The Fall Edit
Perhaps you’ll dive right in and begin with the contents of an entire room. Maybe you’ll edit your shoe collection. Or, in the tiniest of baby steps, you’ll begin with your pencil cup.
The turn of the seasons is always a quiet reminder for me to have a deeper look at our home and the things we call our own, to really see. What’s no longer serving us? What can I edit? What can I purge? How can I help our home and life become less of the unnecessary and more of us?
I heard fellow designer, Ray Booth*, recently say, “…editing is the key to happiness in all things.” Loves? Let’s write that down and underline it. Then, let’s do it. You & I. Schedule in 30 minutes if that’s all we can spare; 15 if we must. Edit one container, drawer, bin, cabinet. Then, let’s schedule another and another. Let’s block off several hours and edit a whole room. By then, we’ll have caught our second wind and it’ll be on to the next with a bit more ease.
Editing lets us breathe. It gives margin. It elevates. It distills. We could truthfully say, it brings us life. Yes, it’s work. Yes, we must make decisions, Yes, we must let things go. And it’s so worth it. Because, after all, would we really want anything in our homes that’s preventing us from experiencing contentment, beauty, and peace?
I thought that’s what you’d say.
Upcoming: Beginning Monday, and continuing on through each day next week, I’ll be re-posting my series, Becoming Home, in which I describe in detail my editing process, in case you’d like a guide.
*Go listen to his simple, practical snippet about editing, beginning at 49:32, but if you have time (while you’re purging that drawer), the whole interview is a gem.