As we close out the 2024 calendar, we come to my end-of-year ritual, one where we look back at the last 50 columns, the trials, tribulations, advice and takeaways, and take one piece of advice from each month that hits. at least me also remarkable. Here are some highlights from the first six months.
In January, the month we’re supposed to take inventory of our lives, I asked you to ask yourself a few key questions: Have my house and I outgrown each other? Is this the year to make a change? I covered these topics in my new book, “Rightize Today to Create Your Best Life Tomorrow,” and I know it’s important to ask the question of how and where to live.
Lesson: Whether we keep up or not, time passes. To get the most out of our lives now and in the months to come, we must face and overcome what separates us from our ideal life – the stuff, the fear of change, the complacency.
In February, a friend called me for an emergency decorating job. Her 29-year-old single son needed his apartment remodeled, so he called his mother. She was on the next plane. “We are made for this moment,” I told him. Over FaceTime, we assessed the problems: a dreary color palette of dark gray, black, and khaki, an old mattress he’d owned since college, and a dirty couch he’d gotten for free on Facebook Marketplace. We got to work. Once we were finished, everything was ready for company, just in time for Valentine’s Day.
Lesson: Dirty towels, a mattress on the floor, holes in comforters and sheets that double as curtains should not be part of an adult’s look. If you need help, call your mother. We know stuff.
In March, I recorded my 20th year of writing this weekly column. That’s 1,040 columns, but who’s counting? I told the story of how the editor who first gave me the job said he wanted an antidote to the insufferable, pretentious content found in so many personal magazines. “In other words,” I paraphrased, “you want a column about reality.” “Exactly,” he said, “Be the girl next door who has the same problems as everyone else but is two steps ahead because you’ve made mistakes and you know who to call. ” And I left.
Lesson: If I have learned a lesson from 20 years of writing this column — the calamities (the custom sofas delivered with the underside of the fabric facing outwards), the numerous moves (10 in 20 years) and the life changes (empty nest, divorce, remarriage, downsizing, upsizing, and right-sizing) — it’s this: To live beautifully, you don’t need a big budget. You just need desire and dynamism. A good life doesn’t happen by chance. It’s designed on purpose.
In April, I found the animal inside. Interior designer Christopher Grubb gave me the creative confidence I needed to reupholster two heavy upholstered armchairs in a bold zebra print and paint the gloss lacquer arms and legs black. It was a crazy decision, but every time I look at these chairs I’m thrilled.
Lesson: Take a risk. If you think daring design projects are for others, summon your creative courage and go for it.
In May, I visited The Mustard Seed, a central Florida furniture bank that helps those who have lost their homes to disaster or other tragedy furnish new homes. I met a woman who was living in her car with her three children, but was finally moving into a house. “I want a house full of color,” she says. Thanks to many thoughtful donors who had given up what they no longer needed, she was about to get just that.
Lesson: Cleaning our homes can make a significant difference for others. You can help us by donating unwanted household items to a furniture bank near you: https://furniturebanks.org.
In June, I visited my new grandbaby in Colorado. My role was to cook, clean, wash, and fold miniature clothes and consolidate this new little family—which includes my daughter, her husband, and their two dogs—all while trying harder not to offer unwanted advice. As I am kindly reminded: “Things have changed in 30 years. » That’s what they did.
Lesson: We have come a long way baby. Today’s parents have smart bassinets, which rock babies when they start to move; rocking chairs and gliders with built-in USB ports; and app-controlled noise machines that emit white noise mimicking the sounds of the womb or a laundromat. How did we get there?
Join me next week for a recap of highlights from the second half of 2024.
Marni Jameson has written seven books, including “Downsizing the Family Home.” Contact her at marni@marnijameson.com.
