I purchased Nate Berkus's book, "The Things That Matter"....and have been pleasantly or at least unexpectedly surprised, in how he was able to show the person by what kinds of things their homes held.
I remember seeing my home for the second time, but like it was the first time.
When I suffered my breakdown into reality, I looked around my home like a stranger, wondering who had decorated it; for very little represented me. Instead it looked like bits and pieces and fragments of what other people liked.
My daughter then painted the whole house and added color, and we went about reorganizing it...mostly throwing out all that we didn't love of find a deeper reason to keep it.
Now, about eight years have passed, adult children have come and gone and my last one is thinking of leaving this spring. It leaves me once again to look at my house and the things that matter.
I also had given up the house as being a high priority and allowed myself to relax so that my kids could relax at home...and with it went my desire or passion to have my home a certain way.
I feel the stirring of desire to reclaim my home. To make it a couple's home...to have it once again reflect us.
I wondered about myself and my lack of caring for redoing rooms now left vacant...had I lost total interest in my living space?
What it does show me is that I had put my children's interests and needs ahead of the house, for now the home is in need of some artful care.
Nate's book has inspired me to look at the things I have in my house...what is their connection to me...what do I love...and what could easily go?
I also love that he likes homes that break the 'rules' of decorating the best. This frees us all to just be ourselves, to bring in what we love and then our homes will reflect us.
For 25 years our home has been shared with children and their stuff, along with what they needed to feel at home in our home...and now I feel the excitement to once reclaim this whole space.
It will be an easier task to go through things, when you can weed out all that don't matter.
Little by little, thing by thing, room by room, I will make our home full of things that matter...and in turn will be a house of things I love.
I feel grateful for letting things go...and putting my kids first.
I have let them have messy rooms, painted rooms, rooms of many colors, rooms for TV and games, toy rooms, overflowing entry spaces, closets stuffed with stuff....
It will not feel like an empty nest, but an empty canvas...one where I can once again transform it into a childless home.
How interesting to see our lives change in our homes.
