Refresh...

So encumbered have I become by my own belongings, I secretly fantasise about emptying my entire house of possessions and ditching half of them. I rather shame-facedly admit that; for in this age of constant acquisition of 'stuff' I have to come clean that I have too much. I bought too much. There, I said it. So what follows is a relentless trawl through every room, every shelf, every cupboard, every nook and cranny (what is a nook and cranny?!) to clear it of clutter. I like this process. I want to look at each item and think, in the words of William Morris: is it beautiful and is it useful?

This is long overdue - for years I have flirted with a full scale de-clutter; I have shirked around the edges of it, always overtaken by events, by work, by having something else to do. And in the meantime the house keeps filling and filling; an overrun tap of donations and purchases that we don't need! So ironically it started with the prospect of having more space - as we extend our house - I could simply just continue to fill it. But the thought of that is no good, so instead I am culling. Unless I love it; it goes.

via crush cul de sac

The slight exception are clothes. So I admit (I really am in a confessional here: forgive me I have sinned) I sometimes covet and buy too many clothes. And shoes. I am a perfection hunter when it comes to shopping, so I scour around, the web is like a playground to me, always looking for that ideal item. Usually incarnations of the classic, elegant wardrobe piece - the right knit (I have found some of that in gorgeous cashmere form here), the right brogue, the right heel, the right buttons, the right belt, and so it goes. Don't even get me started on the right boot. ;-) Can't help myself and I was ever thus.

I am also fiercely brand-loyal and whilst I don't exactly follow fashion per se, I do follow the new season offerings from my favourite brands. All of this adds up to a Louise-who-is-in-danger-of-having-too-much. I have taken a really hard look at all of my clothes (with the exception of items that fall into the 'saving for Boo' category; evening dresses for example) and have GOT RID. Re-jigged, repaired, dry cleaned. And what I am left with, in some kind of back-to-school readiness is a new wardrobe. Love that feeling.

Meanwhile, I have also been repainting rooms. We've knocked through to next door, the walls have been made good and last week I tackled a room with white paint. Top to bottom. There is not much more cleansing than white-washing a room. Particularly in such an old house as ours, where the walls have layers and layers and you feel in an empty room the presence of previous owners. Some parts of the house are hundreds of years old, and if I let myself think too much about it, I can get freaked out at how people have lived and died here. I am told the cottages that now make up our house stood derelict for some time. There were four, then there were two and now we have made it all one. Walking from one end of the house to the other feels like quite a luxury and I realise what a thin veneer of wall separated us from our tenants until now. It's funny; when you scrape back the surface of houses, and see what's underneath, it always surprises me.

So that's how it is right now - refreshed and re-started.

via la tartine gourmonde