The Pottery Barn Spring Catalog arrived in my mailbox on December 31^st. In Chicago it was a few hours into a messy snow and just 10 days after the official start of winter and here comes this catalog with a beautiful spring like picture on the front with the headline "Bright, Bold COLOR".  Oh, they're good.  I mean, it's only December 31^st. They know that all around the country we are still cleaning up the remnants of a holiday season, with piles of empty boxes still under the tree or by the back door, a bag of returns by the front door, decorations half down and racing to get the red and green and the santas and snowmen (that made us feel all warm and fuzzy in late November) out of our sight because they feel so stale...and here comes this breath of fresh air in the form of a crisp white chair and a bright yellow pillow.  

 

If you are like me, I always picture this huge house somewhere in the southeast where they take all these catalog pictures so the first thought you have seeing this is – hey, how'd they do that? I just got a catalog in mid December and the whole place was decked head to toe for Christmas with each page emitting a feel of owners who had just stepped out for a sleigh ride and they got it all down and repainted and redecorated for spring… (Now it appears the missing owners are probably at a tennis lesson or al fresco lunch) and here I am still boxing up ornaments?  

 

This is very deliberate marketing.  Everywhere you turn in January and February retailers are trying to piggyback on your natural instinct toward cleaning up and clearing out.  I agree with the idea that at this time of year you want your home to feel fresh, clear and full of energy for the New Year ahead but you want to be careful not to get carried away and think you need to redecorate the whole house to get that feeling.  There are a few little things you can do that will change the energy in your space and make you feel this way, without spending a lot.

 

As you take down and clear out your holiday decorations, clear a few other things out too.  An extra vase, a few picture frames, a stack of books.  Take one thing off each shelf or surface to lighten the space for the next month or two. Clear that energy.  You don't have to get rid of them, because in a couple of months that January effect will be gone and you can trade them out or sprinkle a few back in.  Set up a shelf or a bin in your storage or basement for rotating decorations and put them there.  You'll get the fresh new effect right now, and you'll get it again when you rotate these items back in.  Consequently, you won't need to buy something new, to have new energy and feeling in your home.  

 

One of the most effective and space efficient ways to rotate new energy and feeling into a room is with textiles.  Changing the linens on your bed and the throw pillows on your couch will make a huge difference in how the room feels.   If you have a comforter or duvet with light, airy colors put that on your bed.  (I recommend a duvet because having a few different ones to change out take up much less storage than a regular comforter.) Change the orange and brown pillows on your couch to yellow and green.  If you stick with all the same size pillows, you only need one set of the pillows; the rest can be pillow covers which take up very little space.  One thing retailers don't always tell you is that they will often sell you the pillow cover without the pillow.  Pottery Barn sells all theirs this way, but at Crate and Barrel for example you have to ask.   Obviously this is probably not the case at a Target, Marshalls or Home Goods so be careful thinking that getting a deal on a pillow is a real deal….it's worth any extra money it might cost to not have to store (or put into a landfill) a bunch of extra pillow inserts.  

 

Try these small changes before making any big changes.  I guarantee they'll accomplish that feeling you are looking for without making you spend a lot, or accumulate a bunch more stuff.