Creatively Organized Spaces
What does it take to be organized? Curiosity, Creativity, Commitment-being open to these are the key to getting and staying organized.
It takes a bit of Curiosity, a bit of Creativity and a Commitment to make lasting changes.
Here’s a little secret, wink, wink…
If your curious how it might feel to be more organized, keep reading…
Last week I wrote about how to downsize and purge with your family and this week I want to continue with that process and talk about sentimental saving.
I think the last two items can be the most tricky. Times have changed and what is valuable to one person or generation might not be as valuable to later generations. This is where having a good chat with your family about what you love, find joyful memories of and want to save can help you feel less burdened. If you have heirlooms you love, use them in your daily life! Display them (like the piece above), break out the good china or crystal or silver, let them bring you joy by seeing and using them often!
But what about mom’s who save every little thing from their children’s childhood? I come across this a lot! Since I don’t have children of my own I can’t share what my personal experience is with this other than reflecting on what my parents saved for me. Even though I do offer suggestions on how to best save items and keep them stored using archival methods I do not tell my clients what they should keep. My best advice is LESS IS MORE! Keep the best of each category, favorite artwork, favorite decorative items and take photo’s of the rest! If you feel the compelling urge to keep more than the minimum than store in bins by year and category. Don’t mix papers with textiles-they will damage one another in long term storage (crumple, discolor etc). After a few years you might realize that you don’t need so much.
Ask yourself why you are keeping things. Do you want to pass them on to your children? Once they are old enough (8-10) start talking to them and showing them what you are keeping. This will be a great way to learn about their “saving style” and they might share what they feel most joyful about keeping and what they don’t really care about. Find ways to honor and integrate their interests, accomplishments etc into daily life (like the ribbons above). As they go through “phases” gently say goodbye with gratitude and pack up the “best of”.
If your parents never talked with you about this topic, if you still have them around perhaps they are holding onto “sentimental” items they have saved. Generally most parents ask their children to take things once they move off after college but some parents keep things forever. If you have “stuff” left behind at your parents and don’t even remember what it is, take some time to ask them about it, look through it and take what you want. Offer to go ahead and donate or sell what you don’t want sooner rather than later so that your stuff doesn’t become a burden to them or other family members, now or later. Addressing the reason we hold onto our sentimental stuff can help release us from the need to keep the actual things.
Just remember that to do so you might not have to hold onto the sentimental stuff! Sentimental saving can be a beautiful way to honor our memories! Never hold onto things that don’t bring you joy. Find stillness with your stuff and honor the moment to remember and to decide to keep or let go of the mementos.
Time after time I go to a client assessment or am talking with someone about paperwork and they say they don’t have a system for storing papers. I get that lifestyles have changed. Most people work on their laptops on the sofa or at a table. Lots of us are trying to go paperless, but realistically we will probably always have certain papers to keep.
One very common complaint I hear is that “file cabinets are ugly.” “If I could just find one that looks like a piece of furniture”…well folks I’m here to help! Here is a beautiful round up of a variety of stylish and functional file cabinet. Not baskets, boxes, binders or bins…we’ll get to those another day because if there is more than one of you with papers in your household, most likely you need a filing cabinet!
Luckily some great companies are bringing stylish filing systems in as furniture so you don’t have to forgo the style for the function! Some, like the cabinet below by Iannone Design is truly a work of art!
Horchow collection has some beauties. I love these two mirror file boxes. They’re not filing cabinets but would work for a specific category or one person with minimal papers.
Wayfair has a lot of options from this more rustic wood, one drawer cabinet filing cabinet to more utilitarian ones.
The Container Store has clean contemporary cabinets in fun colors!
Ikea has basic affordable two drawer cabinets.
There are tons of great DIY options for painting and making over your cabinet with fun colors, chalk board paint (image below from hometalk.com), decorative papers and more! 
Loads of popular furniture and home brands have great options as well like the white credenza-style cabinet by Crate and Barrel below.
With all these stylish and functional options there’s no reason to be keeping your paper in piles or bags anymore! I’ve shared lots of great tips for filing systems on the blog, (search filing, or paper organizing). I hope this stylish filing cabinet roundup inspires you to get your paperwork in order. For more inspiration check out my Pinterest Office Board or my Houzz Stylish Filing Cabinets Idea book.
Some days I STRUGGLE with ideas to write about…SO I want to hear from you! What do you want me to blog about?
Or maybe NOT, I think I’m just stuck in my own head and don’t know what I know! The way I bring ideas together is just a bit different than someone else. How I say something might resonate with you in a way that it doesn’t with someone else. The same goes for how I work with clients to organize their spaces.
I’ll be spending a lot of my Saturday’s this summer in my new shared temporary studio, The Vat Shack. This project brings together 6 Indigo & textile artists for a summer of all things blue!
This project has been made possible by Charleston non profit, Enough Pie in partnership with Clemson’s architecture students (and others) who built this amazing temporary traveling “studio” for this specific purpose. The Den Mama’s and Enough Pie had regular meetings with the students and professors to share in the process of designing this space specifically for our needs. It was so fun to see it go from concept to reality, they did an amazing job and gave us just about everything on our “wish list”!
The Vat Shack set up
The Vat Shack storage
After the “shack” was delivered we came together to set up 3 types of Natural indigo vats, a Ferrous (Iron) vat, Fermentation vat and Hydrosulphate Vat. These three types of vats were selected to illustrate the evolution of this artform and craft throughout history (fermentation being the oldest type, Hydros the most “modern”). I was really in my element getting to set up the supplies and organize all the tools, shelving, space layout etc.
Den Mama’s setting up Indigo vats
Last Saturday this project was launched into the community with a public event Awakening:Indigo IV. All the Den Mama’s were there to share Indigo dyeing with the community. All afternoon we gave demonstrations of dyeing with indigo, shibori techniques and people added to the Community Rag Quilt (a Gullah Tradition being revived by the Gullah Lady).
Heather K Powers with Wire Hanger Mandala
Art installations (I created another one of my wire hanger mandala’s above) were onsite along with performances by story tellers (like my friend Sharon Cooper Murray-below) and a screening of the indigo documentary Blue Alchemy by Mary Lance who was in attendance and helped to create a lasting blue memories in Charleston!
Charleston community tries their had at Shibori
Mary Lance creates something blue to remember Charleston
Den mama’s will be spending time in the shack teaching workshops, camps and leading community dye days (first and third Saturday’s each month into October). This project is such an exciting way to bring together all different kinds of people in the Charleston community to learn about the art, craft, science and history of Indigo in the Lowcountry and around the world. I’m very proud to be a part of this and I hope to see you out there this summer!
All together in Blue! (L—>R Rachel Parris, Cathryn Zommer, Mary Lance, Arianne King Comer, Heather K Powers, Leigh Magar, Cara Earnst, Sharon Cooper Murrah and Kristy Bishop)
