Less is more – Page 5 – The Interior DIYer

I’m inching closer and closer towards completing our living room makeover. BUT – I’m at a bit of a stand-still. I’m indecisive about the IKEA Stockholm Rand rug. My only hesitation – durability and pet-proofness. Do any of you have this rug, and more importantly, how has it held up? I need your brains! Are the crisp white stripes still white? For me, white material on a floor = I immediately turn into a chickenshit. Add two cats to the equation, and I’m worried it’s going to be a fur magnet.

Just image searching living rooms with that rug is making me want to drive to IKEA. Like, 10 minutes ago.

I realize me writing about getting a new rug doesn’t really flow well into my next topic – Project Less 365, but alas, it is all part of the grand scheme of bettering our living space. Last weekend Project ‘Less 365’ commenced in full force. Our kitchen was my chosen target and I compiled a nice little bundle for the charity shop / things to go back to their owners.

It’s a bit embarrassing to show you our tea towel / table accessory cupboard, but I’m amazed at how much room is left now that I’ve trimmed the fat. It’s also almost a relief as well. Too much stuff makes Alex a dull girl. This was the worst area and I hated how much shoving and stuffing was happening here. The rest of the kitchen was a breeze once this was sorted, and it’s very much been ‘kitchen calm’ since.

Project ‘Less 365’ Tip: don’t overwhelm yourself with the idea of clearing out your entire home. You’re going to crash and it won’t get done. Tackle one cupboard at a time, one room at a time, one weekend at a time. It’s taken how many years for you to acquire all that crap? It’s not going to go away that quickly.

Happy Friday homies! Keep your eyes peeled for some cross stitching delights happening here soon. xx A

Image cred 1 and 2.

This is a project I heard about from the lovely Laura Howard at the very beginning of this year, and I’ve had a hankering to get on it like a car bonnet.

Project ‘Less 365‘ is where you aim to de-clutter / rehome / donate to charity at least one item per day for a year. Obv none of us have time to choose an item every day, so it is completely acceptable to do a clear out en masse whenever the mood strikes. What works best for me is keeping a bag in our spare bedroom and when I come across an item we no longer need, I drop said item into bag, and once it’s full, off to the charity shop it goes.

This quote is another thing I can’t get out of my brain since I first read it. So simple, and so overwhelmingly effective. This is something I literally live by. And beautifully sums up the Less 365 project.

I wouldn’t consider myself minimal when it comes to decor in my home, but I’ve realized our apartment has accumulated an unfathomable amount of shite. On the surface our apartment is acceptable, but it’s the cupboards, the wardrobes, the closets, and the under the beds that concern me. It’s these places where I fear becoming a hoarder.

So for months I’ve been saying to myself “must start this project – after the wedding“, and now that it’s been and gone, I’m nerdily excited to start.

What about you, do you have times of the year where you pillage your home? Are you like me and stress about having too much stuff – or am I a complete weirdo? And more importantly, are you up for the Less 365 challenge?

Leonardo Da Vinci quote.