Don't decorate with cereal boxes

Keep an eye on unintentional decor

In a podcast interview not long ago, I heard a thought-provoking observation from Myquillyn Smith, who blogs at The Nester. She said that, “Everything that sits out in my home is a decoration.” She explained that this means that if you have cereal boxes sitting on your kitchen counter, you’re decorating with cereal boxes.

I laughed at that image, but if you’re like me, when you look around your home, you may realize you’re doing just that. Do you have bags of coffee beans sitting next to your coffee maker? Dental floss by your bathroom sink? Laundry detergent at the foot of the stairs that you intend to take up to the laundry room the next time you go upstairs?

Turns out, these things are all part of the decor.

No special filter

These items aren’t intended to make a decorating statement, but if they’re out, they function as part of the decor anyway. People’s eyes don’t have special filters that magnify the intentional decor and hide the stuff that’s stored in plain sight. Everything is visible just the same — that beautiful framed art work you chose because you love the colors and the handful of cereal boxes that you probably did not select for their aesthetics.

Now, to be fair, I’m a practical person and I totally understand that people leave a lot of stuff sitting out so it’s convenient to use or because it reminds them of something they need to do. And sometimes this is fine.

But it might be worth thinking about. At some point in my 15 years of changing diapers I realized that storing the diapers in the top drawer of a baby’s changing table was just as convenient as storing them in a box next to the table. Possibly even more convenient. And definitely more attractive. Storing the cereal boxes in the pantry is no less convenient than taking up counter space. There’s no need to decant them into pretty jars or anything like that. Once they’re in the pantry they’re fine. But at least they’re no longer part of the general decorating scheme.

Make use of little baskets

As for stuff that truly does need to be convenient, it can at least be corralled and put in something attractive. For instance, shoes can go in individual bins by the back door. Make-up you use daily can go in a nice little container on your bathroom counter so it’s not spread all over the place. The cute little container becomes the decor, not your individual squirt bottles of whatever it is you use.

If you need reminders of things you have to do, you might still be able to find another solution rather than leaving things out in plain sight. For instance, if you need to remember to bring your library books to the library, rather than put them on the kitchen counter, go put them on the drivers’ seat of your car. It’s pretty hard to forget to bring them back then!

I’d also suggest walking through your house and looking for spots where things have wound up out in the open instead of put away. Again, there might be a good reason. We leave olive oil and salt on the counter by the stove since we cook with these things multiple times per day. But then I saw that these two items were attracting other things — like champagne vinegar, which we use twice a year. Maybe. That could get put away. No need to decorate with that. Even if the bottle is kind of cute.