On the old Australian tv show, Your Life on the Lawn, decluttering experts would empty the contents of messy houses into the yard, so homeowners could see all their belongings in the bright, unforgiving sunshine.
I could use that assist right now, choosing what deserves to be in my home and what should get chucked and never spoken of again.
It is late November. We are about to be stuck inside with all our stuff for the next four months. Between the weird stasis of early lockdowns and just life in general, things are a bit chaotic over here.
And while I am certainly not the person to offer decluttering advice (I mean, I still want help from an early 2000s tv show) I can recommend these small additions to your home to make things a little bit nicer this winter in your hobbit hole.
“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” That’s me, trying to elevate a discussion of toilet plungers with a William Morris quote.
Unless you have a fleet of invisible house fairies who keep the moving parts of your home working without your knowledge (the dream), you need a plunger within reach. This Libman premium plunger and caddy, $16.99, Canadian Tire, stays within grabbing distance, yet almost blending into the wall when stored discreetly in its white holder.
If you have hard water (and more than three quarters of us do) it can interfere with laundry detergent’s ability to do its job. Add to that our propensity to overload the machine while also using less water per load and you have all the elements in place for lacklustre laundry. (I illustrated this story with a beautifully stocked linen closet, because you cannot overstate the satisfaction, nay, the joy of freshly washed and folded laundry.)
Downy Rinse & Refresh, ($8.99, grocery stores) is not a fabric softener. Rather its low pH helps lift product residue and by extension, bad smells from natural and synthetic fibres. So if your synthetic workout gear doesn’t smell as good as new despite repeated washings or your university-age children bring their laundry home, Rinse & Refresh could be for you. And the Fresh Lavender scent is wonderfully light and non-cloying.
Now that it gets dark by 5:00 p.m., it’s time to lay in an unholy number of votives (and it pains me to say this) but not the IKEA tea lights in their little tin sleeves. These Crate & Barrel votives, ($39.95, crateandbarrel.ca,) come 50 to a box and their sleeves are clear plastic, so when lit, the candles glow like little lanterns.
Extend the life of your wooden cutting boards, kitchen utensils and even that 70s wooden salad bowl if you have one. Clapham’s beeswax salad bowl finisher, ($23, Home Hardware) is a blend of naturally antibacterial beeswax and mineral oil which won’t go rancid like natural seed oils. It’s like moisturizer for your kitchen. Clapham’s is meditative pleasure to use, smells wonderful and brings all your kitchen bits back to life with a warm sheen.
Even if you can’t or won’t ‘Marie Kondo’ your lingerie and sock drawers into rigorous order, these Santa Maria Novella scented wax tablets impregnated with the citrus notes of Acqua Della Regina (classic eau de cologne), will make your jumble of socks and underwear smell very fancy. Queen Caterina de Medici would be very proud of you.