall and filling every space is a visual overload giving the eye nowhere to rest.  A single piece of artwork or a tasteful gallery arrangement are enhanced by surrounding negative space.  Edit with courage!  Save the best of your art and photos for display.  If you love what you have edited from the room, reuse it in another room or give it away.

Savor your success!  Stand back and scan the room.  It should look larger with less and feel more relaxed and peaceful.

Editing a room is a process. The results will last only as long as you have a system or two for keeping it uncluttered.   More ideas on that subject, next time!


Editor's Note: Photos are shared for your enjoyment via <pinterest.com>