It’s not that I don’t want my house renovated. I do. Desperately. I’m in awe of people who renovate. I have friends and neighbours who have renovated several times in the time it’s taken me to not start my renovation.
Renovation is just like life. It’s the little things that matter the most. Lesson learned.
I love renovations. All those before and after shots, those makeover shows where rooms are transformed in no time and with next to no budget, are truly inspiring. I could watch them all day.
I am many things, but one thing I’m not is a DIYer. This is why after 17 years my home is more ‘student flat’ than ‘House and Garden’. That’s about to change – it’s time for action. Only problem is, I have no idea what I’m doing. I have more experience painting the town red than painting something like a wall or a door. Which is why I’ve decided to start with the hallway. It’s the smallest room so figure it’ll give me the most reward for the least effort. The changes are mostly cosmetic and as it’s the first room people see when they visit, it’ll have the most positive impact. What I want it to look like is this (you can click here for a 3D Panorama view) Here’s a list of the projects I’ll be undertaking: Create a photo wall: not only will it look great and really set the whole tone for a family home, it will also mean I can declutter my lounge bookcase which currently looks like this: Get …
I’m a strategist by trade. My professional brain thrives at 30,000 feet. I can develop concepts. I can see the big picture. And I watch in awe as teams of people bring ideas into reality. And that’s my problem right there. In my personal life, there have been no teams of people swooping in to create the home I want. Lately our family motto seems to have been “why do today what can be put off indefinitely”. We’ve been busy building our careers, raising three kids and working on a multitude of other excuses. Whatever the reason it’s fair to say my home is more student flat than “House and Garden”. A while back we’d decided to undertake a massive renovation that would have given us the big, beautiful home you see in all those magazines. You could say we were about to make a life or debt decision. We chose life In line with our family motto, we chose to do nothing. Well actually, we chose to do everything – overseas trips, camping holidays, …
If you do go down this road then there is one other piece of technology you absolutely must have – a service that helps you locate a lost tablet.
One week in to my decluttering project and already the difference is noticeable. So far I’ve: Gone through all our clothes and got rid of all the kids clothes they’ve grown out of, and any clothes I had to honestly say I’d never wear again Cleared a whole 12 cubby bookshelf by getting rid of CDs, DVDs and books that were no longer of use I don’t even want to think about how much money is tied up in all that stuff. It’s been a real trip down memory lane so it feels a little ruthless and hard-hearted to discover these memories only to have to expel from the house and from my heart. Thank goodness I still have my mind. It takes a special kind of ruthlessness The rules of decluttering are a great guideline, but they don’t prepare you for all the hard decisions that need to be made. For example, I’ve got rid of all of our CDs except this one. My husband and I met at a Mighty Mighty Bosstones gig …
It seems like we spend our whole lives upsizing – bigger houses, bigger cars and bigger responsibilities – until one day we realise it’s time to downsize. Perhaps because the kids are gone, or we realise we no longer need, want or can manage that big house and all of the stuff that goes with it. But what about choosing not to upsize in the first place? There’s no denying our houses are getting bigger. The average size of a NZ house in the 1970s was just 107m2. Kids shared bedrooms and everyone shared one bathroom and one living space. Today it’s not uncommon for new houses in this part of the world to be 200-250m2 – that’s a whopping 90m2 per person. Buy stuff. Keep it. Buy more stuff. Keep that, too. Buy more space. If the size of our houses is increasing, then it follows that the amount of stuff we own is also increasing. A study in the US of 32 dual-income, middle class families highlights just how much we clutter our …
Polly Unsaturated 