The Tchotchke Challenge

The Nester has thrown the gauntlet: pack away your accessories for 30 days! Get them gone from all your surfaces.

When the Nester first proposed the challenge, I figured I wouldn't bother participating. I don't have too many accessories. I'm not addicted to my pretty things. I don't need to do this.

But I thought about it a bit too much, wondering what it would be like to live with nothing but the useful about me.

So, today, after grocery shopping, I started clearing.

The first challenge, of course, is to identify an accessory. What is it, exactly?

Some things are easy. Mostly everything here, for example.

And here.

But what about the kids' artwork? Projects from shop class?

The grasshopper on wheels is my son's project from shop class. My daughter made the bowl on the shelf below at a ceramics shop. (It holds my stretchie bands for my workouts.)

I decided, somewhat arbitrarily, that if the item was on the wall, it could stay. Anything either leaning, or on a stand, that would be taken down.

If it was decorative but it held something useful (and ugly) it could also stay. I'm just being lazy, really. I didn't want to have to try and find homes for these things.

But that is part of my decorating philosophy, such as it is. Something beautiful is nice, but it is better if it can also be useful. I like things to earn their keep.

And what about this?

These are our dishes. We use them multiple times a day. I am not putting them back in the cupboard. The idea is not to live the month of June without beauty. It is not to un-decorate, but to de-accessorize; to refresh our eyes, not make them sad.

After I filled the laundry basket for the third time, I figured this challenge just may be a good idea after all.

 

 

 There are weird gaps in my house and I don't promise not to shuffle things around. (Actually, I started already.)

The basket holds sewing projects in progress.

But, so far, this feels good. Let's see what happens.