Set some standards

In order to have some peace of mind with how your home looks and feels, you need to set some standards for yourself. I had to do this because I had unrealistic ones in my head.  I actually had to mental change those standards in order to feel like I was succeeding.  Before I did that I was feeling like a constant failure.  It helped talking to my husband about it.  He helped me verbalize those standards and he helps me keep them.  We make a pretty good team.

It is inevitable that you will accumulate unnecessary items in your home.  The hard part is determining quickly which items belong in that category.

When I come across something in my home I always ask myself if it falls into one of these categories.

1. useful

2. meaningful

3. pretty.

If it is something useful but not meaningful or pretty, put it up and away. Your environment needs and should be beautiful.  I really don't like to look at my tea maker everyday when I go into my kitchen.  It is an ugly blue and white color and I don't think I have to say anything more.  It is stored above my microwave and it very easy to get to.  The tea maker is useful so it falls into one of the three categories. Useful really needs to be defined well.  If you think a chocolate fountain is useful then you have a very loose standard for what useful means.  I do not consider something I would use maybe once a year something useful.  I used to own one...we sold it.

If it is useful and pretty, then keep it out for the world to see.  I have a Keurig that I think is actually nice.  It is stainless and black.  It matches my kitchen and doesn't make me cring when I see it.  I also find my Keurig very useful on a daily basis.

Now, what do you do with something that is meaningful but isn't pretty.  I have a great example for this category.  My Aunt LeAnne past away from brain cancer in 2007.  She was such an amazing woman and I miss her so much.  One year, for Christmas, she gave me a wooden whale puzzle.  It is small and not really all that pretty.  However, every time I see it I think of her.  She loved whales and it just makes me smile when I see it.  I don't have it out displayed on some shelf though.  I believe items that are small can actually appear as clutter in the home.  That's another rule I'll discuss later.
I do have it slightly put away.  You are probably thinking that I'm heartless.  Well, not exactly.  I don't want it to become something in the fog of my daily environment.  It is on my roll top desk that I open maybe every other day to get some papers or a pen.  It's like a peek-a-boo ray of sunshine that reminds me of my Aunt Lee Lee.

Note: Something is not meaningful unless you can remember who gave it to you and why.  Otherwise, it is just a meaningless object.

It's amazing how once you start doing this to items in your house you actually become more strict.  I have found that some items I have left out or wanted to keep before I now want to kick to the curb.  It is definitely not going to happen for everyone, but I found the process very liberating.

I will save my rant on American Consumerism and my disdain for marketing for another post.