14 Ways To Minimize For Summer
For summer living, an uncluttered approach to decorating can be liberating. Cleansing a home is like going on a diet. Eliminate the fat and take stock. Here are fourteen tips for putting your house on a diet.
1. Do you really need a table piled with books that you've read or don't intend to read for awhile?
2. You don't need a wool afghan over the sofa all summer. Have it cleaned and pack it away with mothballs until the weather gets cool again.
3. If the table tops look bare, add only one thing. Just one.
4. Do you really need the canisters and all the small appliances on top of the kitchen counter?
5. What about the country accessories like baskets and non-essentials that gather dust and no longer give you pleasure. Part with them until fall.
6. Organize the bathroom clutter into pretty containers and find out-of-the way places for most of it. One basket on a shelf can hold everything within easy access.
7. Move your wall pictures around for a change of pace. Try exchanging a group of small pictures for one large one. It doesn't take much effort to create a new look in this way.
8. Move the furniture around for a different perspective. Do you always sit in the same seat at the dining table? Change seats to get another look at the room while you're eating. This will give you fresh ideas.
9. Buy an interesting trunk to use as an end or coffee table for storing extra pillows, quilts, etc.
10. If removing things makes you uncomfortable try exchanging. Move things from one room to another. Once it's out of its usual place it will look new.
11. Temporarily cover the throw pillows with light fabric or a textured white or natural linen.
12. Use white candlestick holders and always white candles.
13. Arrange flowers in white or clear glass vases.
14. Fill white bowls with lemons and limes. They look great and give off a nice scent.
Copyright Leslie Linsley, author
Reprinted with permission, HouseNet, Inc.