A friend is renovating to sell. Many of us have been there and done that. All rooms have been painted white or as a French builder calls it, l’hopital blanc! Clean and light. A friend has donated a table newly sanded and painted, we donated a sofa and the kitchen is next for tiles and wood to be painted. Even if selling, you can feel the new Chi energy coming in. Old furniture has been sold, donated or thrown away. What’s left has been cleaned and renewed. Our friend feels a change of energy and a lightness in his space and himself. He will still sell but it has moved his life forward to the path he wants.
How to Revise
Get a friend if you can’t do it, but you need to stand back and do the rule of 3. Keep it, sell it or donate it or throw it away. Not easy with memories about life, especially relationships but this needs to be done. Another friend had a partner who died, he wanted a new relationship after grieving for a while. However, there were photos and decor all related to his past love. No one had a chance with a ‘ghost’ of the past frozen in beautiful youth. Eventually, after many friends gently advised, he packed the memories in an elegant box and moved his furniture around, donated some old furniture and put up new decor symbolising new love and friendship. He got there eventually and found a new person. Parents may have similar issues with their children’s past items, donate what you can, pass on what you don’t need and take photos for keepsakes.
Even check out your wardrobe or kitchen cupboards! I helped a friend and she had four pairs of the same jeans, several black dresses which looked the same, similar versions of shoes. My husband recently did this with kitchen cupboards. He realised that over the years, we had several pairs of salad servers, three cheese graters and way too many plates. We donated these to our friend along with the sofa and another friend has happily taken some plates. We probably need to do this with wine glasses!
Renovate & Renew
Stick to a budget and then have a safety net of about 5%. You will thank me. Depending on how big a renovation you are undertaking, this is important. We had lots of wall paint, ceiling white and ivory wood paint left which is not easy to get rid of. We used all of it and everyone is happy. We are helping someone move forward, they are helping us get rid of paint. Tile paint will be used on the kitchen wall tiles. Look at furniture and decor, see if you can either sand and re-varnish or paint. It makes such a difference. We have an Asian cupboard that was originally a dark red wood for glassware, we painted it ivory and it held shoes and finally, it is pastel ice green and back to the dining room. Our friend’s table was black and the top has been sanded back to the original wood and waxed. Against the black legs, it looks very chic. We are all exhausted but proud of our work. Gin and tonics and Italian pizza for dinner! Bon appetit!
