the happy living Blog

decluttering furniture

I finally bought a couch for our living room.  I have had this couch on my list for awhile and just needed time to think about it and also wait for our budget and the department store sale to converge.  We haven't received it yet as it is on backorder.  Waiting doesn't bother me that much.  It just gives us more time to figure out what to do with the frat-house-futon that the new couch is taking the place of.

Yea, it's musical furniture in our house.  The boy doesn't like to throw things or give things away too much.  It is a constant struggle between us.  I have been accused of taking some items to Goodwill that I was not given permission to.  I admit, it is a possibility.  When I get to bagging things up, some things just get swept up in the frenzy.  In all fairness though, I have brought some random pieces of furniture into our home over the years.  Sometimes they stay and sometimes they don't.

We have a mish-mash of furniture: a dining room table and chairs that was my great grandmother's, a living room set from Strawbridges (now Macy's), bertoia chairs from ebay, heywood wakefield and lane tables also from ebay, a little roll-top desk that belonged to someone in my dad's family, a $10 chair from a strip-mall antique store in Rehoboth, DE and of course some Ikea pieces.

Some things we will always have and others served a purpose at some point but I am looking forward to upgrading, getting something more useful or just making a better choice this time around and getting something that I love that will be a classic to me.  I am slowly becoming more thoughtful about what I spend my money on, although I do have my moments of what I call Target-induced unconscious spending. Fortunately they are becoming rarer (and I also live further away from big box stores than I used to).  Two other things have happened to me (us) over this past year.  First, we moved into what we consider our long-term house.  Second, I think it has just been over the past couple of years that I have really developed a sense of what my own style is and more importantly come to an understanding of my lifestyle as a wife, an architect, a house-keeper and all the other roles that I play in making a home.

All of the things above are just now coming together and it is causing me to pause everytime I think "Oh, I want that piece of furniture".  And if I buy said piece of furniture does something else need to leave?  We are lucky to have ebay and craigslist which enable us to in essence recycle our unwanted things.  At least they are not going into a landfill.  But do I necessarily want my house to become a revolving door of tables and chairs?  There is always a bit of rotation and editing in decorating.  But with the major pieces I want some permanence.

I think I have rambled on long enough and will end there.  All this came about because I wanted to buy this today, but did not.  I still haven't decided on whether or not to get it.  I'll let you know. ;)

food for thought :: decluttering

I am a huge fan of everything Sarah Susanka does from her architecture to her books to her blog and newsletters.  I hope that as I think about developing my own architecture practice someday that my work can reflect a lot of the ideas about home and living more simply that she has brought to us.  I clicked through to her blog after receving her latest newsletter and was so moved by her blog post about her process of decluttering her office.

She says, "I see now that the real lesson of my decluttering task was not that I needed to throw everything out, but that through the process of sorting, reviewing, and culling I was able to render down the important ingredients of my life into its particular and unique flavor, just as one would do in the kitchen with a fine sauce. It’s all there already. We just have to take the time to let it simmer, and then after decades have past, to taste the results. I highly recommend it. I’ve learned a lot."

There are a lot of ways to look at what she said.  What I took from it is that in the process of decluttering whether it be our spaces, minds or lives in general we can let go of old ways, old habits, old things, and make way for new ideas and refreshed thinking.

I have not read her latest book The Not So Big Life yet, but if her previous books are any indication, I am sure that it is excellent.  I am putting it on my library list!

house guests

We are getting ready for weekend house guests. We live in a 3 bedroom house but right now the boy and I have the two extra bedrooms taken over by office functions so we do not have a formal guest room.  This works fine for us since, with the exception of my SIL, our family lives within driving distance as do most of our friends and the ones who live more than a hour away come to visit maybe twice a year if even that.  We decided that we'll surrender our beloved sleep number bed for one night and camp out on the futon in the family room.  My friend is prego and there is no way I would subject her to a night on that wafer.  As you may recall I have been shopping for a futon replacement.  We have gone back and forth about whether or not to get a sleeper sofa, but for our limited guest accomodation needs I can't see spending all the extra money for one and haven't been happy with the choices.  I am picky enough.  Jeez.  Once the futon is gone (and I can't wait for the day) we will use an aero bed.  I've slept on them enough times to know they are great for a weekend stay and very easy to set up, break down and store.  I just picked one up a a great discount at smart bargains. 

