A few days before Charlotte's second birthday, we moved into our current house. For the 18 months prior, we had been living in a small condo during the week and commuting 90 miles on the weekends to get our house market ready. Half our possessions were there, half were in the condo, and I possessed roughly zero sanity.
Stuff, as it turns out, was a large driver of anxiety. Never having the right stuff and never having it in the right place stressed me out. However, I went so long without seeing so many of the things that I thought were important, I realized that they weren't as important as I thought.
I had been intrigued by the idea of a capsule wardrobe; the blog, un-fancy, is my favorite. I was only loosely implementing the concepts at the time, mostly because I was already flying by the seat of my too many pairs of pants. The commitment felt like a lot.
When we finally moved, it felt like a blank slate. We could live somewhere. I thought "why not apply the concepts of a capsule wardrobe, to as many aspects of my life as possible?" One of the great things about a blank slate, is that there is almost infinite potential.
I just had to ask myself, "what do you want?"
I wanted light. A lot of it. I wanted space to dance with Charlotte. I wanted our books and art to be a central focus; we love to read and we love to create. I wanted to clean less and play more.
- We focused on simple, clean pieces that generally lacked pattern or complex silhouettes.
- We opted for lighter slipcovers for the couches and curtains with a similar hue.
- We chose to retain as much perceived space as we could by hanging wall bookshelves.
- We picked a limited, but classic color palette.
- We prioritized space for the art we love and made it central to each room.
and
- Most importantly, we let go of the things that didn't have a purpose and didn't bring us joy.