Space Planning
Whether your home is larger or small, space planning is crucial in order that the best use is made of the space available.
Many people struggle with furniture placement and fall back onto awkward and conventional arrangements. Traffic flow is one of the key elements involved in space planning a room. This is especially true in a smaller home, but many larger homes struggle with efficient use of space. Comfort in your home is what good space planning achieves.
We all have stuff. In bygone days, home owners really didn’t own very many miscellaneous possessions. These days, we just do. We like our stuff. We are also continually bombarded with media messages which prompt us to acquire even more stuff. We comply because we live in a Golden Age of great things to acquire. We are really very fortunate. That being said, some of us cling to a romantic notion that we should be able to live in a fairly small home and thrive as the previous generation did. We are simply not the previous generation. That’s OK.
What we do need to do is to simplify as much as possible. We crave open space in our homes. We are buried under clutter. Being buried under clutter really is no way to live in a Golden Age. Let’s rethink this.
We all love nice things, and there are many nice things available to us. How do we fit them into our homes and remain comfortable?
Space planning and de-cluttering is how. Check out our not so simple article on de-cluttering. https://mulberryinteriordesign.ca/2016/02/truly-effective-de-cluttering-does-take-more-than-five-minutes/
We don’t take de-cluttering lightly. It is definitely not a push-button fantasy after a certain point. This is not living in a Golden Age of choosing nice things. Part of the psychology of clutter is emotional. We all have drawers, boxes or filing cabinets of stuff we can’t bear to get rid of. All of these things are important and useless at the same time. All of these things create drama in our lives. We really don’t need that much drama in a happy life. The vast volume of all of this useless/important stuff creates drama.
First off, do you really need a Bucket List? How badly do you want to skydive? Go snow shoeing? Bunge jump? Who will you really be if you do not do any of these things? Who are you really competing with? Who are you going to tell? Will those people really care about what you have achieved, or will they simply one-up you with their own latest Bucket list item. Are they even listening? Who are they competing with? Stop the insanity.
How about the dress from the first marriage? “The bum’s gone” ( as I overheard at a garage sale once). Time to move on to more positive things and gain some closet space, and maybe even gain some ruthless purging skills. It could be fun. Imagine having some fun! It’s time to lose the mental as well as the physical clutter. Free yourself from the unfinished business from the past. There really is no shame in letting go of magazines that we have not read, or not losing the pounds so that we can get into the jeans we wore when we were in our twenties. Guilt is not productive and neither does it create good décor. Lose the guilt along with the objects that cause it.
If, for instance, you truly would like to lose weight, you do not need many clothes associated with exercising. If you actually do it. No need for guilt if it is just never going to happen. You are just fine exactly the way you are. Apply this concept to every item in your home. Goals are good, but make them realistic. No one will be truly offended if you never run a marathon. This is simply the reality. What would you actually enjoy doing? Going for coffee and a nice chat with someone you have lost touch with would be a very good start on your new phase. Your friend will likely be very happy to reconnect.
Create priorities. Things that you enjoy should take precedence. Define what those things are and make a list of them. Chances are, very little acquiring will be involved, at least initially. As you become more aware of your entire home and all of the items in it, you will be able to create a clearer image of the next steps.