Are You a Serial Rotator?

So what exactly are the telltale signs that you might suffer from “serial rotator” syndrome? 

• Do you constantly move things around in your home?
• Do you rearrange the furniture in your home more than once month?
• Do you bring new items into your home, which then causes the cascading effect of moving furniture or decorative items from one room to another?
• Do you “shop your house” for décor items, moving decorative items from room to room?
• Do you tweak vignettes adding, removing, or rearranging items on a regular basis?
• Do you move throw pillows around from one room of your house to another?
• Are you a habitual straightener upper?
• Do you enjoy puttering around the house adjusting and tweaking décor items?
• Are you continually decluttering and purging items from your home?
• Do you freshen up your home with seasonal décor items?

If you answered yes to two or more of the questions above, it gives me great pleasure to inform you, that you too suffer from the same malady that I do!  You are a serial rotator!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!  On this most wonderful diagnosis!!!

I love freshening up my home just by moving things around, bringing in inexpensive items, like fresh flowers from the grocery store, setting out a bowl of fresh fruit, an inexpensive thrift shop treasure, or a natural free gift from mother nature, like a pinecone collected from the forest floor.

Updating your home and personalizing it with your unique personality doesn’t have to be expensive and cost you an arm and a leg.  It only requires a little imagination and creativity.

Here’s a thought:  sometimes, updating our homes and freshening it up doesn’t require adding anything; sometimes the answer is to remove something instead.  Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about; sometimes when you are creating a vignette and just can’t seem to get it quite right, our first instinct is to keep adding to it.  It gets larger and larger and more and more complex.  In actuality, paring it down and removing items to simplify it, is most often the best way to go.  The fewer the items, the more each of those items will be noticed and appreciated. 

There has to be a certain amount of negative space in your home so that the eye has somewhere to rest.  That negative space, in turn, highlights the decorative items you have carefully curated and grouped together in your home.  The negative space allows those items to be the highlight to your décor that adds your unique personality to your home.  Too many decorative items displayed on every horizontal surface in your home will just become clutter.  More is not always better, more is often just too much! 

Check out the importance of negative space and why you should incorporate it in your decor.

The Importance of Negative Space

Today I am encouraging you to use a more restrained hand when decorating your home.  I am throwing down the gauntlet.  For the next 90 days, I challenge you not to purchase any new decorative items for your home, other than some fresh flowers on occasion.  Summer is the perfect time to give this challenge a try.  It’s the perfect time to lighten things up; put away the heavy blankets, the furry pillows; all the cozy, heavy feeling items and clear out your spaces for the summer months when life is more carefree and relaxed.  Think light and airy, open, easy, breezy, sundrenched spaces.

Serial rotators need to get in the habit of using what you already have, or you will need a second job to pay for purchasing new décor items all the time.  Instead of using your items in the same spot and in the same room where you have displayed it for years and years, move those items around and combine them in different ways throughout your home.  It will look like you went out and purchased all new decorative items for your spaces when in actuality you just moved them around and combined them in fresh new ways.  This is a huge cost saver!!!

The base of this coffee table vignette above stayed the same; by switching out the pinecone and candle it transformed the vibe from spring to summer.

Go through each room of your house and gather up all the tchotchkes you own and place everything on the kitchen table.  Take a long hard look at each item on the table and ask yourself if you really love it.  If not, then get a box for those items you no longer love and donate them.  Look into posting the more valuable items online.  I have had great success in selling no longer wanted or loved items online. 

Here’s the thing, if you don’t love an item, no matter how expensive it might have been, no matter how much guilt it gives you to think about giving it away; no matter where you put it in your home you are never going to like it.  Your eye will go straight to it and you will not be happy when you use it.     

On the other hand, some items may just need some updating in order for you to love them again.  Try to look past the finish and look at the shape.  Try to imagine what it might look like in a different color.  Spray paint has transformative powers!  It can transform a tired, dated item into something fresh and new.  It’s one of the most inexpensive and easy ways to update tired, old items and give them new life!  Do you doubt me?  Check out a post I wrote a while back, to see firsthand, the transformative powers of spray paint!  You can see the before and after pictures here.

If you have created a home with a neutral color pallet then moving items and furniture around in your home will be so easy!  What works in one room will easily work in another room of your house.  If your backdrop, the walls, the floors, the larger pieces of furniture are in neutral colors, they will be the perfect backdrop to anything you want to add to your home.  Accents that work in one room will easily work in any room of your home.  This is why I am such a proponent of creating a neutral color pallet throughout your home, and bringing in pops of color with your accent pieces.

Remember that if you pull something together and you don’t love it, it only takes a few minutes to rearrange and tweak it until you get it looking just right.  Practice makes perfect.  Once you get into the swing of things it will become second nature to you.  Just enjoy yourself and have fun with it!

TIP:  Sometimes it helps to walk away for a while and come back to it a little later.  Looking at it with a fresh perspective can be very helpful.              

If you are struggling with putting together a vignette and just can’t seem to get it right, stop and take a picture.  For some reason a picture will make it very apparent what it is that isn’t quite right.  I have looked at something for a long time and couldn’t figure out why it didn’t look right.  I knew something was off, but couldn’t put my finger on what it was.  When I took a picture, I could tell immediately what it was that was bugging me about the composition.  I don’t know why this works, or how it works, but it just does!  Try it; you will see what I am talking about.

Just have fun with this process!  Nothing is permanent and anything you create can easily be changed up.  Remember that there is no long term commitment involved with this process.  When you get tired of something; change it up!

Remember you are a serial rotator, so use your super powers to create something beautiful! Embrace your diagnosis of serial rotator.  Have fun with the process, I certainly do!  Puttering around my house changing things up and adding seasonal touches makes my heart sing.  It’s such a creative outlet for me.  Go on, give it a try!  I think you will enjoy it as much as I do! 

Please share photos of what you create!  I would love to see them, and I’ll probably steal some ideas and inspiration from you too ☺️ I will even share some of your photos in a future blog post!