Tag: Organizing & Storage

Small dining spaces can be a challenge to furnish and stage for a potential buyer. Too big of a table, and your family, guests, or potential next homeowner will have to smush themselves through your space, making it feel cramped, awkward, and hard to imagine living there. Meanwhile, a too-small table lacks function and the ability to use the space as it’s intended. When Libby Fehsenfeld, a stager and the owner of Tralala Interiors in Asheville, North Carolina, moved into her new home, she knew that the dining nook would need some work. 

“We had been in the home for maybe a year or so before tackling the dining nook,” the stager recalls. “We just put the furniture we had in the space but we knew that we wanted to make bigger scale changes in the future and make it more functional for what it was used for.” Here are the changes she made.

The nook is directly off the kitchen but separate from the established dining room. Since there’s a door that leads to the porch right off the space, Fehsenfeld knew that she wanted the room to remain functional and accessible. 

“The wall color was a taupe gray that wasn’t creating any light or warmth, and the overhead light fixture was scalewise just out of proportion,” she explains. “I knew we’d be having breakfast, meals, and coffee here, so I wanted to modernize it and make it a more comfortable and cheerful spot to do that.” 

Her hope was to be able to fit up to four or five people in the space, but still make sure that it was accessible and easy to move around. This need inspired her to create a custom built-in bench seat. 

Fehsenfeld hired a local carpenter to design and build the seat. The carpenter built it so that the design matched the established moldings, making it look like it had always been there. The stager then swapped out the dated light fixture for a smaller, more modern pendant, added a custom cushion to fit the bench perfectly, and changed out the paint. 

She tied the room together with fun pillows that she purchased at local shops, a properly scaled table, artwork that is special to her and her family, and hanging baskets for a touch of character. “This space in particular represents a combination of old-school traditional with modern elements,” the stager says. “It’s neutral and cohesive, but still warmer and friendlier than it was before.” 

Fehsenfeld completed this project about two years ago, and it’s held up great. The whole update cost around $4,100, with most of her budget going toward hiring a carpenter to design and install the custom bench seat. “We always gravitate here,” Fehsenfeld gushes. “We use it all the time in all the ways I envisioned — meals, hanging out, working. It’s a great spot.” 

Besides it being lovely, it’s also the kind of space that has a clear function for whenever Fehsenfeld decides to sell her space — there’s no question that the bench adds character, value, and a clear vision of what the nook could (and should) be used for. 

This post originally appeared on Apartment Therapy. See it there: See How a Stager Transformed a Cramped Kitchen Corner  into a Functional Dining Space

For the majority of my life I’ve known my sister, Chessie Domrongchai, as a beauty and lifestyle maximalist. As a former beauty influencer, she taught me — and thousands of others — how to apply makeup, find the perfect body lotion, and keep up with the latest beauty trends. Her home was a maximalist reflection of the newest blushes, perfumes, and personal care products, each carefully and proudly displayed in branded packaging. But recently, something shifted. She began visually decluttering her home (and sharing her process on social media) and removing labels from everyday items, and this seemingly quiet change has led to a meaningful impact on her space and self.

According to my sister, visually decluttering is a process of reducing “visual noise”  in your environment by simplifying or removing distracting elements, which means branding and unnecessary packaging. This can include removing labels from dish soap bottles, face washes, and lotions. She originally learned about the trend from another TikTok creator, @Figfeelings, but has since taken that message and used it to both reflect and work on her long-term shopping addiction.

“At its core, visual decluttering is about shifting attention from what the product looks like to what the product does,” says Chessie. Though it isn’t necessarily about having fewer items, she admits that no one needs “five lotions or six different shampoos.” It’s about what the product does for you, not being a “brand ambassador” or “walking advertisement” in your own home. Visual decluttering, to Chessie, is about presenting the items in your home in a more cohesive, intentional way that supports mental clarity and an aesthetic that is hers, not those of a bunch of brands.

For my sister, visual decluttering has been psychologically and emotionally beneficial, has helped her save hundreds of dollars (since she’s not purchasing just name-brand items), and has improved her physical space. Here’s why visual decluttering is so great. 

