I LOVE CLOTHES
I LOVE JEWELRY
I LOVE PATTERNS
AND COLOR
and strange decor items that make me laugh
but I also love feeling peaceful, organized and in control of my life.
How do you balance the love of maximalism with the need for minimalism?
Serene House = Serene Mind
When your house is crowded, you can feel overwhelmed and burdened. There is no place your eye can rest.
But you know that feeling you get after spring cleaning? When you feel so alive and love your life? Your house looks great! You feel great! What if you could have that most days?
You don’t have to paint your entire interior space white and throw out everything to enjoy serenity, but you will have to get rid of some junk or at least find a home for it out of your visual space. So if you feel like you’re ready to “deal” with some things… Here are a few tips on how to live a simpler, more serene life in your home.
Luxury is found in the space that surrounds
Luxury doesn’t come from cramming a bunch of luxury items in your home, it actually comes from the opposite of that, creating space to move and breathe. It’s the space around things that feels like luxury. Create comfortable spaces around furniture, space on your tabletops, space in your corners and on your shelves. Pretty soon you’ll feel the luxurious space of having time to think, space to move, and more time to live.
Beautiful and useful
The rule for everything you own: you should find it to be beautiful and useful. If you don’t find your belongings to be beautiful, trade them out for ones that you love, but don’t forget you must donate the old ones. Don’t leave them hanging around just because they “still work”.
You will get so much joy out of your useful items that also happen to be beautiful.
Decorate a few tabletops and shelves but leave some completely empty
Then what are tables and shelves for? They are there for setting down your drink or something temporary. Think of them as being there for “potential”. They can also hold an artistic and intentional assortment of items or books. But what they shouldn’t hold are:
bills
mail you haven’t sorted through yet
- a bag you don’t know what to do with
- things that simply haven’t been put away
- keys that aren’t in a decorative holder
When I say decorate a few surfaces, keep it spare, keep it to things that you absolutely love, don’t decorate for the sake of decorating.
Rather than a decoration you don’t really care about, you can enjoy your mental space and less time spent dusting.
I had to learn that I didn’t need multiple pen cups. I just needed to choose one that mattered to me and only allow a few, wonderful-to-write-with utensils.
This one here is a terra-cotta yogurt cup I brought back with me from France. It’s not fancy but it’s the perfect French purple and it reminds me of that trip. Overall I keep less utensils around, and the space around this one feels luxurious.
Nothing on the floor
You know, it seems like it wouldn’t hurt when you set your umbrella on the floor and tilt it against the wall, or you set a large vase on the floor, or another unnecessary plant, but STOP. You will feel so much better when everything is off the floor. Don’t store things under tables, on the floor, or under the couch. Find real places for these items to go home to, or get rid of them. It creates a lot of visual space when nothing is on the floor that doesn’t naturally rest on the floor like tables or couches.
Kitchen items
Pare down your kitchen drawer contents to the absolutely necessary, beautiful, and useful. We spend a lot of time in the kitchen, it needs to be a calm and functional space that you enjoy. Too many things hanging around can add stress.
Think about which items you use every week. You might use your potato masher or electric knife once a year so those don’t belong in the drawer. Unless you throw a lot of parties, keep a maximum of two of anything you truly use.
The ones you own you must find to be beautiful and useful. If it doesn’t fit both of these criteria, replace it with something that does, and donate the old one. This picture is of a particular pair of silver salad tongs that I took a picture of and then didn’t buy, and I have regretted it ever since! I’d be excited to open my drawer to find these babies staring at me. I’d love to use these beautiful and useful tongs on a daily basis.
Colors and patterns
I personally love patterns and vividly painted walls but I must use restraint if I want my focus to be on creating a calm space. Keep vivid patterns and colors limited to hallways and small rooms, using a neutral palette in the main living spaces.
Having a serene home allows you mental space, and having a place for your mind to relax is important. You don’t have to paint your whole house white to relax, but it helps if the rooms that are usually within view are mainly neutral and the patterns and colors are added in intentional bits.
For fun you can allow patterns and bright walls in spaces that aren’t always in your visual field. A bright hallway to pass through is a joy, a highly patterned wallpaper in your bathroom is exciting. An over-decorated and colorful house that never lets your eye or mind relax, is a constant stimulation. When your eyes and mind can relax, you can relax.
Everything has a home
Hold an item in your hand and ask yourself, “If I were to go looking for this item, where would I first go to find it?” and store it there. If it doesn’t fit there, go to the second place you would look, but don’t create some magical new storage place that doesn’t make sense. You’ll never find it when you need it. You’ll remember that you put it someplace “special” and never find it. Get in the habit of spotting things outside of their “homes” and immediately returning them home. Daily tidying makes for less work later. You’re walking across the room anyhow, you might as well take that item “home”. Knowing exactly where to find what you need is a good feeling.
Plants
I’m not going to tell you can’t own a million plants. I do know how addictive it can be and Trader Joe’s doesn’t make it easy on us. I will say that the less you have to water, the simpler your life will be. But if taking care of your plants brings you so much joy that you can’t wait to take care of them, then own as many as you can take care of. If you are an average person who just let their plant buying habit get a little out of control and don’t know what to do about it, you should pare it down to maximum 2-3 per room.
Plants add life to a house, but you don’t need to live in a cluttered jungle, especially if it’s taking up more time and space than you honestly have. If you need to downsize, consider posting them on Facebook or Craigslist and giving them away to people who are obsessed with plants. Let those people be happy. Let yourself be unburdened. And for Pete’s sake, stop buying every tiny, seasonal plant at Trader Joe’s.
Look with a fresh eye... get rid of creepy corners
It’s pretty easy to let small (or large) sections of your home get out of control. Try looking at one place in your house, or one corner with a fresh eye.
Is it organized and clean or have some items taken up residence that don’t belong there? Are there objects resting against the wall or sitting on the floor? Is it dustier than you thought? I call these “creepy corners” and it’s easy to get blind to them.
Take 10 minutes to properly clean and organize this little place. Don’t commit to a whole day of cleaning, just pick this one spot and sort it out in 10 minutes.
If you do this regularly, you’ll be on your way to your clean, mindful, minimalist lifestyle.
If you are ready for a complete overhaul...
I can’t recommend highly enough: Marie Kondo’s book, “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up”. It really did change how I thought about the objects in my house. I do feel that you can read this book and then take and leave what you want. You don’t have to commit to her lifestyle to learn something life-changing from this book.
*In this article you will find affiliate links, which means if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you. This helps support my blog and you get a nice, curated list of lovely things to choose from. I only recommend things that I truly love so you can be sure I have your best interest in mind. Thank you for the support!*
