When I rearranged a few things in my dining room the other day, it led to a mess in the living room. Does that ever happen to you, where a project in one room sets off an avalanche in another? No? Well, it happens at my house all the time.
I start to get one area more pulled together, and the room next to it falls apart (at least temporarily). Messes multiply.
I don’t think home projects are as compartmentalized or neat and tidy as we might wish they were. Rooms in our home are connected to each other (and intertwined with our daily life) so a project or change in one space can throw another room into a tailspin.
But that ebb and flow between beauty and the mess are all a part of the creative process.
Tell me about the mix of beauty and mess in your house! Let’s confess what we’re dealing with here.
Related reads:
How to Decorate: The Slow Process to a Style You’ll Love
Find my new book Simple Decorating here.
As we’re preparing to downsize, we had things pulled out and messy piles everywhere to get ready for a garage sale last weekend. It sure is great to get organized and eliminate the clutter, though!
ALWAYS!!
The worst is when I’m working on a creative project for the blog and have to move everything for the photo shoot. Everything turns upside down in this small space!!
I look forward to seeing what you’re doing in your dining space. Do I spy new frames for wall art?
I think you summed this up perfectly. That’s the way it always works! Currently, since we are renovating four rooms, my whole house looks like that…squared!
This too happens to me, but like you said it does get looking oh so pretty at the end.
I find when I am sewing or creating a project I try so hard to keep it neat, and I find that I make the BIGGEST mess – but again the end result is perfect.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Rose
Holidays are the worst because it gets so much worse before it gets better! My greatest trouble is that I can endlessly stack in our unfinished basement and it becomes a chaotic area of half-finished projects or future plans. Oh well!
It happens all the time. My bad habit has been to place things in my sewing room which is MY room. Because I know no one goes in there when I am trying new things out in one room, I can place things in there and not disturb anyone else. I hate it though because it ends up taking away all my creativity. I have vowed to stop that. We will see how that goes. I am going to be more diligent about donating things…well, first of all buying less. It was funny when I opened this up this morning. I have the hallway going out to the garage full of stuff to take to Goodwill this morning. I keep telling myself I am going to have a yard sale. I know that have no desire, so yesterday I compiled it all to take it. No more yard sales for me. I will work on no more piles.
Ha, I do that too! Great pep talk :).
This is house cleaning for me. As I get one room tidy and sparkling clean, piles get moved to the rest of the house and its not pretty. This happens room by room until the last pile is gone and I enjoy a completely organized and clean house. For about a 1/2 hour, lol.
Oh yes! Melissa at this moment every room in the house! On Monday there is the funeral of a dear friend of mine. The Wake is at our house because it is nearest to the burial ground. We expect 50. We live in a 2 bed terrace cottage and are praying for a dry day. But the sorting and the borrowing of chairs, garden furniture; sorting out the Summer House (which is where all the “stuff” gets put for now), the decisions about little groups of chairs so that friends can sit together…. Tonight I look forward to going to bed because in the dark I cannot see any of it! So I feel your pain! xx
we moved into our new home 2 weeks ago. I wake up, sit with my coffee and sigh at the sight of 40 years of stuff everywhere and perplexed at what to put where. as soon as one room seems set up enough to get dressed or pay bills it gets piled high with boxes again.life continues even when you aren’t ready for it. I’m hoping I’m unpacked and organized by summer’s end.
I have a 4 year old, a 5 year old, and a puppy so my house is pretty much just mess right now! ;)
A season of life I remember well! :)
Recently we did a full bathroom remodel (down to the studs). To get to the plumbing for the tub the master bedroom closet had to be emptied out so those clothes ended up every where. Decided to paint the closet too. Then the sunroom needed painting so the workers did that at the same time, which meant moving furniture and “stuff” into the dining room and living room. The kitchen was the only room that was safe!!! All done now and worth the mess. But can totally relate to this post.
Yes, I’m constantly in the process of Mess Transfer, and that’s just in the normal process of living – not counting when there’s a real Project going on!