Chessie shared with me that removing competing labels (and the colors, fonts, and logos they have on them) creates a more serene space. “When your eyes aren’t darting between visual stimuli, your mind feels calmer and more focused,” she explains. The first thing she decluttered was her soap and other bathroom items, and she found this small shift to significantly reduce the mental noise in her bathroom. “Even when you aren’t actively reading the labels on bottles, your mind still passively comprehends and internalizes them. Removing the labels removes the stimuli, and creates a really relaxing environment.” 

She has found that this small shift can significantly reduce stress in high-traffic areas like the kitchen, bathroom, or office.

When the labels disappear, the urge to over-consume often follows. My sister explained that within the first few days of visually decluttering parts of her home, she started “using products for their function rather than their branding,” which led to less waste and making thoughtful purchases for things she needs rather than what she wants. 

Because she is viewing items for their purpose rather than their branding and meaning, she isn’t buying nearly as much for her home. “Instead of constantly chasing the next best thing, I’ve developed a longer-term relationship with the items I already own,” she says. It’s been a subtle but powerful way to shift from consumerism to intentional living and interacting with her things. 

“The visual clarity is nice, but I’ve also saved hundreds of dollars from what I’d normally spend on the newest house products and beauty items that catch my eye,” she told me. And, she’s only been doing this for a month — think of the yearly savings! 

“There’s a quiet beauty in unbranded items,” Chessie says. When products are stripped of marketing messages, she explained to me, you’ll notice the texture of a glass jar, the color of a liquid, or the simplicity of a wooden brush. This form of minimalism, she feels, has enhanced her home’s visual appeal without the need for time-consuming renovations or expensive decor upgrades.

As with anything, practicality and safety are key. While removing labels can be beneficial, there are items where keeping original packaging is essential:

Additionally, sentimental items or objects that bring joy in their original form don’t need to be decluttered. Visual decluttering isn’t about stripping personality from your space. Instead, it’s about making room for the right kind of visual stimulation.

This post originally appeared on Apartment Therapy. See it there: My Sister’s Visual Decluttering Trick Is So Brilliant

I love my new home. It’s a beautiful 1920s bungalow in the heart of Chicago’s Bungalow Belt, and it’s exactly the kind of place I’ve always dreamed of owning. There’s just one drawback: The living room came with significantly less storage than I was used to.

In my previous space, I had a built-in with drawers, cabinets, and a fireplace with a long mantel where I displayed art collected during my travels. Now, all of that storage and display space is gone — but I still have all the stuff. So I booked a video consultation with C. Lee Cawley, a certified professional organizer and owner of Simplify You, and in just over an hour she helped me maximize the space. Here’s how we did it.

One of the first problems Cawley tackled was my lack of a mantel. My husband had already purchased a mid-century modern cabinet to place beneath the television, and she suggested treating the top of it like a rotating gallery. Now, we swap out art pieces every few months, which keeps the display fresh without overwhelming the room.

The tangle of cords beneath the TV was another pain point. Cawley recommended stashing them in a large lidded seagrass basket and using matching baskets for DVDs and video games; I ended up filling the entire set with the latter. The woven texture blends seamlessly with the floors while keeping everything neat.

On the sofa wall I had been using a folding TV tray as my side table, while my husband had a small side table on his end. Cawley suggested replacing my tray with a side table that had hidden storage. I opted for another mid-century piece with sliding doors, which now conceals my knitting project. I also added a standing lamp in the corner for cozy, low-level lighting. Above the sofa, we finally hung some of our favorite art pieces.

I’ll admit that paring down my throw pillow collection was the toughest part. I had far more than I could ever use, plus a storage chest packed with extras. After trimming the pile and moving the rest to the basement, I started rotating pillows in and out with the seasons. That simple switch freed up the chest for puzzle storage — which meant I could finally move the bulky black cabinet out of the room. With that gone, we had more wall space to showcase art.

What I love most about this transformation is how a few small changes made such a big difference, and the whole room now feels more balanced and comfortable. Best of all, it doesn’t look like I downsized — it looks like I designed the space this way all along.

This post originally appeared on Apartment Therapy. See it there: I Showed a Pro Organizer My Cramped Living Room, and Now It Feels Spacious