Decluttering For The New Year

‘Clutter Foot’: the condition where you get into a car that has stuff in the foot area and you think you have enough room … until an hour goes by and you realize that you’re uncomfortable and that it has been slowly driving you INSANE; insane enough to roll yourself out of the car at a stoplight, Mission Impossible style.

‘Clutter Body’: see above, but your whole body in your own home. I know I’ve talked about this before, but every year I get ‘clutter body’ really bad. Last year I spent 5 days over the holiday break cleaning out every single cupboard/drawer/pantry in my house (I listened to Serial the entire time). It was both depressing, exhilarating and satisfying. Starting fresh is super cliche, but absolutely necessary to my sanity. This year wasn’t so bad because I had that studio sale, thank goodness, but I still had 95 charging and electric cords that needed to find a home.

So Target, Zanna and I, created a series called ‘How do you do?’ as in, ‘How do you do .. decluttering? Organization? Simplicity in the bedroom?’ Etc. In this video Zanna (who is an incredible fashion stylist, spokesperson, and someone who even launched her own makeup line recently which you’ll hear more about soon) walks you through the clothes and beauty and I take on the closet and bathroom (style-wise).

Check out the video in all my 3 week post partum glory. eeeeeeekkkk.

Zanna gave some great tips on how to clean out your closet starting with pulling everything out and sorting clothes into ‘keep’, ‘tailor’, ‘friends and family’ and ‘donate’. I would like to add one more that is for all the clothes that I will fit into in 6 months and if I don’t then its time to donate to the luckiest goodwill ever. I shall call this basket the ‘Emotional Time Bomb’ because in six months if I don’t fit into those jeans … tick, tick, tick … BOOM. Imma be real upset and then probably drink/binge myself whilst saying goodbye to all my denim. It’ll be denim devastation over here. Denim DELIVERANCE. If you can’t tell I’m in the middle of a cleanse to help the problem, and I’m just so hungry and could use a glass of wine really bad.

My biggest tips for closet organization are as follows:

1. Assign locations for certain types of clothes – blouses, casual cotton shirts, dresses and jackets all have their own spot, not to mention of course pants, shorts, socks, etc. The whole ‘everything has has a place and everything in its place mantra’.

2. Use shoe photos. It seems like a lot of up front work but once you do take the photos and stick them on the shoe boxes (these are just plastic storage bins) it really helps guide you everyday to put them away. I did this and I am SHOCKED and how much I use them. It’s like I’ll get in trouble if I don’t do it.

3. Get matching storage bins in a color that works with your clothes. Don’t try to get eclectic with your boxes and bins, the simpler the better. I went with simple neutrals that keep it visually clear so that the clothes stand out.

Mostly what I want to say about the above photo is thank you Danielle for what looks to be a FANTASTIC hair day.

To help decorate the closet (I know it’s a decluttering story but that doesn’t make for very pretty photos) we added some temporary wallpaper from Target, a piece of artwork by Max Wanger and a tray to corral jewelry and other bits and bobs.

I know that ‘beauty wall’ isn’t exactly a household term (yet), but after styling this, it should be. You know what this wall means? It means that you care about your face, body and hair enough to give yourself a pretty space dedicated to those things. If you don’t have this wall in your home, it doesn’t mean that you don’t care about such things, but if you do, then you DO. And good for you, and I am jealous. Every single New Year I resolve to take better care of my skin, reminding myself that it’s worth it, with the follow up point that its the biggest organ in the body (which is why I allow stupid splurges on ‘lab tested’ face oils that GH recommends). Your skin is big and important and while I’ve never had sensitive skin, I sure am sensitive about my skin and should probably be taking better care of it.

Back to the ‘beauty wall’, this could even be floating shelves in your bathroom or obviously a vanity if are lucky. Its just a dedicated space to you that has some of your favorite products a mirror and a few pretty things like your polaroids from your friend Jen.

I’m bringing the bracelet tower back, this time in lucite. Don’t ask about how you get to the bottom bracelet quickly. You just do because it looks cool.

I’m going to talk more about this this year in a series i’m calling ‘lifestyle mafia’, but there are people that decant things and people that don’t. I long to be ‘A Decanter’ myself (the person not the thing). It means you’ve made it, that you are an adult and that you are allowed to buy nice things because you can handle it. It means you read the Sunday Times and buy $38 measuring cups. This year, I shall decant. I shall take pantry items (foods, soaps, etc) out of their original packaging and put them in pretty containers that work with my decor. When I do decant I will decant 12 bars of soap into a white jar like that to make sure people know I take cleanliness very, very seriously. I’ll use each bar once and throw it away to prove the point that I should absolutely be part of this mafia.

The gold-lidded jar at the top is not online but I found this one that is new which I like a lot, too, by the way.

I love this bathroom styling and what it says. It says that this person takes care of herself and probably even throws away her makeup after the expiration date even though there is one squirt left; One squirt that you don’t want to waste because what if you lose your first makeup bag and have to use your backup makeup (a good boy band name, which no boy will actually understand). And then if you don’t have good/gross backup makeup because you’ve thrown it away then what do you do? Go to a producer meeting with kinda red eyebrows? Or no eyebrows drawn in at all?? True story: my 3rd backup eyebrow pencil was for a red head, but without it I look a bit freaky – there is no pigment in my eyebrows. So red I went, and I looked like a tween albino who got into her mom, Mrs. Ronald McDonald’s, makeup. I was maniacally covering my eyebrows all meeting with my hands and fingers, which I’m sure they thought was super “quirky”.

There is more on the video that you should watch. Zanna and I go through all the tips that you see here (and that I’ve hinted at) and more. It involves us laughing and saying ‘How do YOU do?’ a lot.

Here are some of the products that we used, and stay tuned for the rest of the videos that are more design-centric and show off some of the new pieces that I alluded to on Monday. The office and living room New Year videos involve some product that I LOVE. I know I say that every time a new line comes out but how right was I about the fall Threshold line? This one isn’t as big but it has some really good things that you’ll be shocked aren’t vintage.  You can see many of the products here (but you know the drill, in store has others, too).

Meanwhile here are some of the staples we used.

1. Slim Hangers | 2. Storage Ottoman | 3. Clear Bins | 4. Towel | 5. Marble Dish | 6. Clear Glass Container | 7. Glass Organizer | 8. Vanity Mirror | 9. Candle | 10. Woven Basket | 11. Grey Basket | 12. Basket with Leather Handle | 13. Decanter | 14. Steer Horns | 15. Bracelet Holder

Zanna and I are answering any reader questions about style over on ABV (Target’s blog). So head on over and leave your questions in the comments and then we’ll post another story answering your questions. Questions like “How is Zanna so adorable after having twins a year and a half ago?” or “why is decanting the wave of the future?”.

Thanks, Zanna for being such a spectacular cohost with me. While I love hosting videos, I love hanging out with cool people even more, so this was obviously the best of both worlds.

P.S. I just googled ‘clutter foot’ and nothing came up which means that i’m worried/hopeful that I am the inventor of that phrase. Have you guys heard of it? Follow up Q – who knows a patent lawyer??

Photos by Tessa Nuestadt for Target. Head on over the ABV blog for even more style info and a photo of Zanna and me in beauty masks, bathrobes and in bed.