Decorating with Sight

• clean your glass, make those windows sparkle (if your windows don't open, i'd remove the screens to really make them sparkle, and if your windows do open, well, open them to let fresh air in)
• open your blinds every morning. you will be more productive in a sunny home. if you keep it all closed up and dark it will make you sleepy and lazy feeling.
• you cannot have beauty without order-clear the clutter
• clean as you go-this is such a simple practice that yields huge rewards. as you go from room to room every. single. time. you spot something out of place take it with you to it's proper place. if a roll of toilet paper is low-right then and there take a moment to refill it. a pair of shoes on the living room floor-right then and there take them to the proper closet. a messy bathroom counter. right then and there put everything below inside the cabinet. if it is really bad grab an empty laundry basket. gather everything out of place in your room and fill the basket-then deposit in the proper places. even if your house is a little dusty (ok or a lot dusty) if it is orderly you will feel better
• add fabric to your space. hang some window mistreatments, go to walmart and buy some throw pillows for your couch or beds. it will warm up your space in an instant.
• never, ever, ever use overhead lighting. i am serious. lamps are just the best way to give a room the feel you want. even if your husband sabatages your plans and replaces all your bulbs with those horrific energy saving kind of bulbs, that will still give a warmer feel than an overhead light. lamps are very affordable. do you have a fred's? they are the king of fabulous lamps for $20.00 and under. we have 15 lamps in my house and a lit garland on a dimmer. we had our kitchen fluorescent light replaced with cans and we had can lighting added to our living room-all on dimmer's. when every single lamp is turned on i am happiest. add some freshly vacuumed lines in the carpet and i'm torn up over it all. in a large room place your lamps in a triangle shape around the room (does that make sense?)
• rearrange your furniture. saturday night we turned the dining room table a completely opposite way and we LOVE the new look. experiment with turning pieces of furniture in different directions. you may hate it and have to move it back but that's the worst thing that will happen. the best thing is you love the new look.
• reward yourself with a bouquet of fresh flowers
• an instant fix for your kitchen is to clear off all the photos/papers/magnets from the front of your fridge. we (try to) just use one side of our fridge for that kind of stuff, the side facing the cabinets. a clutter free fridge front will instantly make your space feel clean and nice.

If you want more ideas, many ideas from this series came from a book called 505 Quick Tips to Make Your Home Sensesational by Terry Willits. She is a christian and her book is fabulous. It's a pretty coffeetable book and if you are in a slump you can always pick it up and get a quick idea to spruce things up!

p.s. stay tuned because i want to chat about systems the rest of the week-like the best ways to do laundry, etc...this is the flylady coming out in me but the holidays are fast approaching and we want our homes in tip top shape and we want to be prepared so we can do the things we love...like enjoying our homes/decorations/friends/family/holiday food