Without fail, every March my house starts to feel tired and uninspired.
One trick I use to get my house in the mood for spring is to simply UNDECORATE it.
It’s a quick 10 minute commitment that helps rejuvenate how my house looks and feels.
Unlike quieting a room (one of our Cozy Minimalist steps) Undecorating is a lightening fast practice where you remove a layer of cute stuff from your house in hopes that it prompts you to be more intentional with your decor.
After a winter of adding in cute things from Target, pretty gifts from people and whoops, there’s some leftover Christmas decor–my house could use some surface attention and maybe yours could too?
How to UNDECORATE:
1. Locate a few containers that can hold your surface decor
Grab a box a bin, a laundry basket, those bags sitting around from Trader Joe’s. Just find something to safely hold your accessories for a few days. We are not going for perfection, just something that’s available.
2. Find a temporary holding place to put the stuff that you’ll remove from your room.
I use my covered outdoor porch. I’ve got a wall out of view from any windows that stays dry and there’s not much pollen yet. If there is pollen I’d just cover my stuff up with a sheet. It only needs to stay there for two days, you can make anything work!
3.Set a timer for 10 minutes and remove the surface decor
Grab the knick-knacks, set-arounds, smalls, gee-gaws, tchotckes, cute Target vases and decorative stuff from the surfaces and pile them into your container, then put the stuff in your designated temporary holding space.
Leave the lamps, throw pillows, wall art–this is just about clearing those surfaces of pretty decor.
4. Let your space breathe, Undecorated, for at least two days so you can reconnect with it.
This allows your view of the room to reset. You need a day or two for the room to stop looking weird and empty while it transitions to looking simple and peaceful.
5. Before you bring anything back in, consider adding a plant.
Because you probably need a plant.
6. Only bring back things that you really love, miss and need
Don’t fill a space just because it’s empty.
The magic of waiting a few days before you put stuff back, is that you become accustomed to having some cleared off space in your home, and hopefully, you like it.
For people like use who value pretty things, giving ourselves some time with emptier surfaces is a great reminder that beauty can be found in empty spaces just as much as in full spaces.
Go forth and Undecorate!