Who is B Vintage Style?
Hi I’m Deborah Lynn… Blogger and designer of this lovely little blog. I’m a French antique loving, small town girl and busy momma to my 2 sweet kiddos. Here on B Vintage Style you’ll find a little bit of everything from life on our urban farm, restoring our 119 year old home, my latest DIY projects, building our off grid tiny home cabin, my favourite fashion and even easy family favourite recipes. I hope you get inspired for your next DIY project or to begin creating a home and a life you love!
Deborah McDonald
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May 20, 2022
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Are you ready to create a SIMPLE HOME? Christmas is the time of year when we fill our homes with the most décor … from ornaments to twinkle lights to Christmas trees. We love the cozy vibes that we create in our homes this time of year and it’s okay to go a bit overboard if it makes you happy! Just as much as we love the cozy vibes of Christmas, the time that comes after Christmas can be just as good! That’s right it’s DECLUTTERING Time!
Simple Home Style
Please remember that simplicity does not happen over night! For Britt, the transition to a simple style happened when she picked up the dozen pillows she had on her couch for the 10th time in the same day because that’s where her kids sat and played… a light bulb went off and she thought why do I need or even want all of these pillows. Simplicity is not for everyone. However, for us it’s a style that suits our families lifestyle as well!
We love to start off the New Year by doing deep cleans and going thru pantries and closets and getting rid of the old and unused and donating what we can. Trying to take on your entire home at once can be way to overwhelming! You will inevitably wear yourself out. You may end up cramming things back in closets because you are tired of going thru them! So we want to share some tips that we do so that you can start to create a more minimalistic home. Remember THIS IS a marathon NOT a sprint!
How do I start creating a minimalistic home?
Pick 1 space in your home to start with… maybe the pantry or bathroom cabinets? Pick one space to really go in depth with and then go easier on yourself in other areas of your home!
Three years ago Britt redid her pantry and reorganized the pantry thoroughly and with her family in mind. Now, each year it’s simply a clean and reorganization to have the pantry refreshed for the start of the year.
Shop Storage ideas
Simple organization tips
A couple of things that we think prevent people from being able to maintain their organization are:
1. making organizing unmaintainable or harder than it needs to be
2. not allowing for changes or flexibility.
What we mean: If you limit yourself to only using specific bins and containers that are labelled a certain way, ie: using a label maker or printer to print labels, you are setting yourself up for something that is hard to maintain. When organizing is time consuming and requires a very specific action, you will be unlikely to follow through on a regular basis.
Britt used mix matched mason jars that she had multiple on hand for items in her pantry. This way if new items need to be added she can simply grab another jar and there is no need to worry about going out and buying a new matching jar. Deb has an entire cabinet in her kitchen full of mix matched vintage jars that are full of items like flour, sugar, nuts, popcorn, spices and more!
For items that need to be labeled in a specific way, ie: something that has an expiry date, try adding labels to the top of the jars instead of the front! This way no one can see the labels when looking at the space so it doesn’t need to be pretty and uniformed.
Don’t let your organization be the reason you can’t maintain a simple, organized home!
Also using various sized bins, containers and baskets allows for more versatility. Using an oversized market basket that can hold an instant pot or other odd objects allows for more flexibility. When you are organizing spaces for your family think about the day to day routines and activities of your family. For instance, Britt’s kids eat cereal multiple times a week so she incorporated cereal bins that made it easier for her kids to use. Cereal boxes were constantly getting left on the counter, and this also lets her see how much cereal is left without opening the boxes. Deb does the same for her family but uses extra large mason jars!
Looking for more pantry inspiration? Check out Hannah’s from We Lived Happily Ever After beautiful open concept pantry!
DECLUTTERING
When you are doing a major reorganization:
1. Start by pulling everything out of that space!
2. Then go thru items and dispose of items that are expired. What do you think is the oldest item in your pantry? We bet some of you have canned goods over 10 years old!
3. The biggest tip we can give you is to be REALISTIC! What we mean by this is to be realistic about what will work and, be maintainable for your family. Don’t buy fancy bins if you aren’t going to use them. However, if having nice containers encourages you to stay more organized, then splurge on those. Usually, spaces that you use more often, like a pantry, make more sense to splurge on the bins and baskets . However, somewhere like the bathroom medicine cabinet, the containers don’t matter as much.
After all the Christmas decor come down the house often feels bare. Check out how to style your home with winter decorations before Spring arrives!
Simple Home Decor Tips
Home Décor pieces are definitely the type of items that can pile up! Trust us we HAVE BEEN THERE! Over the last few years we have become more aware of the items that we have and purchase for our homes.
Here are a few criteria that an item must meet before we will bring it into out home:
Changing your home decor style
Creating a simple style in your home can be hard, especially if you are used to spaces filled with multiple home décor items. So to start to create simpler spaces here is our method:
Usually we stare at spaces in our own homes so much that we think each corner needs to be filled with tones of objects. You can often stop seeing the beauty in the “bones” of your own home and thus start filling every corner with “objects.”
We know we are very lucky to have the homes we do, especially Deb’s historic home that is filled with architecture. So rather than the next time you go to spend $20 or $50 on random home décor, maybe put the money in a jar and save up for a bigger more impactful piece. Save up for items like a new light fixture, a fresh coat of paint, wallpaper or some ship lap. These items will in the end make a bigger statement for a longer period of time. When you start to let the walls of your home “breathe” and become part of your home décor is when you start to achieve a more simplistic style.
It’s your home…choose to love it!
In the end it really is about choosing to create spaces that you love! There really is something special that happens when a space is created with your family in mind! Maybe you are feeling overwhelmed by the amount of items in your home and you are ready to create a simple home for your family! We would love to hear how your home decor style impacts your family or how you are minimizing and decluttering… leave a comment below!
Looking for more organization ideas?? Head over to the amazing TIDBITS blog to see 25 beautifully organized spaces!
I love this post! I’m a big fan of the less is more mindset. Simple choices (like only having 1 cup per person-we have more in storage) means more family time because there is less to clean!
Thanks Hannah! You are so talented and we get so much inspiration from you to!
I lived this post. Some great tips and suggestions . All these homes are beautifully organized. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you! We love that you find inspiration from our blog! Happy Minimizing!
This blog post is filled with wonderful ideas to maintain a simple organized home that I am excited to implement AND those doors are gorgeous. I now have door envy ?♀️???
Thank you so much! We love helping you create a simple home you LOVE!
Thank you both so much for such wonderful helpful tips! I plan to do some purging this month! Now that we are empty nesters, we really want simpler less cluttered spaces in our home!
Right there with you. I think it’s great to be intentional on what is brought into a home, whether it be decor or other useful items. Clutter bogs you down and certainly eats up time needing to be tidied often.
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