April is National Decorating Month: Little Changes Beyond Spring Cleaning

For designers like myself, every month is a decorating month! April, with the scent of early spring, has always been a good time to do “spring cleaning”. With the holidays of Easter and Passover welcoming friends and family into your home, it’s not the best time to begin a huge project, but it is however, the best time to declutter, divest and organize for easier living and entertaining.

So let’s take a walk through your home and see what visitors see that you don’t because it’s become part of the “house DNA”. Is it the overflowing paperwork on your kitchen desk or the bookcases crammed with things that just found their way there? Does your dining room table have a week’s worth of mail on it or someone’s computer as a workstation? How about the hall steps with things on them to go “up” and others to go “down”?

No, I haven’t snuck in to your home while you were asleep – but I do know how busy most people are and our homes, unfortunately become neglected. Deadlines, however, impel us all to get things done and that’s when the stress levels mount. So here are some quick tips to get your house in order before you have to worry about – “what’s for dinner”?

Quickly assess what’s worn, torn or broken. If it’s your sofa, look for colorful throws and pillows to cover the worst offenders. Throw out the rest of the offenders. If you have a sentimental attachment, take a selfie with it!

• Take down any overly heavy draperies and leave the sheers up to let in the light.

• If you can squeeze in a quick paint job – it can make a world of difference in a room.

• Look for some early spring flowers and greenery to place in a basket for a centerpiece or vase.

• Brighten up your guest bath and powder room with new guest towels, rugs, shower curtain, soaps, etc.

• Transform a bedroom with a new blanket and shams along with an area rug (yes, even over solid wall to wall carpet as long there is a non-skid pad between them).

Basically – put away (“a place for everything and everything in its place”), pare down, lighten up and give your house the freedom of coming out of the long winter doldrums because if you do – you will too.