Last Thursday I met with a client for an Organization Consultation, and it reminded me of something that I wanted to share with my readers {you, of course!}.

I am all about beautiful, peaceful and functional spaces. And homes cannot be beautiful, peaceful or functional when they are overflowing with useless stuff. clutter. junk. dead weight.
With Spring Cleaning at our doorsteps, it is time to get serious about cleaning out the clutter and making way for the useful and lovely. Are you with me?

well, good. because I am about to share with you my top consistent tip that I give to my clients when I offer an Organization Consultation… and it is a tip that I am putting into practice in my own home.
It is also a tip that is for the person who is ready to get SERIOUS about organizing their lives {interested in saving time and money without spending a penny? yes. that would be the benefit of organizing}.

My advice for you, if you are ready to get serious about organizing is:
Start from the bottom up.

or, in your home, it may be:
Start from your garage over.
or Start in the mudroom.

In other words: Go to the point in your home that has accessible storage space that you access regularly, but don’t plan on showing off to your company. It may be your basement, your garage, your barn, your attic, etc., but it needs to be accessible. This is some of the most precious, valuable space in your home! Treat it like prime real estate.
This is where you should begin your organization overhaul.

Once you have identified the space, make this space as functional, streamlined and useful as you can manage. Keep only the items that you need access to, but don’t need to keep in your main living area:

1. Sort through your space, challenging yourself to throw out or giveaway as much as possible.
2. If you only access an item once a year, move it to a further, more remote storage area, if you have that option {or move it within the same space, but to a less accessible area of that space}. For example, Christmas items would fall into this category.
3. If you never access the item, but it has personal value to you {be careful here! edit with an iron fist, people!}, package it up safely and store it in the more remote storage area mentioned above.

While most of us will never have accessible storage spaces that look like this, we can be inspired to pare down and think about keeping only that which is useful. Useful is the key word.

Once you organize this space, and free up the room that it offers, organizing the rest of your home will come easier.

What space is ‘accessible storage’ in your home? Could it use some paring down to be more functional, streamlined and useful?
-{darlene}

First of all, I wanted to thank you all so much for commenting and encouraging me in my last post. Your thoughts helped me tremendously. It is especially encouraging, when you share your passion in such a public forum like cyberspace, to hear from all of you with your words of support. But above all, I simply enjoyed hearing from you via the comments. I am a relationship gal, after all.

If you did not get a chance to comment on my last post, I would still love to hear from you! And be warned… my sister once told me, “dar, you like to ask for everyone’s opinion, and then you just do what you wanted to do anyway.” sooo… maybe she is right??!

It is time for a ditto, don’t you think?
I could not resist ditto-ing this amazing space by Bill Blass, which actually features a wall of books from his former bedroom:

ditto :: {what I would steal from this space}:

1. You know how I adore built-in bookcases, the best and most stunning storage solution ever. These beauties are particularly great. They span the entire far wall, and they offer closed-door storage at the bottom. And then, they are filled to the brim with books from top to bottom. How beautiful. and useful. {right up my alley}
2. I forgot how amazing it can look to place a library table right in the middle of room. not only is this classy; it inspires me {reminds me} to display and peruse the most beautiful books at my leisure. I love this design element.
3. I have always been very partial to antique pine board floors with a super wax shine. There are no floors that I adore more.
4. Here is an example of a white painted-brick fireplace that does not cry shabby-chic. Oh, no. Nothing shabby about Bill. Instead, the look is streamlined to the point of a smoking-jacket.
5. The classiness of the fireplace is kicked up a notch by the stately andirons {those beautiful brass thingies that prevent hot logs from escaping the fire area; vocab. word of the day} and a classic fireplace fender. sometimes I think we get too fancy by strewing stuff all around our fireplaces. These under-used, classic and functional beauties allow the fire to be the main event.
6. Dark walls and plenty of white trim. I have always loved the combination. A perfect color scheme to ditto in a library.
7. Woven cotton rugs. Just the right touch for gorgeous wood floors. Not too much and not too distracting. They call out ‘functional,’ yet add just the right touch of warmth. Some of my favorites are from Dash and Albert.
8. The federal mirror. Maybe federal mirrors will be the next Sunburst phenomenon? I think Bill would say, yes.

O.k. blogland friends.
Today, comments are open to anonymous users {nice anonymous people only. no one likes mean people, haven’t you heard??}. Please comment today!

I am working on a redesign for the look of Fieldstone Hill Design’s blog {this very thang that you are looking at, folks :)}. I am going to streamline my look, and work on a design that I can live with… you know, day in and day out. Not to mention, a look that I will LOVE!

So, I am working on my vision,
 and I was wondering…

{that is me. wondering.}

What words would YOU use to describe the STYLE of Fieldstone Hill?
as many words as you think applies.
Can you please add a comment below, and share your first thoughts with me?

for those of you who are new to my blog, and would like to comment but need more info., check out these links first {then come back and comment, please oh please!}:
To get an idea about interiors I love, check out my ditto posts.
To get an idea about what I think about my style, check out this post.
To see what colors I love, check out these posts.

So, what words would YOU use to describe the style here at Fieldstone Hill????
You can’t imagine how helpful this would be to me, friends!
Thank you!!
-{darlene}

While the other little girls loved pink,
my favorite was magenta.
Out of my box of Crayola 64’s, I always hunted out the magenta first.

Ever since yesterday’s post on these beauties,

….magenta has been on my mind.

And I cannot think of a better fabric to show off the rich pigments of a lush magenta than velvet. preferably silk velvet.

feast on these beautiful uses of magenta velvet in interiors:

would you dare to use magenta in your home? I would love to know!
-{darlene}


{interior photos: vandm.com; littlegreennotebook.com; interiordesign.net; lonny magazine; mywedding.com}