Yesterday I told you how I made it a point to evaluate the larger pieces in our home and how that led to a more put together look.    Once I liked the big things I could finally see what little things worked.  But in order to even SEE the big pieces in their full glory, I had to remove the little junk, deco-clutter, geegaw, dustables {I love your names for it}.  I had to Quiet the House from all those small things calling out for attention.

Have you ever started to pack to move and after the first few hours where you just packed away the nonessential decorative nothings you look around and think, hmmm, my house looks kind of good like this..? That’s what we are doing when we Quiet the House.

We’ve talked before about how to quiet the house, or room here are the main steps::

you don’t even have to move your husband to quiet the house/room

How to Quiet the House

  • Remove every thing smaller than a football and place it on some surface in another room {the breakfast or dining room table will do for now}
  • Don’t forget to clear off  your coffee table, shelves {you don’t have to count books but what if you did!} mantle, even walls
  • Remove baskets, magazines, plants, pillows, every thing but furniture, lamps, rugs and big art
  • Sit in the newly quieted room and soak in the feeling

Choose Your Own Adventure:

At this point you have two choices, if you just want a quick pick me up and room freshener you can move on to the next step. If you need to go deeper and you look around and really don’t like what you see, you need to go to the Overhaul step

Freshen Up: you cleared out the little junk and you like what you see, each piece of furniture has a voice, you can see it and the space has breathing room now you should…

  • Look around and notice any huge “holes” or areas that are too quiet and cold start with the area that is the main focal point {a mantel maybe} and fill it in with a purposeful item or 3 if you must~just make sure it’s something that you love, move on to the next important empty space and find the right item or three to place there, lather, rinse, repeat.
  • Pack away anything you love that you aren’t using for a few months and re-evaluate it in the fall and donate or sell those things you don’t like or need or that don’t go with the style you are after
  • Enjoy your new quiet home, that cost you NOTHING!

Here’s the little junk I currently have in our family room.

Overhaul: these steps are if you are sick and tired of your room and once you move the little junk out you become depressed and want to throw the remaining things out your window.  STOP. Don’t throw anything away just yet, there might be something that can be salvaged, can you paint that table?  slipcover the chair?

This is the time to vacuum and dust, it will make you feel better to accomplish something and give you time to process and start to evaluate the following:

  • Do you have too much furniture?
  • To little furniture?
  • Do you like the colors?
  • Does the layout work for you and your family?
  • Is something falling apart?
  • Are you decorating around something you don’t like?  Never buy something to go with something else that you hate.

If you really dislike something in your room try to remove it.  I said try because I know if that something is your sofa then that could be a problem.  But if you do hate your sofa, make a plan. Give yourself a deadline to change it.  Can you sell it, switch it out with a different sofa, move it to a different wall, slipcover it, barter with someone, buy a new one, buy a used one… anything that will make you like it better?  The blog-o-sphere is full of room inspiration this is the time to think about what you need, what you like and what is worth investing some time or money into.

And maybe when you look around, you might realize that the house you’re surrounded by isn’t inspiring. Maybe the guest post coming up on Thursday will completely inspire you with how she completely changed her house and FAST.  Or maybe you just move the sofa. All you have to do is take that first step and risk making a change.