David Beckham has nothing on Our Goals!

When we decide to decorate or design a room, there should be two goals for that space. The first goal is to make the room aesthetically appealing and the second goal is to make the space efficient and organized. A room must look good, but it must also work well.
Both goals are equally important. If the room looks great but does not live or work well, we won’t enjoy our time spent there. Lack of organization, storage space and the inability of a room to function or work well lead to chaos. Chaos leads to stress, and who needs more stress in their lives?!
Get organized. Start with a plan to make each of your rooms work as well as they look. Organizing an entire home or even a complete room is a big project. Don’t plan to do it all in one weekend; instead be realistic and break this large project into smaller more manageable tasks.
A good plan is to begin in one room or section of the home and then break that area down into even smaller sections: one drawer, one bookcase, one closet at a time. Complete this room before moving on to any other area of the home.
The first step is to access the situation. Evaluate your ‘stuff.’ Group all like items together, then remove any items that are not needed or don’t belong in this room. If you don’t need something anymore or if it is outdated, then recycle it, donate it to charity or put it in the trash. Excess stuff is a big contributor to chaos in our lives.
Once you have completed your assessment of stuff in the room, you can begin to control or contain it. Now is the time to purchase attractive magazine holders, fancy baskets and bins. Too often enthusiastic organizers run out and make organizational purchases before evaluating their stuff and that only leads to more excess stuff: containers that are the wrong sizes, as well as too many or not enough organizational products. Don’t confuse getting organized with buying more ‘stuff.’ Attractive organizational products do not make you organized. Getting organized and designing effective spaces that work involves time, thought, motivation, effort and a plan.
The kitchen is often one of our most disorganized spaces. The heart of the home can lead to major frustration over finding a spatula or medium-sized pot. Try to reorganize by evaluating where you use things. For example, glasses and dishes should be stored in a cupboard close to the dishwasher. Cooking utensils should be kept close to the stove, while seldom-used things such as linens and holiday items can often be stored in another area of the home to free up valuable cupboard space.
Equip your drawers with roll-out baskets and shelves to make finding that pot or pan easier. Corner cabinets can be fitted with a Lazy Susan and you can hang a pot rack over the stove or kitchen island for great looks and efficient pot and pan storage.
Closets and bedrooms should be next on your list. Bedrooms are important spaces that should calm, rest and rejuvenate our bodies. Keep ‘stuff’ to a minimum in this space. A basket beside the bed can hold current magazines; ice cube trays make great jewelry organizers in a drawer. Be sure to optimize unused space such as under the bed and behind the door. Under the bed, use clear plastic containers to store extra blankets or clean linens, and hooks installed on the back of a door are perfect for hanging a robe or jacket.
In the closet, hang all like items together: skirts in one area, pants in another. Double your hanging space by installing a second rod. Allow 30” for women’s suits and 40” for men’s suits. Unused wall area can be employed to hang hats and handbags. Hang all your clothes on like hangers; not only will using the same hangers make the closet look organized, it looks great too.
We spend an average of six weeks per year just looking for misplaced information from our desks and files. Save your time by giving yourself lots of storage and filing space in your home office. Hang a grouping of two or three bulletin boards, as you would wall art, to make the wall look as good as it works. The cork can be painted to match the room, or covered in fabric, wallpaper or even gift-wrapped. Cardboard boxes and magazine holders can be painted or covered with wallpaper to match the room’s décor and then labelled and stored on bookshelves in the room.
Every decorator needs to be as concerned with how the room works as with how the room looks. Reduce the clutter and reduce the chaos. Living in an organized and efficient manner leaves more time for the important moments and people in our lives. And that makes life simply sensational!
THIS AND THAT
Holiday parties and entertaining can wreak havoc on our bodies and especially on our faces. To help reduce the puffiness under the eyes that is often the result of too much fun the evening before, use chamomile tea bags. It’s quick and easy! Just steep the bags in hot water for a few minutes, let them cool and place them over your eyes. Relax for a few minutes. And poof! Puffiness gone!
DESIGNER SECRETS
To create a festive mood at the dinner table, simply change your drinking glasses. Investing in a set of inexpensive coloured glasses and goblets can dramatically change the feel and the look of your everyday serving pieces – helping you serve up a more festive meal.