New year, new home, new you

A BRAND new home offers you the chance to declutter your life and embrace a new, healthy, calm existence.  Tonya Turner reports

Villa World

Imagine a brand new home in which everything is in its place and there is a place for everything.

Calm prevails and order reigns. Sounds delightful doesn’t it? Buying a new home is the perfect opportunity to declutter your life, throw out all of the unwanted possessions that are holding you back and embrace a new, healthy, calm existence.

Decluttering expert and interior designer Anastasia Dinos of Mood Design says the hardest thing about approaching the big chuck out is detaching from our stuff. But if you can make it past the first hurdle, the potential rewards for decluttering your home might be bigger than you thought. “Clutter increases our stress hormone cortisol, so you want to do something about it,” she says.

The first thing Dinos advises her clients to do is visualise their ideal life in their home, describe every detail including colour, activities and people, and write it all down. Next comes deciding which items to keep and which ones to throw out. Only holding onto things that you use regularly or make you feel good is one way to sort the keepers from the goners. “Get rid of things that don’t light you up or make you smile. If you haven’t used it in 12 months and it doesn’t light you up when you hold it, get rid of it,” she says.

Keeping items purely for sentimental reasons is another trap to watch out for when decluttering your home. “Don’t hold onto things for the memories – they will always be with you without the material object,” Dinos says.

But how can you avoid throwing something out you might regret down the track? Imagining certain scenarios is one way to get those bin bags filling up. “Instead of thinking about things you have to lose, assume your items are already gone or not yours and you only choose the things you want to keep,” Dinos says.

With all (or at least most) of your unnecessary possessions gone, now is the time to get your storage solutions sorted. While finding enough space for whatever is left might still be a problem in many older homes not suited to modern lifestyles, Villa World national product manager and architect Andrew Keag says storage will never be a problem in a Villa World home.

“Storage is a very important design feature in all Villa World houses. We tailor the amount of storage to the size of the home to ensure we meet the right demand for our customers. To cater for the modern family, built-in robes with ample area, designated linen and separate broom, vacuum and cleaning storage areas are designed into all Villa World houses. A strong focus on kitchen storage is always top of mind to ensure the heart of the home is well catered for,” Keag says.

Creating a family command centre is almost a necessity for today’s busy lifestyles and bringing a sense of order to the home. Dinos says the most practical place to put one is somewhere the whole family hangs out, such as the kitchen, or in the home entry where everyone will see it and use it. “It’s somewhere to put the mail, scribble notes, keys, view a shared calendar,” she says.

In Villa World homes, multi-purpose rooms are included in most designs to give people the flexibility to create a media or rumpus room, study, or whatever best suits their lifestyle. This extra space also means there’s no need to clutter up other rooms in the house with lots of extra items.

“Every Villa World home is designed with our customers’ lifestyle in mind. There is continual analysis on each design to understand how different customers and demographics will use their home. The Villa World team designs each home to match the needs and wants of each demographic,” Keag says.

And remember, these days storage solutions are a lot more creative than they used to be which means you can have some fun with it.

“Be decorative with your storage solutions. Don’t just store a stack of boxes in the corner of the room. If you have to use containers, opt for baskets or woven bags that are practical and aesthetically pleasing too,” Dinos says.

If at any point you start to feel nervous about getting rid of your things, just remember the sense of liberation that comes with freeing yourself from your possessions and how much more that’s worth than the items cluttering up your home and your headspace. “You will never regret or miss anything you throw away because you start to value the space you have created and you realise the memories are just as strong as before,” Dinos says.

What strategies can you use to help organise your new home? Interior designer Anastasia Dinos of Mood Design gives her 5 top tips:

1. Organise small loose items by making use of containers, baskets and trays.
2. Keep things practical and within reach. Remote controls and magazines make sense on the coffee table so organise them on a neat book stack with a small pot plant and candle so they still look good.
3. Use labels for containers and store items per category.
4. Keep a family calendar (physical or virtual) that allows the whole family to share their plans and make time to catch up as a family.
5. Keep a stash of spare coat hangers. When you’ve used up all your hangers, don’t buy anymore until you can throw out a few pieces and have spares again.

Originally published as New year, new home, new you