Sallie – I like that expression: Mess Transfer! I need to use that :)
We moved 6 months ago and spring came and we took down the previous owners screws, nails, hooks, pegboards, shelves, random cupboards and then spackled and spackled again and then painted. May arrived and we are removing all the weed infested rock around the house and hauling in dirt, now the garage is a mess of tarps, shovels, rakes, buckets, and filth. Painting is next for the house’s exterior, again-paint cans, scrapers, caulk, spackle, stirsticks, misc gutter parts…. the middle is the worst. When I feel, ” What have I done! I thought I was gonna make it look better :( “
I’m with Susan – every room in my house and, since my living room/d’office (formerly dining room) is open, this is particularly difficult. HOWEVER, finally, finally, finally after forever and I don’t know why it took so long — from my desk a turn to the left gives me the beautiful view of my grapefruit tree and the greenbelt and a further turn gives me a view into the kitchen and my corner sink with windows across the room. I’m home alone all day and I’m the only one who gets this view all day and I’ve been miserably embarrassed every day. With a quite small kitchen with a very small sink and with 3 cats who all eat wet food and who each like something different, it’s been impossible to keep the countertop clear. The double Origami cart peninsula I created (inspiration from the one you removed in your previous kitchen, Melissa) helped hide the dishwasher, trash can and recycle can, but that surface was always cluttered as well. Somehow I got the motivation to clear everything off and the determination to keep it that way and I’ve done so for over a week. It was really so easy and now I can really visualize my cabinets painted white and new floors down and finishing touches added. And it’s such fun. Now, if only I could repeat that experience in my living room/d’office – right now it’s mostly sorting into stacks on a table and then shifting places for those stacks on that table. Aaaaaargh!
I can certainly relate! Right now I’ve pulled out all the decor items that we will be using at my daughter’s wedding ceremony and reception in 4 weeks ( in another state) and have them sprawled out on the bed and floor of our downstairs guest bedroom! I will forget to bring certain things with us if I don’t have them where I can see them! Unfortunately, right now, so an everyone else! Haha. I could close the door on the room, bit I love the light that we get from the windows in there…it spills out nicely into the hallway, soooo there you have it! Beauty ( for the sake of sunlight) and the MESS! lol
Hahahaha! That’s exactly what I would do! (Congrats on the wedding!)
I agree, the process most of the time is like a snowball. Once all is situated and back together I’m always so happy!
I love your new side patio!! What a fun area to hang out and relax or visit with company! I’m sure you all will truly enjoy the space.
So, in trying out some new recipes I discovered that I needed a ton of spices. In the process of buying said needed spices, and others that were decidedly past their prime, I decided that I needed to spice (pun intended!) all the jars and storage containers. I now have more spice jars and containers than ever – and they all live on the dining room table because ‘organizing’ did not translate into space saving! Geesh! One step forward, ten back! Haha!
Oh no! Ha!
My declutter mess is to create open space in rooms and closets and cupboards but, I’m having trouble getting rid of the mess. I second guess what I’m getting rid of thinking I may use it again, especially with decor. I don’t want to store unnecessarily. Has anyone dealt with this and how did you handle it?
Use the 20/20 rule! If you can replace for $20 in less than 20 minutes away get rid of it! (Or whatever # you are comfortable with…for me it’s 60/60)
Thanks, tiffany, for the suggestion!
I so relate! In fact I wrote a book called Make Room for What You Love and shared everything I do to get simplify, get organized and learn new habits! You can find it here https://theinspiredroom.net/make-room-for-what-you-love/ :)
I am pretty good at decluttering the main and upper floors. But where does it all end up—in the basement!! Looks like a warehouse! This is where a lot of it stays till I decide whether or not I can live without it. Even though I have managed to ship a lot of it out, it is a never ending problem. My husband and I are in our sixties and have lived in our house for 30 years. We figure we are good here for at least ten more years if not more. So when I am really trying to manage the clutter I think about what means the most to me to decide what to move to what would be a much smaller place. Seems to work well for me most of the time.
I’m there! We’er in the midst of planning for the renovation of a downstairs bath/guest room into a master bed/bath. I’ve never done any house renovations or even that much decorating … I know what I like, but putting rooms together intimidates me. I spent most of Sunday moving furniture around trying to maximize space and functionality … which meant emptying my china cabinet and moving it (twice), along with a buffet and secretary which led to a big pile on my dining room table to give away. And we don’t even have the plans finalized for what we’ll be doing in the master bed/bath! Is it strange to only have the entrance to the bathroom be *through* the master closet?
I think if no one else has to use that bathroom it would be fine! I loved my old house master bath because it was connected to my closet, It made getting ready for the day so convenient, so you could consider it all one efficient space?