HomeWork: New Year's R-R-Resolution

How to renew your home for the new year.

As the holidays wind down and the new year approaches, we are faced with the daunting task of making resolutions that will, hopefully, improve our lives and ourselves in the next 12 months. Join a gym. Quit smoking. Lose weight. Spend less time at work.

I’d like to suggest an alternative commitment that will definitely improve the quality of your life: resolve to make changes in your home. Resolve to make your home the place you have always wanted it to be.

Often I have clients comment that they simply “never got around to doing that.” (Whatever that is.) Or they just “didn’t know how or where to begin.” I’d like to share with you my three R’s to make your New Year’s resolution easy: Remove, renew and re-imagine. Don't be scared - here's how to do it.

Remove

Clients don’t realize how easily clutter creeps into their lives and just takes over. Clutter is subtle and sneaky. It starts with a stack of mail and then grows and grows until it is a bale of paper on your desk (or worse yet, in your kitchen). I am as guilty of this as anyone. If you take a critical eye to your home, you will identify the areas where clutter has taken hold.

A good mantra to embrace is that less is truly more. The fashion designer Coco Chanel encouraged ladies to get completely dressed to the nines and then, right before going out, to look in a mirror and remove one piece – gloves or a scarf or a piece of jewelry. Excess is always garish and never makes a space calm, welcoming and soothing. Walk through your home and look at it – really look at it – and see if there aren’t a few things that could be put away or given to friends. The open space you create will make your home more restful and less stressful.

Renew

No matter how perfect something seems, it has a definite lifespan - a period when it is relevant and important. I have visited clients that have the senior high school portraits of their children proudly displayed in their foyer, yet those children are now married with children of their own. It’s important to remember the past but also keep things current. Those nostalgic senior pics will look great in the family room, replaced by current family portraits in the foyer.

Also know that sometimes things just won’t wear out but should be replaced anyway. If you are still making your bed with the same coverlet you got from your Aunt Millie when you were married 10 years ago, it’s time for a change. Most people I know would never wear a 10-year-old suit or dress, so why should your home be forced to live in colors and fabrics that are no longer current?

Start small. Buy fresh accent pillows for your sofa or bed, and toss or donate the existing ones. Look for plush, new towels on sale in January and update your bathroom. A great way to completely change the personality of a bathroom without breaking the bank is to invest in a new shower curtain and/or bath mat. Even new dish towels in the kitchen will make a difference.