Happy Easter and Happy Royal Wedding!

Roy Strong says that every ten years you should do something completely new....Hmmm..


(Now there's a man who knows about stuff. He was in charge of one of the biggest collections of stuff in the world. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has over four and a half million  artefacts. I see he is donating his entire personal archive to the Bodleian Library Oxford and his clothes to the V&A.... Nice one Sir Roy!)

I do occasionally think 'What will I do when everything is sorted?'

The american comedian George Carlin says the whole meaning of life is finding somewhere to put your stuff!
He describes looking down from a plane at all the houses, which are really just 'piles of stuff with a cover on' and with garages added on to fill with stuff, and sheds for more stuff, and storage companies with your stuff, and the stuff you take with you when you travel, and that you carry in a bag, and keep in your pockets....

I'm beginning to wonder if the reason I have embarked on such a major sort is that I am ready to make some changes, perhaps big changes,  and am clearing my mind as well as my physical space to think more clearly about what it is I want to do....simply live perhaps and not be so encumbered by 'stuff' ?

I'm still paring down my possessions!

I'm doing that thing of contemplating each one for a moment and seeing what kind of feelings come up (see 14 Nov 2010). Pausing, in other words. Giving the business of dealing with my 'stuff' the attention it needs to make good decisions.

This really works for me. But it does take time....


..I am sans camera at the moment - I do miss it - will illustrate yesterday's post soon..

Colour co-ordinating gets a bad press sometimes - it can be viewed as a trivial obsession or as pretentious, but the way I see it is as 'easy on the eye'. Using colours which harmonise with each other creates calm and harmony in your surroundings.

Here's a fun idea that gives a room a co-ordinated look instantly, and it's free!

Decide on an accent colour for your kitchen - let's say the curtains are green. Next time you come back with the shopping you leave out all the green things - so the green apples go in the bowl along with the green grapes. The green beans and cabbage sit out on a basket on the countertop with the green pepper. The red pepper and the other veg and fruit go in the fridge or in a cupboard. The green wahing up liquid stays out, and next time you buy washing up cloths you get green ones. Hang up the tea towels with green on them. Find a green hand towel and green soap. (You could dye a bundle of old towels and tea towels green.) Spare carrier bags all go into the green one which you hang on the doorhandle. A big bunch of branches from any green shrub or tree, a pot of basil or parsley, some green postcards/greetings cards/pictures from a magazine can be blu tacked to the wall.

Basically, if it's green leave it on show, if it's not green put it in a cupboard....et voila! Step back and admire.

It works in any room in the house. Easy on the eye - harmony and calm....

I was talking with a friend about what to do with those clothes which bring back memories of happy occasions.

If you have plenty of room in your wardrobe then of course it's fine to keep them there, but if you don't?

If you know you won't actually wear them again but still want to keep them, I think you treat them as memorabilia  rather than as clothes, and put them somewhere other than in the wardrobe.

They could go in a box or second wardrobe to be brought out and looked at occasionally. Or you could make a decorative feature of them - hung on the wall, or on a pretty hanger on the back of the bedroom door or the front of the wardrobe door, or, my own preferred option, they could be photographed - on you, or on a hanger - this certainly takes up less space!

If you like keeping things this way click here for Gretchen Rubin on organising keepsakes (it's just not for me - more boxes in the loft?!)

http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2011/04/keep-a-file-box.htlm

I went shopping for a dressing gown and a watch, and came back with a winter coat and a week-end bag.

This is called 'shopping with an open mind' ! (I had a school friend whose Mum went out for a loaf and came back with a piano....)

Being a careful shopper, knowing what you need and knowing what suits you, means you don't make impulse buys, but when the right things turn up at an unexpected time, you go for it!

Since I decided to apply brain to the whole business of clothes, I've spent less and wasted less than ever before, and I enjoy my clothes more too. It's been so worth the effort.

It's simpler to get dressed, simpler to shop, simpler to do this annual sort out....


How are you faring with your wardrobe sort? I know at least one person who has cleared out her underwear drawer....

                                                                                     Shoes, oh coloured shoes!

I do tend to keep old ones....What for? Well because I loved them of course. (Note the past tense.) I went out on my first date wearing lace up school shoes. My Mum promised me a new pair of gunmetal, pointy toed slingbacks with a kitten heel 'but not his week' she said, and my heart sank into my black lace-ups....(he did ask me out again though - a lesson there..?)

My favourites? Audrey elegant, coloured plimsolls, jellies with sparkles, soft leather sandals. I've photographed them for fun and will get rid, finally, of the old ones I know I'll never wear again.

I've just realised that great shoes and a good haircut are the two things that do it for me! What, fashion wise, does it for you?  do share....