After working for several years on social media, Marina Cabero realized that the type of content that usually works, that the public asks for and that goes viral is usually that which provides instructions or tricks to do a certain thing, quickly, easily and effortlessly.
That’s why videos about order, cleaning and home routines have been and continue to be in full swing and attract millions of people, given that many of us are caught up in uncontrolled consumerism and end up with uncontrolled homes to which we are slaves, she says.
“And when we detect that this stresses us out and puts us in a bad mood, we look for ready-made solutions that don’t work for us or fit us, based on self-demands of perfectionism, toxic productivity and ‘lists of everything there is and to have’, which other people impose on themselves,” he explains.
Cabero suggests applying the concept of “living without instructions” to our home, that is, “living as we want, according to our values, beliefs and standards, doing what we think is convenient, what adapts to us and our moment in life instead of following the dictates of others.”
She says that all of this requires stopping, seeing what is happening in our lives and, from that awareness, starting to change those habits that are not working right now.
“It is a process that has a lot to do with self-knowledge and personal growth, but nothing to do with impositions and rigid instructions,” he emphasizes.
Simplify, organize and decorate
Instead of following endless rules and routines that are “strict and self-demanding,” seeking perfection in the home, constantly fighting to keep everything clean, or overwhelming yourself with endless cleaning tasks, Cabero suggests adopting three simple habits, tailored to our needs and circumstances: “simplify, organize, and decorate.”
His proposal is based on certain certainties that he is sure readers of his latest book, which focuses precisely on these three habits, will end up sharing when analyzing his reasoning.
One of those certainties is that “slowing down and living more slowly will help you have a space that is easy to maintain, that is there for what you need, without labels or strict rules.”
Cabero is also sure that “making our house become our dream refuge and fostering emotional well-being and mental calm depends on asking ourselves how we want to live and finding a home that serves us and our family.”
She explains that the first of the three habits, simplifying, requires considering “having fewer things instead of looking for more corners to store more things,” and becoming aware of “the number of objects you keep in drawers, closets, boxes, garages or storage rooms that you don’t even remember having.”
“Think for a moment about the usefulness of these objects: Do you use them often? Have you inherited them and hate to get rid of them? Do you have many duplicates of them? Are they abandoned in a corner just in case? Or are they stored in the back of a drawer that you don’t even remember?” asks the reader.
All those objects that overload the view, produce a feeling of disorder and that are not in harmony or transmit peace, together make up what in the field of decoration is known as ‘visual noise’, according to Cabero.
Maintaining a cluttered home, with too many things and visual noise has a lot to do with how we feel in our home. Living in a chaotic space, day after day, overwhelms us and easily overstimulates our brain, contributing to generating stress and anxiety, she points out.
This specialist maintains that keeping visual noise under control is crucial to achieving a home that, in addition to being tidy and offering a feeling of spaciousness, also transmits calm and harmony to those who live there.
Entrance hall: a point of conflict
The hallway is a hotspot for visual noise, because everything accumulates there: jackets, bags, glasses, backpacks, keys, accessories, mail, shoes, as explained in a pin on the Pinterest network.
“To have a sense of peace when you get home, I recommend having places where you can hide and camouflage that visual noise and that are very easy to use for the whole family: baskets or boxes, placed inside or on a single closed cupboard, all in light and relaxing colours,” she adds.
In the hallway, “keep horizontal surfaces as clear as possible” and “use a closed shoe rack or a closet with doors or drawers to store shoes and everyday items for the family,” she recommends.
And that is precisely one of the keys to keeping visual noise and clutter under control in general: removing objects from sight and storing them “in baskets or multi-purpose furniture that serve as storage,” she explains.
In addition to the hallway, other “hot spots” that attract clutter and accumulation of objects are horizontal surfaces (coffee tables, consoles, desks, floors, chairs, stairs, countertops), he points out.
Simplicity in the kitchen
To begin simplifying, Cabero recommends carrying out a first round of identification and prevention of visual noise, consisting of going through the house, room by room, eliminating everything that is bothersome to our well-being.
She describes some specific ideas that we can apply in the kitchen, “adapting them to our routine, needs and life moment”, as an example of the proposals she makes in her book ‘Simplify, organize and decorate’ and explains how to eliminate visual noise in the living room, bathroom, bedrooms, laundry room and hall.
- Reduce the decoration to a minimum, since it is a space that is filled with things and becomes disorganized in our daily lives.
- Keep your countertops clear and store small appliances and utensils in cabinets and drawers.
- Replace bottles that need to be visible with dispensers that blend aesthetically with the decor.
- Avoid filling the refrigerator door with magnets and papers.
- Avoid placing conspicuous containers, cloths or boxes, as well as glasses, cups and pieces of tableware, on shelves and in visible cupboards.
- Use opaque and identical containers to store food with eye-catching packaging, and transparent ones for dry products (spices, cereals, legumes, breadcrumbs).
#home #free #visual #noise
