When you are looking at reclaiming your life and your space, it’s important to begin thinking about how your space will be. Sometimes this can be challenging for people, how can they imagine anything past what they are currently dealing with. Yet, this relates to goals – what are your goals for your space? What do you want to get out of being more organized – and more than finding things easily?
We all have different visions for our spaces, if you can imagine it at all. There are many different ways a space can look and feel. Beyond the decorating scheme, the way you arrange furniture and use décor can influence how the room feels. Consider how your partner feels about things as well, as what feels good for you might be the opposite for them.
The first step often is identifying how you want to feel in your space – relaxed, comfortable, serene, energized, etc. Obviously, you probably won’t want to feel the same way in every room, especially if you’re looking to feel energized which wouldn’t be conducive to a restful night of sleep.
Once you’ve figured out how you want to feel, you can move on to discovering what that means for you personally. What does relaxed look like to you? What makes something relaxing for you? How is relaxed expressed for you? This means thinking outside your current space and in more general terms.
I want to feel enveloped in my space. I’ve begun to think of it as a nest – my home is a place that surrounds me with love and beauty. This vision isn’t immutable; it shifts and changes. I had at least one shelf in every room for a while, yet this began to feel more like clutter – a place to put more stuff. These came down, pictures go up, and the décor either gets rearranged, saved, or donated. Yet, as I look around and change things, my home is still my nest.
Consider these two extremes: the house full of knick-knacks and the sparse and immaculate house. Both of these can be relaxing to someone – although not likely the same person. Neither is wrong. Really. I do encourage people to avoid either of these extremes and find the way it feels good for them.
What feels like “home”? What feels comfortable? What is realistic for you and your family? Maybe the sparse and immaculate home sounds ideal, yet is this reasonable for your life? And there’s time for hard choices – I have a room that feels too crowded. For the size of the room and what I use it for, there’s no room for anything more. I recognize this, yet I’ve evaluated the different pieces and I am not willing to part with things right now.
We all need goals to help direct our efforts. When tackling major organizing projects or simply revamping a space, consider your own vision of how you want the space to feel. Then, how do you set things up to create that effect?
