It Doesn't Have To Be "One and Done"

I can trace my enjoyment of decorating, design, and reorganizing back to when I was a young child. I would often rearrange furniture, reorganize drawers and closets, and create displays with my plastic horses and tiny figurines. The final presentation was a beautiful gift to behold, and the creative exercise was satisfying.

I drew back on this memory when I caught myself in a state of frustration during an organization project in my own home. I had worked on my pantry a few months back: edited, organized, and styled with coordinating plastic bins—done.

I'm going to expose myself here by admitting that I am frequently awakened in the wee hours of the morning by a redesign idea for my home. There it was, a whole new vision for the pantry—with more items to edit, and completely different bins. While I was reorganizing again, I found myself thinking, "What's wrong with me that I can't get this job done right the first time?" "Do I not know what style I like?" "Am I indecisive?" "Am I just not good at this?"

At that time, the memories of redesigning my room as a child came back to me–pushing and pulling the contents like clay in my hands, not worried about getting it right the first time, but enjoying the process inside a life-size play set. Set a design, critique it, and reset if I so desired. The freedom to explore options with space planning, color, position, lighting, and textiles was an education in art, math, physics, and nature, and I needn't ruin it with judgement; just enjoy the mental and physical exercise.

As I worked on the new pantry design, my attitude improved, and I began to think about all the reasons I have altered an organizing design in the past. I have switched products that I use in my home and my new products are different sizes and shapes. I continuously try to streamline the contents of my house, so I have less of some things now. My style preferences change throughout the years. Sometimes I prefer a more minimalist look, and sometimes I enjoy being surrounded by more details and a heavier visual style. I realize now that I usually enjoy a combination of a few styles that I keep circling back to, and this is ok; the fun and challenging part of it is to keep moving all the pieces around to find a way to make it into a functionally efficient space that is visually cohesive. Other times, I come up with a more effective space plan, learn something new from someone else and put that to use in my own plan. I didn't find it difficult to realize that as my kids grew up, the items in our home changed, and organizational systems needed to change too. I realize that it is just as natural for me to keep growing and changing also.

I now give myself license to change and grow, and to look forward to fun challenges that time and experience can bring. I remember a drawing class in college where we were instructed to bring a pad of newsprint to a mall and sit on the floor and look straight ahead and quickly draw what passed through our field of vision, then flip the page and draw what passed next, and again and again. I remember feeling a little stressed because I didn't finish the previous drawing with perfect details; but that wasn't the point. The point was to train my eye to notice overall contours and shadows in movement, and train my brain and hand to quickly interpret it onto paper. I am thankful for this drawing lesson when I am in the middle of a project and so stressed by the physical details, that the action is passing me by while I am looking down.

There are life lessons to be learned while we are working. First, go easy on yourself and allow yourself to continuously learn, grow, and change—the exercise of the process may bring enjoyable experiences and new things learned. Professional doesn't mean you are perfect; it means you have training, experience, and a standard of quality. Also, don't be discouraged if you have to experiment with a design a few times before finding one that works; art is all about the continuous working of mediums and positions. I remind myself that I am a human performing a design service for another human, and I look for opportunities to connect, support, and uplift; we are both refreshed by this. I encourage myself like I would young Evangeline....go ahead, keep creating, share your ability to make beautiful things for other people, notice the life moving in front of you and put it into your design. What a gift!