This client recently began working from a home office and although the design of the room and built in desk are beautiful there were some issues with the functionality. The clients punch list included one part design and remodel and one part organization and efficiency. At our first meeting I took an assessment that included the following: [Read more…]
Search Results for: clutter
Organizing a Painting Studio
It’s always a dream job to get to help with Organizing a Painting Studio. I was excited to begin working with this artist and be able to help get this beautiful new home studio space set up!
The artist was not yet using the studio space so the project began by sorting items into categories for use and designating spaces and systems for organizing and using the space and materials. I also helped with furniture placement, to make the space both comfortable and functional when in use and for relaxing and finding Inspiration. After all, when an artist isn’t working in their studio, they should still LOVE to be in their space, so creating a relaxing and inviting environment is very important to the process!
Oouosji and the art of Living with Less
Today’s post was inspired by this article I read about Oouosji, the Japanese tradition of cleaning out for the new year. The article got me up out of my chair clearing out the holiday decor and giving the house a little spiffing up!
January is also the official Get Organized month (Go-Month) and Organizers, magazines and media across the nation are promoting getting more organized. The new year is a perfect time to start fresh and getting organized ranks a top resolution for many people. I always love getting a little more organization, especially after letting a few things go over the holidays. Since most of our belongings are in storage I’ve turned my attention towards digital and electronic organizing, including unread emails and blog posts in my RSS reader. Here are some of the ways I’m simplifying, getting things organized and trying to live with less.
- Whittled the blogs I subscribe to down to those I really enjoy reading and those that didn’t focus on stuff-I love the eye candy but don’t need the additional temptation! (I didn’t keep track of how many I got rid of but this is my second round of clearing out in the past month).
- Evaluated the twitter feeds I follow and reduced them by about 15%.
- Went through my two email accounts (one for personal use the other for newsletters, stores, coupons etc…) to delete and unsubscribe (see Unroll.me) from anything that no longer interests me. I usually do this a couple times a year at minimum.
- Went through all my digital photo files and deleted unwanted images and duplicates. At the same time I’m adding tags and ratings in Lightroom and backing it all up to an external drive. (This is an ongoing project since I have Thousands of photo’s)
- Sorted through music to delete unwanted or duplicate songs while creating playlists and rankings. (This is an ongoing project I will finished at the end of January 2012)
Among all those emails I was clearing out there was this great article over at Becoming Minimalist.
“Owning less is far more beneficial than organizing more.“-Joshua Becker
I got to thinking about how we are currently living with all our stuff is in storage (when I wrote this in 2012-for 8 months!). I’ve found myself craving a few of my things over the past 6 weeks, which consists mostly of clothes I wish I hadn’t packed, cooking tools and craft supplies. Everything else I can live with out for now. I’m sure after living without most of our possessions for months we will be much less attached and more likely to purge when we unpack. Remind me of this will you when I get to that point?! 2017 update, Purging is a regular (weekly) practice for me but I’m as attached to my stuff as the next person and certainly don’t consider myself a minimalist but I am always looking for ways to embrace living with less!
I came across an article about this guys who only owns 15 items! I wouldn’t consider myself a minimalist but I constantly work to embrace a less is more philosophy and lifestyle. I am glad to say that our Christmas holiday was not “stuff” centered (true for the past 5 years or so!) and I mostly give consumables and donations (love Heiffer Intl). I took some advice from the Joshua Becker article and grabbed one of the boxes we had gifts shipped in and filled it with stuff to give away…the process of living with less is one we have to continually re-evaluate and participate in.
Now as I take regular walks on the beach, I try keep this in mind and rather than pick up each little beautiful treasure I take a photo of it and release it (most of the time:).
Stuff comes, stuff goes and the less you let come in the less you have to let go of!
Release old Dreams~and Make way for new Dreams
While having a conversation with a friend about my goals for my new business, I had one of those moments of clarity and knew I had a choice to Release old dreams (to make way for new ones)! I thought about what my dreams for my business had always been (since graduating from SCAD) but I realized that my old dream didn’t exactly align with what it is that I am doing and want to be doing now.
In this moment I was able to see that it’s okay to release old dreams and expectations. In fact, we have to do this in order to make room for new dreams.
I’m all for de-cluttering and getting rid of things in my life that don’t serve me anymore but thoughts, expectations, and dreams need to be treated in the same manner as actual, physical things!
It can be kind of sad to release your old dreams but please realize that those dreams have served you well. They have motivated you, given you something to strive towards and they have helped shape the direction of your new dreams.
So today I invite you to release those old dreams that no longer serve you. Go ahead, write them down, seal them in an envelope and send them off!
Out with the Old~Inviting in the new
Lately my mind is on de-cluttering, purging and making space for new things in life. Out with the old!
My husband and I spent the last week going from room to room gathering things that we no longer needed, loved or wanted. We decided we wanted to try something different and gathered all of these items together to head to a local flea market! Our community has a regular flea market (does yours?) and they make it pretty easy to show up just once or on a regular basis. We’ve had plenty of garage and yard sales but thought we would give this a try. There are a lot of flea market regulars and certainly a guaranteed amount of foot traffic that you may or may not get at a yard sale. Anything is worth a try when you want to get rid of a lot of stuff at once (say for an upcoming move?)!
On Saturday morning we headed out very early in order to go to a flea market and sell a bunch of stuff that’s taking up too much space in our lives. This included clothing, tools, home goods from the kitchen to linens, gardening supplies and more. Basically, anything you would sell at a yard sale. We have a 10′ pop up tent, which I highly recommend for any outdoor affair.
We had made a decision that whatever didn’t sell wasn’t coming back into the house. At the end of the day, I was left with only a few boxes of items to donate. The weather was mostly beautiful (a little am mist)! It was fun to interact with other vendors and a challenge to not be tempted, as I was, to bring something new (to you) home. I got the two antique games below because I love the charming images on them! I also found a couple small hand stitched textiles. All in all, much more went out than came back!
Making room for “new” can mean a lot of different things but in my case I am not trying so much to make room for physical things as much as new ideas and inspiration. Another area of my life that I am doing this is in the exploration of old design sketches and concepts I’ve completed to some degree over the last 10 years. I am really enjoying bringing these designs beyond concepts and sketches and into fully rendered ideas.
Moving through old stuff and ideas can help us to release them and move forward and create space for new creativity!
You can not “hoard” your own ideas, they must be released in order for the new creative ideas to move through you, the same can be said for our stuff!
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