A personal note.
Last post l asked what you need more of from your home—interior design or organization. Let's say you chose one...how’s the process going?
Hmm...haven't started, yet? I hear you.
Designing and organizing your space is a lot like starting a puzzle. It feels a bit daunting. Do you frame out the edges or dive right into the middle? All those pieces could go A-N-Y-where. Even with an end picture in mind, stepping into a home project (big or small) can be a mental hurdle, sometimes an emotional one, too. The picture itself can even add pressure…to get it just right, exactly like what you imagined.
All that weight is enough to make you not start, right?
Well, my goal, always, is to lighten your load. Empower you to believe what I know…you can design and organize your space to what you need it to be. Imperfectly beautiful. To love and to live well in.
House-to-home is a process and embracing the "in progress" is what the journey is all about.
As a design and organizing professional, I remind myself of this, too. My clients are wonderful accountability partners and helping them improve the function, flow, and feel of their space with specific parameters (needs, time, budget, style, etc.) keeps the process moving. Together, we make progress happen, leaving us both happy and feeling accomplished.
When the space or belongings are my own, I have to embrace the experience more consciously. I'm a natural finisher, so a home project left “in progress” is like a browser tab pinned for later (a handy reminder, yes, but visually frustrating to see every day). Becoming the client also means answering the mindful questions honestly, which is much harder than asking them. It’s personal. Incredibly emotional. And the accountability is all on me.
Last year, I posted videos about our multi-room reshuffle where we repurposed three rooms to better serve our present life. I'm happy to share that this process is serving us better…yet each room is in a different stage of progress. Summer ended. School began. Life happened. At first, it weighed on me to have these "in progress" tabs open. Especially with my daughter's room, I felt an expectation to get it done (she has been so amazingly patient!). But when I considered the positive impact of what we had made happen, I removed that load from my mind. We made essential improvements and the rest will unfold as it will. And we, as a family, are ALL GOOD with that.
This room was a nursery turned office, then in progress to be a guest room. It wasn't pretty to walk by (for months!), but it wasn't a priority for us to tackle (yet).
I share this because l know I'm not alone. Maybe you or someone you know feels this way, too. What I've learned through helping clients, writing this blog, and shaping my own home is that “in progress” is where the good stuff happens. It's where you learn about yourself, what you need, and what you truly want. "In progress" affords you time to try things out, change your mind, and maybe find a better way. It's also where the stories we tell come from...the mishaps and a-ha moments…all right there in the messy middle. Not the beginning, and definitely not the end because your home is never truly done. Your home changes with you, so as long as you’re in motion — growing, adapting, evolving — your home will be in some phase of “in progress”.
The one realistic goal we can set for our homes is to make them a bit better each day. And “better” by the way is completely relative to YOU. No two betters are the same or better than another’s. YOU are in control of what "better" means for you and your space, and this awareness may be the most powerful tool in your kit. Perhaps the one that nudges you to pick up that first piece of your house-to-home puzzle.
Finding what feels good at home is a process. Every step you take through it is progress. And falling in love along our house-to-home journey makes it all worthwhile.
I'd love to read about where your home journey is at and what progress wins you've made. Write it down in the Comments below or subscribe to my personal note to write me directly. Take care of yourself, friend, and make time to celebrate your stage of "in progress" wherever it's at.
Always,
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