How To Make Sure Your Collectibles Don’t Overwhelm Your Space
With all of us spending more time at home, we’ve been rearranging, editing, and tackling projects we’ve been putting off.
If you’re like me, one of my ongoing projects has been to decide what to
keep. And then, once that’s decided, how do I keep what’s left from taking over my home.
Years ago I had a client who’d traveled the world. She and her husband hired me to help them redesign their current home and make more sense out of the space they had.
One of the items we wanted to focus on was how to showcase her many treasures. While she and her husband had enjoyed collecting them, he was ready to move on from them, or at least sell or donate them. She, on the other hand, still loved having them around.
The solution I suggested was to do what the Smithsonian does...rotate her collections. The Smithsonian and other museums don’t display every piece in all of their collections. How in the world would they showcase them?
For example, she had more artwork and photos than she had walls and loved seeing them as she walked around her home.
We sorted her photos into groups. Then at various times of the year, she could change out one group for another. She decided to change them with the seasons...no particular reason but it was easier to remember.
She did the same for her marble eggs she’d collected as well as her crystal figurines.
This allowed her to keep the items she loved having around her and yet not have them competing with each other as well as overwhelming the space. Her husband loved the idea.
Clear and clean spaces bring us clarity and a sense of calm. But there’s nothing wrong with having the things around you that bring you joy.
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