There are lots of web resources suggesting ways to prepare ones home for guests and ways to make guests feel more comfortable.  My main concerns are always that house is clean, especially the bathrooms and the bed has clean sheets on it.  I also like to make sure I have food staples on hand and some healthy snacks too.  Luckily my friends and I are pretty down to earth so you won't find me making up spa baskets or tieing my guest towels with linen ribbon.  I did like the idea pictured (idea and picture from Martha Stewart) above of a way to put out some drinking water if you don't have a carafe.  Use two different sized drinking glasses like a DOF and a highball.  Simple and thoughtful.  When friends and family come to stay, it should be about the time spent together catching up and less about whether your guest accomodations rival the Four Seasons'.  I think.

should my 200th post be something really profound...

...or should I just show you my closet that I am about to purge?

What I really miss about our other house are the closets.  We installed closet organizers in all the closets and it really helped maximize the space we had much better.  I am using this one closet you see above.  The boy is crammed into another horrible closet on the other side.  We need to share this one and use the other one for less frequently used things like dresses and heavy winter stuff.

More importantly, I want to just simply have less clothing and from now on make smarter shopping choices.  I have a lot pieces that I never wear.  I have also thankfully lost about 15 pounds over the last several months and have a few things that are too big.  I usually give my good cast-offs to the Salvation Army but I have quite a few things that I think I might try selling on ebay.  I could use the extra money. :)  So over Christmas and into the New Year this will be my project.

a way to get less junk mail

reduce the number of catalogs you receive: https://www.dmachoice.org/MPS or http://www.catalogchoice.org/
opt out of those annoying pre-approval letters: https://www.optoutprescreen.com/

via Design Milk

Both good for the environment, less paper wasted, less paper to be recycled, but also good for you.  Think about how much time and energy you spend each week going through junkmail.  I try to do it quick but I still end up having to open about half of our junkmail to make sure it does not have any private information on it.  Such a time and space waster!  Arrr.

ps.  I must have done something bad, because Typepad has not let me insert images for the past few days.  Hopefully we'll be back to normal soon.

fabric box storage collections

So versatile, so pretty and so organized...for every room of a home.  I kick myself every time I think of how I passed up all those marked-down boxes that Hold Everything was selling off when they closed up shop.  But I have three favorite go-to online shops to buy beautiful fabric covered storage pieces.

Not in any particular order...

CB2
   

west elm
 

and KOLO (more specifically for photographs, but their boxes can be used for all sorts of things)
 

I know I've mentioned KOLO before and probably will again.  west elm's collection is now 20% off!  Right now, CB2's colors are my favorite, but how great is that west elm red?  These pieces are great for rooms that have shelving instead of cabinets to keep items together and looking great.  I do consider this type of storage as an investment because they are not the least expensive option...but worth it, I think for a long term solution.

living with books

You know, even though it's like 90 balmy degrees here in Philly, it is still Spring!  It better be, since I haven't washed a single window screen at our house yet (a fun yearly Spring task).  Anyway, since it's still Spring, that means there is still time before the Summer Solstice (6/21) to tackle some spring cleaning and organizing.

My hilarious husband sometimes calls me his "little OCD".  That is not to make lite of a truly debilitating disease, he's just making fun of my bee buzzing around the house while he tries to watch The Waterboy for the 1,268th time.  Two things: 1. I am constantly rearranging things in our house and 2. I have a lot of books = I am constantly rearranging a lot of books.  Although the boy would dispute this statement, I have downsized my book collection only keeping my most favorite and treasured reads or books that are constantly referenced = big, heavy bags of books that go to Goodwill, regularly.

Things to contemplate:
:: rethink all the books that you keep stashed around the house.  I am lucky enough to have a great public library system, so I can try out a book and usually I find that I can copy or scan one or two things out of it instead of buying the entire book.  Saves money and space.
:: If you have allergies, try to keep books out of the bedroom.  They quickly collect dust and are hard to clean without damaging them.
:: display your most favorite and colorful books as accessories.  They can add visual interest to any room.
:: arrange books on shelves by color.  It can turn a cluttered looking bookshelf into a great focal point.

My first attempt in our living room...needs work.

S e e  a l s o:

Organzing Books by Spine Color with Victoria at sfgirlbybay.

 

And checkout flickr user santos' composition.

 

And lastly, Yvestown.

 

Organized Home - the website

Since 2002 and 2003 Organized Home has been one of my favorite resources online for organizing and general home keeping.  They've been around even longer than when I first found them.  Remember Prodigy in the early days of the internet?  It all started way back then.  We have our own version of a Household Notebook or "HN" at our house.  There are tons of free printable checklists and forms from a Master To-Do list to a First Aid Checklist. 
Each year the Spring Cleaning Challege helps get our homes in better order and cleaned and the Christmas Countdown over at Organized Christmas is a free 6-week plan to help get prepared for the holidays.

I also find the message boards to be an amazing resource to find answers to all your questions about home.  The boards are divided up into categories: declutter, organize, simplify, clean and aspire.  There's a wealth of information there.

Check it out!