Weekend Design & Wellness Project

December 03, 2021 by natalini in design, wellness, weekend, declutter

Time to gather used items, clothing, home decor, technology, art and furniture to donate to charities or swap with friends and family.

Decluttering, purging and donating creates room for new items or space to enjoy a simpler lifestyle for the new year. Sometimes having less on purpose can bring a sense of abundance simply by having room in your life available. It makes cleaning a whole lot quicker too. Think about what you can live without and remove it from your life. You may find some inner peace in the process.

Pre-Holiday Purge

November 29, 2021 by natalini in design, declutter

Let it go! It’s the time of year to check some tasks off the perpetual to-do list, one of them being to declutter your home. Remove anything that is not serving a function or making you smile every time you enter your space. Simplify your home by only keeping what you use each day and of course sentimental heirloom pieces.

Things that stick around clogging up drawers and lying haphazardly on surfaces subconsciously triggers stress. Where there is stress there are communication issues, emotional shutdowns and even worse, dis-ease. Decluttering your home can save your life and relationships. If you want to enjoy your evenings and weekends, stop stepping on lego pieces or repurchasing misplaced items, then challenge yourself to a quick declutter fest to see if works for you.

Hey, you could even look at it like you’re making room for all the useful gifts you’ll be receive for the holidays.

Bonus points if you listen to the “Frozen” soundtrack. Just kidding, but twirling around like an ice princess can help make it more fun!

Clean Sweep

February 01, 2021 by natalini in design, declutter

“Putter Power”

*- my feisty grandmother*

Putter Power, as my feisty grandmother calls it, is a quick way to clear surfaces and a path without deep cleaning. To make the most of putter power, start with the biggest pile or obstruction, group the like items into piles and move those piles to the rooms or area where they belong. The most effective part of putter power is to have a basket in every room for these piles. The random basket stuff can be stowed away later when you have more time. Next, straighten pillows, fold throw blankets and toss the covers up on the of the bed minus the hospital corners. Lastly, grab your homemade cleaning/air freshening mixture (recipe below) and wipe the hard surfaces and window smudges with a microfiber cloth. Yes, this mixture is great for cleaning windows quickly and leaving them streak-free.

Natural Cleaning Mixture

Mix either in a spray bottle or directly on a microfiber cloth
1/4 cup of vinegar for an 12oz bottle
1 oz of Dawn soap
few drops of lemon essential oil
Dampen with water

A Functioning Home

January 04, 2021 by natalini in design, Lifestyle, balance, declutter

Create a simple sketch of a space to reimagine a new furniture layout. This is a scrappy loose sketch so no need for an architecture degree.

Space Plan Evaluation

Evaluate the efficiency of your home with a few questions.

FEELING: How does my home feel when I enter and how would I like to feel when I enter my home?
ORGANIZATION: Do you feel organized? Do you have storage issues?
SPACE: Are there rooms in your home that are not in use? For example; a spare room with random furniture, a creepy basement, narrow alcoves, oddly shaped closets?

Here is a 3 step guide to answering these questions to make adjustments and improve the everyday functioning of your home.

Think about a restaurant, cafe, hotel or B&B you visited and felt like you could live there. Write down everything you loved about that space. The more details, the better. What was the scent like, what were the colors, materials and fabrics like, was here a views, did you hear music? Which of those can you add to your home to bring you that same feeling you admired so much?
Do you have areas in your home where stuff accumulates or unfinished spaces that are at the bottom of the to-do list? What about where your essential items are located? Pay attention to your “flight paths” and the “dumping grounds” around your home. How about collections, are they prominently displayed or packed in boxes for someday when there’s space for them? Create a list any frustrations and inconveniences that arise from navigating your home. Keep this going for about a week to be sure to capture the day in the life of you as best as possible. Quick solution: add a decorative basket of your choosing to the “dumping ground” area to eliminate the visual clutter.
Got a spare room for your “I might need that someday” stuff? Are you short on space let alone have storage for extras? Believe it or not, these are solutions to both of these design dilemmas. Take a tour of your rooms, closets, drawers, cabinets, creepy basement, shared storage space, odd nooks and crawl spaces throughout your home and make list of each space and what is currently occupying these areas. Write a wish list of spaces you’d love to have for a collection, a hobby or every day use. Quick solution: start moving like items together to get a proper assessment of how much space you will need to for your new area. Use this method for decluttering a space to create a functioning office, guest room, creative studio, craft room, game room, library with collectables… Happy assessing, sketching and shapeshifting your personal space.