Monthly Favorites: December 2020

Hi there,

A major focus for me this month has been minimizing and redecorating. I began this month knowing something needed to change in my living room, especially with the shelving, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was. The shelves were cluttered with store-bought decor and sentimental items I'd lovingly chosen to display a few years back. Each time I grew bored with the way it looked, I'd rearrange the decor, moving a candle here and a few books there.

This year, as strange as it is, has had us at home so much more than we would be otherwise. And with that came the realization that a few changes made around the place would make quite a visual difference. My hope for change was of course about what it would look like, but more importantly, I wanted my house to feel peaceful and slow, with room to move and play, with less things to dust, with more time to just spend being next to my loved ones in shared moments.

So far: the changes have worked. I bought a rug for the living room to lighten up the place. A cream-colored chair and ottoman were moved from the nursery, a change which lightens up the living room (and takes the place of a chair I recently donated, which wasn't as easy on the eyes), and also freed up space in my son's room for open play.

Finally, it hit me: it wasn't that my shelving needed different decor (I had been looking at white objects to lighten the space), it's that it simply needed less. Sometimes it can be so hard to see that things don't need to be replaced with different things - they need to be replaced with absolutely nothing.

So, that’s my monthly favorites for December — reflections on having less, wanting less, and finding joys in the usual.