Sorting and Clearing, Before Pictures

For the past month things have been moved around so much here that John says he feels like he's coming into a different house every night. He seems to be tolerating it well and pitching in when a strong arm is needed. As long as he gets a nice hearty hot dinner he seems to remain a happy hubby.

The sorting and clearing started in the dining room. The motivation was two fold, one to get rid of the fake flower arrangements, and two to clear the decks for the holidays. This morning I took pictures of the finished product but my computer wants to reload all 170 pictures instead of the three that I just took and I have no patience or skill to wait or figure out how to only upload the current ones so the reveal will have to wait. Don't get too excited though. The new look is very sparse and in need of those fresh flowers that motivated me in the first place.

My vision of fresh flowers everywhere began when the garden was still full of lush blooms waiting to be picked and lovingly arranged in pretty containers in the house. Well, of course now we have had a fairly harsh frost and there is nothing suitable for display............I have had some luck with my green plants which is astonishing. There is nothing exotic in here, just the plants that I have picked up at the grocery store and divided to make other plants, some out door plants that I have brought in, and today I hope to transplant some of the ivy from my containers outside into a pot that is waiting in the living room.

All of the pictures and accessories in these pictures have been moved either to the basement, upstairs to our bedroom that needed some sprucing up too, or into the kitchen. The plates came off the wall in anticipation of being put into service feeding our holiday guests. Years ago when Martha Stewart was featuring Wedding Band dishes in many of her layouts Maurine and I ran across a huge box of it at a junk shop that I feel in love with. We used to have this thing where as we were shopping around the holidays if one of us saw something we couldn't live with out we would buy it for each other for our Christmas presents. Well that particular year Mo scooped up that box of dirty old china and gave it to me for my Christmas gift. Every few years I seem to feel the need to simplify and out comes the Wedding Band dishes. This year they just seem to fit with the more classic look in the newly decluttered dining room. It is such fun to recall old memories while bringing out different things to dress your home with each season.

It is a good thing to declutter but I am a firm believer in having good storage and keeping it organized with things like dishes, linens, containers for plants, rugs, pillows and wall decor to change around when the mood strikes or the seasons change. Most of my favorite things are far from valuable and have come from junk shop but they bring such joy when they are brought out again after resting in their storage spaces.