Monday, March 7, 2016

Love Your Home Challenge: Day 9. The Home Binder.




I don't have any problem loving my home. I used to. There were parts of it I absolutely hated. I don't hate them anymore--but without renovations, they have remained awkward and difficult to deal with.

But, the best way to grow to love something is to take care of it: to invest time and energy. And yes, in the case of a room in a house, to make it pretty and functional.

To do that, you need a tool like the Home Binder. Accordingly, Melissa Micheals, who created the Love your Home Challenge, encourages people to create one:

Day 9 – A Home Notebook: Today let’s create a simple home notebook (or if you already have one, update it!). Set up a three ring notebook with dividers and plastic sleeves, or use a special bound notebook or an electronic note system on your phone or computer. Divide your notes by room so you can keep track of paint or fabric names, sketch floor plans or measurements of rooms and windows, lists of furniture or accessories you are looking for, keep garden notes, home maintenance/warranty information, and inspiration photos.





It's probably comes as no surprise to you, but I have had a "home binder" forever--and not just for this home. In fact, one of the first things I ever did whenever I moved into a new place was take its measurements and draw a floor plan. How else would you know where to put the furniture?

My home binder now contains floor plans and paint information, a wiring diagram and a cheat sheet for my light bulbs and fixtures as well as other things. But inspiration photos live on Pinterest, and garden notes as well as my warranties and manuals also have their own individual binders. My point is--what you keep in it reflects your needs at the moment.

I used to have a home binder almost exclusively devoted to the issues of organization and function(s) of each room. That's long gone, but I did discover some other versions of my home binder while I was clearing out the basement files last week. I found many old pages torn from House and Home magazine, articles on how to read decorating magazines, notes --handwritten-- on how to mix styles--how to visually raise or lower ceilings--make a room look larger--Jeffrey Bilhuber's favourite whites--all sorts of things. I may or may not do something on the blog with these.

But now--I most definitely want to paint my front hallway ceiling a darker hue!


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