Not so easy!

Organizing rooms into beautiful, sparse spaces is the business of home magazines. The formula seems simple: just toss what you don't need, keep what is useful, and whamo blamo, you'll have a simple, well-organized room.
Huh?
Nice for the architectural photographers, but MOST people don't fall into those categories. Space has become expensive and most of us don't really want to get rid of everything that isn't immediately useful.
What is needed is a way to organize lots of stuff in a functional and aesthetic way. Often that requires a professional to assess what is necessary and advise how to put it together in a way that isn't intrusive and overwhelming.

SUMMER'S THE TIME

I don't know about you, but I've never been one to get motivated by "Spring Cleaning"--ugh. Sounds so boring. You just finish the torment of tax season and now just want to chill. Shove everything in a pile "till later." At least that's what I do. For some reason summer is more motivating. Maybe I'm in a better mood, have more energy, or have more things to look forward to, so a little organizing is painless. Yesterday I went through a mound of business cards and threw out all the useless ones. Last week I pored over a box of early photos and separated them into "eras" (pre-birth - ie. parents & their parents - childhood, high school, college). All my photos were in old books (or loose), not in photo safe protection. So far I've taken apart 10 years of books and condensed them into two. It's an ongoing project I keep noodling away at. I'm keeping all the photos that make me happy or even wistful.
There's something nice about looking at a cabinet full of ____ (fill in whatever you've collected, intentionally or not: photos, CDs, letters, etc.) knowing it's all in order. It does something to the brain because even though you don't even open the door, you KNOW there's a mess in there and that somehow registers negatively.

Summer makes everything fly quickly and easily. Then we can all be rewarded and go out and play.
Karen Kaye ©2009