When you were little, did have a dollhouse? I did. I loved dolls. I still do. My daughters love dolls too. They each have a dollhouse and I love going into their rooms to see how they have styled their houses.
When you’re little, playing house is so exciting. You never see clutter in a doll house. It’s pretty clear and artfully decorated. Each space is used with purpose.
When we are little girls, we have it all figured out with our dollhouses. There is a place for everything, and everything in its place. Ah, then we become adults and are running our own homes… Suddenly playing house isn’t so fun. It’s frustrating. And there’s clutter everywhere. And organization is hard. What goes wrong? What changes?
Check out this playlist featuring all of the other organized home tours from my YouTube friends!
So, back to my question. If we’ve got it all figured out as kids, and we can play house with joy, and in our make believe homes there’s not only magical things like mouse families, and unicorns, but also (I would argue) an even more magical thing: No Clutter… what has changed?
Well, life gets in the way. When things get hard, it’s easier to stuff a mess into a cabinet and close the door. As long as the surfaces are clear, we feel we are maintaining the "dollhouse standard".
I have to go through my cupboards every few months because I am so guilty of this.
As I give you a glimpse into different rooms of our home, I want to explore how to get back to that dollhouse standard. I’m trying to capture that wonder and joy my children have with my home. It’s so easy to get bitter, friends. Can you feel that? Haha. I do. Think about it: Kids aren’t bitter when they play house. Each room in the dollhouse is brimming with cheer and charm. That’s what I want.
I don’t see any place for clutter in my real life “dollhouse”. That doesn’t mean it’s not there, but as I learned in Paris… clutter is so not chic. So, we do our best to keep things clutter-free and organized.
When clutter and organization start to get out of control in our home, I try to look at my home with a different filter. Sometimes the dollhouse correlation doesn’t work for me so I think about what I love about staying in a high-end hotel or a cozy and elegant bed and breakfast. Usually the décor is attractive, things are in order, and (of course) there is no clutter or organization problems. That helps me to tackle a clutter hot spot - To get rid of it and even clear the cupboard or drawer under it.
I might not be able to relate to dollhouses as much anymore, but I can certainly try to channel my favorite hotel.
Nothing is ever going to be perfect. And clutter and organizational issues will likely always exist. But if you can get your main rooms under control and keep on top of them, living with no clutter will simply be your state of being. If you would like more inspiration, check out my Madame Chic Books. And if you would like to help teach your kids about keeping their spaces neat, check out Connoisseur Kids.
I hope you enjoyed my musings and rather unconventional tour of certain parts of our home.
Thank you, Dawn, from The Minimal Mom for inviting me to be a part of another wonderful collaboration. I truly love all of the other channels who are participating and encourage you to check them out in the playlist below. Keep calm and remain classy, friends, and I’ll see you in my next video. Love, Jennifer
⚜️ Featured in the video
Maileg Mouse House dolls can be found at Maisonette (We've been collecting them for years. I also buy from the Maileg USA website)
📍Please note:I am currently in the process of having my blog not only redesigned, but moved to Wordpress. Please be patient during the process as the blog might be temporarily disabled over the course of this month. You can always stay au courant with me over on YouTube to never miss a video. I'm excited to work on the blog and make it a better experience for you, dear reader! I am also unable to reply to comments on the blog while it is under construction as the permissions are temporarily disabled. I am sorry for this inconvenience but am reading and appreciating all of your comments. Thank you!
📍I have released a new line of beautiful and affordable digital art through Teespring. Check out these beautiful Parisian Cityscapes. A 3-pack of artwork is only $2.99. Print them and frame them for easy and elegant artwork in your own home. A Parisian Monuments 3-pack is also available.
📍If you are looking for more content, consider becoming a member of The Daily Connoisseur through the MEMBERSHIPS feature. I publish one vodcast every Friday and do one livestream or zoom call once a month. It only costs $1.99 a month. There are also upper tiers available for people who are interested in supporting the channel on a higher level and receiving monthly mentions in the videos.
Hi, Jennifer. I really enjoyed this video, especially your very thoughtful and thought-provoking narration. I'd like to share my method for organizing magazines. Like you, I've been reading Victoria almost since the beginning. Some years ago, I reorganized my issues by placing all the issues for the same month in a magazine holder; then, every month, I take out the magazines for that month and enjoy going through them again. Although some things are out-of-date now, one of the things I like most about Victoria is its essential timelessness (and I must say, I feel quite nostalgic seeing the old advertising). Continue to stay safe. Every blessing, Susanne
Ditto on the Victoria magazine. I keep every single issue! (@Susanne Sutton, thank you for the great idea for organizing them!)
I'll be dedicating a couple of days during Spring Break to continue to declutter our home. Thank you for the inspiration, Jennifer. Its always good to be reminded!
I like your doll house correlation. Very creative and so true about the clutter free doll homes. Every space has a purpose - that resonated with me. I think too much stuff and not putting things away creates the problem, and I am working to overcome this. Thank you for the inspiration!
Jennifer L. Scott is the New York Times bestselling author of Lessons from Madame Chic, At Home with Madame Chic and Polish Your Poise with Madame Chic
, click here →
Social
This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and analyze traffic. Your IP address and user-agent are shared with Google along with performance and security metrics to ensure quality of service, generate usage statistics, and to detect and address abuse.
The blogposts you read may contain affiliate links, which means if you purchase through my links I may receive a very small amount of the sale. This doesn't change the price you pay. I am affiliate with Amazon's Affiliate program, as well as others. Thank you for your support!
3 comments:
Hi, Jennifer. I really enjoyed this video, especially your very thoughtful and thought-provoking narration.
I'd like to share my method for organizing magazines. Like you, I've been reading Victoria almost since the beginning. Some years ago, I reorganized my issues by placing all the issues for the same month in a magazine holder; then, every month, I take out the magazines for that month and enjoy going through them again. Although some things are out-of-date now, one of the things I like most about Victoria is its essential timelessness (and I must say, I feel quite nostalgic seeing the old advertising).
Continue to stay safe. Every blessing, Susanne
Ditto on the Victoria magazine. I keep every single issue! (@Susanne Sutton, thank you for the great idea for organizing them!)
I'll be dedicating a couple of days during Spring Break to continue to declutter our home. Thank you for the inspiration, Jennifer. Its always good to be reminded!
- Marta
I like your doll house correlation. Very creative and so true about the clutter free doll homes. Every space has a purpose - that resonated with me. I think too much stuff and not putting things away creates the problem, and I am working to overcome this. Thank you for the inspiration!
Post a Comment