Are you over 50 and feeling like you’re not sure why your house looks like you never really discovered a “look”? You’re not alone. We have let our life become our interior decorator.
What do I mean, life became our interior decorator?
Go ahead, take the test. Walk around your house and observe as though it was the first time you ever walked into your house. Don’t just walk around as you normally do, aka numb to what has surrounded you all these years! Duh…that’s the point.
Look around with fresh eyes.
What did you see? A unique look, or something you can’t quite describe? Do you love what you see? Or did you think, “Hmm…something is not quite right, where am I in all of this stuff?”
After living in a house for decades, we tend not to see what it looks like to others. We just settle for what it has become. Maybe you have a well decorated look you liked at first, but now out of date? Funny how the decades fly by and the 1990’s are long gone. Or maybe you have the not-yet-defined look still going on?
Hiring a professional interior decorator wasn’t in the budget when we first moved into our house. No worries though, the DYI technique came to the rescue. A stay-at-home mom with a daily dose of HGTV and the DYI style prevailed. You might be one too if you’ve dabbled in painting techniques and borders. Is smooshing still an in-thing painting technique?
Now that we’re empty nesters, I took the walk around test. Our house definitely has an eclectic look. Originally, we aimed for contemporary, but life blessed us otherwise. But is the look what I (you) really want? Or have I (you) settled on letting life be my (your) interior decorator? How the heck did it happen?
7 reasons why life becomes our interior decorator:
- From birth on we accumulate stuff. Every stage of life, there’s a different need for stuff. We receive treasures along the way to decorate with. Not necessarily of our own liking. And so begins our collections. We keep them and learn to decorate with what life gives us.
- Leaving home for the first time. We carry along treasures from our bedroom. There’s no reason to part with treasures.
We love them, they represent life so far.
- First apartment. Wow, it’s big. Lots of room for more stuff. Now we’re talking! A perfect time to buy new items to decorate with. After realizing how much living on our own costs, we substitute new with hand-me-downs from parents, grandparents, friends, neighbors or thrift sales/stores. Filling our space with essential (…clearing of the throat, because it hurts to say essential) items every home should have. Jackpot!
- Get married and move into whoever’s space is bigger. All of their stuff from #2 + #3, multiplied by 2 (aka, your stuff). Double the essential stuff. Some of us are smart and keep only the “best” of duplicates. Or we box up and store the duplicates. You know, just in case when we move into a house we’ll need it. Way to plan ahead!
We become experts at stacking, storing, covering it up or making due or we decorate with what life has provided us with.
- First house. So much space, even after moving all the stuff from #4. Now we can decorate with the “best” stuff from #4. But we stand back and think…there’s something missing. Empty space is foreign, it must be filled. Off we go to buy new stuff. We receive gifts from family members who want us to have new stuff to add to our collections from #1. Our parents deliver boxes from #2 we left behind because we didn’t have room when we first moved out. At this point, we still want a “look”. Whatever is trendy we run out and buy it. Or we’re broke so we shop at thrift sales. Yes, we buy stuff other people didn’t want any more and we decorate with it.
Someone else’s life has helped our life’s interior decorator. Yikes!
- Start a family. OMG…kids come with a lot of stuff. At every stage of #1! They start their own #2, take off to college, get their own apartment and leave stuff behind. They haven’t yet found their #3, #4, or #5, so the best and cheapest storage space is, of course, our #5. We miss them and rationalize it is okay to leave their stuff out because it is still decorating their space.
That’s not all…there’s more!
- We inherit belongings from loved ones who have passed on. Their stuff is precious. They treasured it (after all they kept it in their home) and we don’t want to or even know how to part with it. Guilt and missing someone is hard to overcome. So we make room for their stuff by decorating with it. Or we box it up and store it because it might be nice to decorate with…someday!
Someday doesn’t come…that is, until 5 years later and you realize ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. All of their stuff is not your stuff and it is just stuff!
Time to wake up and realize, we have let our life become our interior decorator.
The empty nest stage is a perfect time to realize YOU, not your life, deserve to be your own interior decorator. We’ve been through enough stages in life to know what we really like. We haven’t taken the time to let ourselves decide to let go of what we don’t love.
(PS – the pictures are from my recent project. I’m in the midst of redoing my home office, with the help of my hero husband and fellow DYI partner. My office was a room compiled of all the reasons life became my interior decorator. I’m so excited to empty all the contents…except my desk and printers so I can keep working…and only let back in what I love and want in there).
Time to go lighter! Empty the nest of stuff life decorated you with! All the things you don’t love, don’t go together, and simply aren’t YOU…and don’t forget your significant other.
All the other stuff is clutter and there because your life was your interior decorator all along. I’d love to hear how you’ve conquered your life’s interior decorator! See you soon!
