Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is don't decorate with cereal boxes. Anything that is
Speaker 1: visible in your home is part of your homes decorps,
Speaker 1: so it's best to be intentional about what you display.
Speaker 1: Today's tip comes from McKellen Smith, who blogs at The
Speaker 1: Nester and whose latest book is House Rules, How to
Speaker 1: Decorate for Every Home style and budget. In a podcast
Speaker 1: interview I heard recently, she said, everything that sits out
Speaker 1: in my home is a decoration. She explained that this
Speaker 1: means that if you have cereal boxes sitting on your
Speaker 1: kitchen counter, you are decorating with them. Now, it may
Speaker 1: make you giggle to think about decorating with cereal boxes.
Speaker 1: They tend not to be all that attractive, But if
Speaker 1: you are like me, when you look around your home,
Speaker 1: you may realize that you are doing just that. Do
Speaker 1: you have bags of coffee beans sitting next to your
Speaker 1: coffee maker, dental floss by your bathroom sink, laundry detergent
Speaker 1: at the foot of the stairs that you intend to
Speaker 1: take up to the laundry room at some point, A
Speaker 1: big box of diapers on the floor in the nursery.
Speaker 1: Turns out you are decorating with all those things. None
Speaker 1: of these items are intended to be part of the decor,
Speaker 1: but if they are out, they function as part of
Speaker 1: the decor anyways. People's eyes don't have some special filter
Speaker 1: that pumps up the intentional decor and hides the stuff
Speaker 1: that's stored. In plain sight, everything is visible all the
Speaker 1: same that beautiful framed artwork you chose because you love
Speaker 1: the colors, and the cereal boxes that you probably did
Speaker 1: not select for their esthetics. Now, to be fair, I
Speaker 1: am a practical person, and I totally understand that people
Speaker 1: leave a lot of stuff sitting out so it is
Speaker 1: convenient to use, or because it reminds them of something
Speaker 1: they need to do. Sometimes that is fine, but at
Speaker 1: least think about it. At some point in my fifteen
Speaker 1: years of changing diapers, I realized that storing the diapers
Speaker 1: in the top drawer of a baby's changing table was
Speaker 1: probably just as convenient as storing them in a box
Speaker 1: next to the table, possibly even more convenient and definitely
Speaker 1: more attractive. Storing the cereal boxes in the pantry is
Speaker 1: no less convenient than taking up counter space. There's no
Speaker 1: need to decant them into pretty jars or anything ridiculous
Speaker 1: like that. Once they are in the pantry, they are fine,
Speaker 1: but at least they are no longer part of the
Speaker 1: general kitchen decorating scheme. As for stuff that truly does
Speaker 1: need to be convenient, it can at least be corralled
Speaker 1: and put in something attractive. For instance, shoes can go
Speaker 1: in individual baskets by the back door. Make Up you
Speaker 1: use daily can go in a nice little container on
Speaker 1: your bathroom counter so it is not spread all over
Speaker 1: the place. The cute little container becomes the decor, not
Speaker 1: your bottles of whatever it is you use. If you
Speaker 1: need reminders of things you have to do, you might
Speaker 1: still be able to find another solution. For instance, commit
Speaker 1: to quitting the habit of leaving things on the stairs
Speaker 1: or outside doors. Just put the object in its final home.
Speaker 1: It takes just a few seconds longer, and then you
Speaker 1: don't have to deal with it a second time. If
Speaker 1: you need to remember to bring your library books to
Speaker 1: the library, rather than put them on the kitchen counter,
Speaker 1: go put them on the driver's seat of your car.
Speaker 1: Pretty hard to forget to bring them back. Then I
Speaker 1: would also suggest walking through your house and looking for
Speaker 1: spots where things have wound up out in the open
Speaker 1: instead of put away. Again, there might be a good
Speaker 1: reason we leave olive oil and salts on the counter
Speaker 1: by the stoves, since we cook with these things multiple
Speaker 1: times per day. But then I saw that these two
Speaker 1: items were attracting other things like champagne vinegar, which we
Speaker 1: use maybe twice a year, that could get put away.
Speaker 1: No need to decorate with that. If you survey your
Speaker 1: home for items stored in plain sight, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear what you discover. Are you decorating with cereal boxes?
Speaker 1: You can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
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