Hi All,
Last summer I had a total epiphany about my bureau, and I've been meaning to share it here and am just getting around to it today.
As some of you know, I'm a borderline hoarder. All my life I've lived with a lot of clutter and had a lot of shame about it. Over the last 20 years (Gosh, it really has been that long, hasn't it?), this group has helped me deal with that and slowly, I've made a bit of progress.
Last summer, in the midst of a "40 Hours of Decluttering" project, I read Marie Kondo's book and realized while I had thought a lot about getting rid of more stuff, I hadn't thought a lot about another big piece of advice she gave: keep only what you love. It made me realize that I'd spent most of my energy thinking about what I DIDN'T want in my living space (mess) but not about what I DID want.
The other thing I realized last summer was that I was focusing a lot on tidying and improving the spaces in my house guests would see and focusing less on my bedroom and my daughter's bedroom. I decided to change that and really focus on making our two bedrooms really nice, pleasing spaces to be in since we are the only two people here 95% of the time, and I wanted to send a message to her that having a pleasing home isn't about "keeping up with the Joneses" but about self-care.
I kind of didn't know where to start with my bedroom, but one source of stress was my bureau, which, ever since we moved into this house six years before, had mostly been covered with mounds of papers. I remembered as a kid my sister and I had had beautiful dresser scarves and jewelry boxes, and beautifully arranged dressers that were so pretty. I thought I wanted to have a dresser like that again. First, I just decluttered the dresser and put on it a jewelry box that I'd found years ago, but I realized I didn't really like it much. I then remembered a kind of jewelry tree a friend of mine had on her dresser that looked so pretty, and I had this revelation that I just wanted a pretty dresser scarf and a small red jewelry box (to bring out the red in the rug) with a lot of little compartments (which, I realized, was all I really need these days because the only jewelry I really wear often is earrings), and a few little trays and bowls for other things. I spent HOURS online on Etsy, on Amazon and other places looking for the right things, feeling guilty all the time, but after some trial and error (returning some things I bought, ordering others, etc.), I finally created a really lovely little space on my dresser to store the things I need there.
It was a total revelation. I can't tell you what it was like in the morning to wake up to this pretty arrangements of objects I love instead of a mish-mash of clutter. At the risk of sounding "New Agey," I feel like this one change totally changed the energy in my whole house because it taught me I can create something beautiful in my own home and it will nourish me. Sometimes paper still collects there, but usually not for long because I really make it a priority to keep that space nice just for myself. I've attached a picture of it - not because it's so astoundingly gorgeous to anyone but me, but just to share the accomplishment!
I'm wondering if any of the rest of you are thinking either about what you love in your home now or what you see around you (on Apartment Therapy? Or Pinterest?) that you love and want to create in your own home. Anybody else have "loves" they want to share?