Surround yourself with Beautiful things

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. " William Morris


As anyone who knows me will tell you. I'm not a tidy person. I've read about just about every book imaginable on the subject of de cluttering but I still struggle to throw things away in case I suddenly need them. When however I read William Morris' quote I suddenly realised that he was right, there was no point surrounding myself with things I didn't need any more or had no time to do. They were just filling up space and complicating my life.

I decided to take a bag of things to the charity shop every week in order to minimise my chores. Books were a problem as I love reading but I came across www.readitswapit.co.uk/ and my problem was solved. For every book I read  I had to give one away. It made me more aware of what I owned too! I had a pile of books waiting to be read and I hadn't got round to them. By reducing the pile I could see what I still had to read!

I also found that if I thought hard about my purchases then I got far more pleasure from them. Instead of buying the first thing I saw I would ask myself if I needed it. If the answer was "no" then I walked away. If I wasn't sure I decided to leave it and come back another day. If the item had been sold when I came back it wasn't meant to be.I started to record a wish list on www.amazon.co.uk when I read an outstanding review of a book or film so that when I received money for my birthday or someone wanted to know what I wanted then I was sure that the item was something I'd really considered and waited patiently for .

I found that the things that gave me the most pleasure were simple things like a bunch of daffodils from my garden or a Christmas wreath made from Holly and Ivy, giving friends a box of our own hen's eggs or a home made jar of lemon curd. I enjoyed making cards too. The feeling I got from giving my own card was far superior to rushing out to the supermarket at the last minute to find one.Even my vases and crockery were important to my well being. I chose vintage cups and vases from charity shops and car boot sales. They didn't need to match, the only criteria is that I should find them pretty. I filled them with flowers I found on the grass verges on my way down to the beach.We are lucky in this area to still have such things as grass verges filled with celandines, buttercups, foxgloves, shepherds purse, honeysuckle and campions at different times of the year.


Bed linen received a once over too. Rather than seek out duvets based on the current crazes of my three children I decided to collect white cotton bed linen and sought out home made patchwork quilts. It didn't happen overnight but I'm gradually collecting a wonderful selection of vintage bed linen which brings me a great deal of pleasure, particularly when sprayed with a bottle of lavender mist! I'm still not tidy but I am gradually learning that every thing I choose to surround myself with says something about me and my personality and, if chosen wisely makes me happy!