All I know is that today I sat at my dining room table and I looked out my French doors that open up to our deck, and I actually imagined spring! So I mentioned that to my husband and he had to remind me that we still had “a lot more winter to get through.” Jeez, talk about a kill-joy.
I saw in my mind the two beautiful weeping willow trees in our backyard blooming with anticipation of a glorious new season ahead of us, and I was determined to look ahead to what will be — soon — because the snow around here is turning mighty dirty, and frankly, I’m sick of the extra moisture in the basement.
With the lack of sunshine and the propensity for people to react a bit to this lack of light, I find that this is the time of year I start getting the most calls for organizational and clean up projects. These projects have a few things in common — namely, many large Rubbermaid bins and large labels. It is great fun to start throwing things around — these papers go here, those go there, keep this, trash that. How refreshingly therapeutic!
There is almost always a new design idea to help alleviate storage problems — shelves and bins to place the new stuff one will be gathering. I think this is a great way to remain upbeat in your surroundings, despite still having difficulties concentrating on daily tasks, simply because of the time of year.
The bottom line is that it is of utmost importance to start to seize your home surroundings right now and make them even that much more comfortable. Because, even though we know a sunnier, warmer day is approaching, we still can’t make the sun appear, so we must create sunny spots inside. This is what I suppose I was doing in my head while looking at the willow trees, enjoying the idea of how life is change and there is always hope for a new beginning. This especially goes for decorating and design — in my life anyway.
Kristin McClellan is a professional home stager and redesigner who runs her business, HomeCharmers, with her husband, Nathaniel, a flooring expert and furniture craftsman. They work together to make people’s homes more buyer-friendly and help homeowners who are staying enjoy it more. You can reach her at 899-1239 or www.homecharmers.net.