The One Thing You Can do Today to Transform Your Home Instantly
Summary:
If you’re stuck on a decorating project, your house might be feeling like a ghost of your former self, which is why you’re struggling to create something new. We always start with clearing space to make room for what comes next in your home. Before you buy a single thing to redecorate the room, you need to let go of what’s not working. Alchemy of Home helps you break down the room to rebuild something new.
I’ve seen it a thousand times: you want to change the room— do a little makeover, if you will, but every time you try to start, you freeze.
You’re paralyzed by decisions, options and limitations, and so rather than do one thing, you do nothing. You’re thinking, “my home doesn’t feel like me,” but you can’t even picture what that looks like!
That stops now, sister. Or mister. Whoever.
As a home stylist, my rule with every client, before we ever begin with their space is this:
You have to clear your space first.
You’re Haunting Your Own House
Think about it this way: what if you were moving into a new house, but the old owners left all their shit in it? You’d be pissed.
You’d think it was all wrong. Maybe you’d pick through it for treasure (if you’re me, lol) or maybe you’d pitch it all in disgust. Then you’d clean the room deeeeeply to scrape out all the remnants of someone else’s life. I’m not wrong!
Is this you?
OKAY, so you’re telling me you want to transform your space into something new, but your old identity is haunting it? It’s the same idea here.
You can’t clearly see the potential of something new with all the things you’ve outgrown standing in your way, blocking your vision and clogging up your creativity.
This might sound weird, but I personify my stuff and actually feel bad getting rid of things sometimes. I know I’m not alone in that. Some of y’all are freaks too!
And it can be hard to let go. So now we have this weird push-pull of a new identity wanting to form, but the old one isn’t ready to surrender her post!
It’s like the ghost of your past self is haunting the room, and it’s time to send her/him/them into the light.
Make Room for Something New
Before you even think about how to style your room, you need to move out of it. I know this might sound inconvenient or tedious, but I’m telling you right now that your brain and nervous system need this in order to get you unstuck and into action mode.
Clearing out the room will:
make your home (and this process) less cluttered and chaotic
help you find and hone your home style
make your home improvements look more expensive than they are
save you time and energy trying to visualize something new on top of something old
Clutter to Calm
You need to clear your mental field — physical clutter literally blocks your brain from seeing past what’s there. It’s like a tree being full of leaves vs bare in the winter. The sky is a lot easier to see through bare branches!
You’ll get a clear view of the room as it is and you’ll better understand its limits and potential. You’ll probably get new ideas right away just by emptying out the room.
Find and Hone Your Home Style
Without a bunch of old stuff in the way, you’ll start to more clearly focus on new possibility. Your mind will open up and once you break the engrained pattern of seeing your home and your things a certain way, you’ll start rewiring yourself for something new.
This is the time to get ruthless about what you love and what you don’t. Let things go and keep only what you truly love and need.
Make Your Home Improvements Look Expensive
Have you ever deeeeeep cleaned something and been like, “Damn! I like it again!” My car comes to mind often, lol.
This is the same feeling you’ll get when you deep clean your space and all the things you’re putting back. Really — clean the room up and down. Hit everyyyyything down to the lightbulbs. The room will absolutely look alive and fresh, creating an elevated appearance immediately.
Save Yourself Time & Energy
Being wishy washy is costing you time, money and most importantly, energy. You don’t need to keep spinning around the same drain. You need an interruption.
Once you clear out the room, clean it and slowly put back only what you’re keeping, the empty space will start to inspire you. It might be uncomfortable at first, but it’s the only way to open up your mind to new ideas — the emptiness itself is the key.
Clearing space is NOT about minimalism. It’s about a clean and clear foundation to build on, no matter your style.
Interior Design without the Designer
I personally don’t believe most people need to hire a full-service interior designer, and information is abundant — it’s practical systems that are lacking.
Knowing when to do something is just as valuable as knowing how to do it. Too many people think they’re not good at decorating or that they’re not creative when that couldn’t be further from the truth.
If no one ever taught you how to make your ideas real, they come out scattered or incomplete, making you think you’re the problem, when all you needed was direction.
That’s why I follow the same 7 steps when designing a room, and the first one is always clearing space. It just works.
But clearing space is only the first step of designing a room that you love. We also need to think about color, furniture, lighting, decor and more! It gets overwhelming fast, which is why I offer free room audits for everyone who comes across this page.
You do not have to decorate alone — we can DIT: Do It Together!
I can take a quick peek at your space (virtually!) and give you some instant feedback to get closer to the room you want.
Clearing out the room will give you the fresh start you need to finally get the room moving in the right direction. It’s like hitting the reset button for your home, so don’t skip it!
I know you can do this, and I’m here for you on this step and every one of them after.
