Okay, so this William Morris series I’m doing this month? Best idea ever. I know I’m known for a more balls to the wall approach (just click on the category The William Morris Project to see two years worth of projects), but these small, 10 minute projects are so, so satisfying and have such a huge impact in my day-to-day.
That phone area is what I see the minute I walk into the house. Now it’s clean, instead of a reminder of what I have to do. Those flowers on my desk are a sight better than that crinkly Michael’s bag and pile of homework when I sit down to edit pictures and write a post. And now, now I actually have a fruit bowl in which to store fruit.
I’ve been on the hunt for a fruit bowl since time immemorial, but so far I haven’t found the Holy Grail of fruit bowls–because apparently that’s what I need. Until then, I’ve made do with a chip/dip bowl set my mom bought me. It’s not something I would buy, but it has come in handy for parties. It’s impossible to store (which is why I would have never bought it) so I keep it out on the counter and use it to collect fruit…ostensibly. Really I use it to collect crap.
I can tell you how long this area has bothered me: since Thanksgiving. I know this because that’s a Thanksgiving decoration in that pile of clutter.
Later in the afternoon, as the Mister put together some grilled cheese sandwiches for the boys, I yelled from the other room if he noticed there was fruit in the fruit bowl.
“It’s so beautiful I don’t even want to touch it,” he said.
I love this project.
Yep, I’m loving these little updates that you’re doing this month. I have piles like this ALL OVER my house. My question is what are you doing with the piles/areas of clutter? Is most of it trash? Or are you filing papers away somewhere? When I try to think of the root of the problem in my home, I think it’s that I do not have filing/storage already set up. And honestly, trying to set something up just stresses me out, so I live with the clutter. Every once in a while, I’ll go through a pile and throw out old stuff, but then the papers that I need to keep just move over to a new pile. It’s a horrible cycle.
I stumbled upon your blog a few weeks ago and obsessively read through all your William Morris posts. I live in a tiny one bedroom apartment with my husband and puppy and thought – there’s nothing to declutter because we don’t have room for anything! But with this ten minute project you are doing I’ve started noticing our own little clutter piles. The other day I organized our under bathroom sink contents into two storage boxes – WOW. Only took a few minutes but made me so much happier to have to open that cupboard! Today I freed our ring dish from earrings and clips in under a minute – so hubby can actually see his ring to put on! Thanks for the inspiration, and I’m following your example to help make our apartment a little more of a pleasant place to be :)
I am loving this series, Jules. Isn’t it amazing how doing these things that take 5 – 15 minutes make us happy and make such a difference; should have done them sooner!
Not only do I love this project (simple, straight-forward, just git’r done), but your writing about them makes me laugh. You could be writing about my house! Thanks!
I came across your blog a couple of weeks ago and have enjoyed going through you WMP posts. I also use a chip and dip bowl for fruit :)