Simply Beautiful Ways to Elevate Your Everyday

If you want a golden rule…this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.

These wise words from British multi-hyphenate William Morris exemplify how the thoughtful consideration of your home can affect your daily life. To get started without delay—today, in fact—consider the following:

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Make your bed every day. Seriously. Have you heard the saying “messy bed, messy head”? It’s true. But by making your bed, you experience both instant accomplishment and instant gratification. It shouldn’t take a minute to pull, fold, tuck, and voilà: a thing of beauty to return to at day’s end.

For extra credit, tidy up the spaces you use on the flip side of the day. Before you head to bed, fluff the couch pillows and clear off the coffee table. Load the dishwasher and set out coffee makings. Anything that will provide a sense of ease the next day.

Establish a mail bowl or a tray where the day’s mail is placed upon entry. This is especially helpful for a multi-person household. Consider lightening the load right away by recycling the obvious, setting paperwork wherever you deal with your financials, placing magazines and other reading material on the coffee table, and opening the personal mail at once!

For extra credit, use the bowl system to corral keys, sunglasses, and wallets. Choose an attractive container that’s large enough to hold everything and set it somewhere in view where people will use it.

Bring in fresh flowers. Do not underestimate the power of a grocery store bouquet. In fact, add it to your weekly shopping list. You can arrange your bundle as a standalone display or spread the floral joy into other rooms: a surprise bud vase in the bathroom or on a nightstand greets you each morning and evening.

For extra credit, opt for an orchid. Colorful and elegant, one should last several months with only a weekly ice cube to keep it happy. Think of it as a superlong-lasting bouquet and don’t worry about bringing it back to life once its blooms are spent. Toss it in the compost pile and go pick out a new one. It’s OK, really.

Keep it personal. Decorate with items that are special to you—family photos and heirlooms, sentimental objects, and souvenirs from your travels. When in need of a new item, consider vintage rather than heading to a big-box store. Your uniquely curated collection will reflect back to you each day…and endure longer than any trend.

For extra credit, keep surfaces free from clutter. Display away but don’t let things collect. And, like my mom always says, put things away right after you’ve used them so it isn’t a bigger job later.

Highlight seasonal shifts. Use the first day of each new season as a reminder to refresh the energy in the house. Select a new wreath for your front door. In winter, add throws to the couches. In summer, switch from flannel to cotton sheets. In fall, pre-empt the imminent time change (and darkness to come) with groupings of battery-operated candles on timers.

For extra credit, change up your musical soundtrack and the candle scents. Your daily self will thank you all season long.

Knowledge • Wisdom • Truth

To begin this blog, I went to the past—my blog of yore—seeking inspiration about beginnings and plot twists from another era. I was pleased to find the one below. Recycled here with liberties taken for form and function.

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Knowledge. Wisdom. Truth. These were the words embroidered on the button placket of his dress shirt. As if I were blind and it was braille, I rubbed my fingers over the cursive threads. I hadn't noticed his silent mantra until our final venue of the night, like a fortune cookie at the end of a meal. Knowledge. Wisdom. Truth.

The truth is, I look for signs like these. I seek meaning. I go to my friends like horoscopes, each one offering a slightly different perspective on my situation at any given time. But the core guiding sun, moon, and stars are there. They are my guiding sun, moon, and stars. They are all beautiful and wise and I wouldn't want to try to get through this life without them.

For fun, I sometimes check in with my astrologer of choice. He's in England, so his online predictions are eight hours ahead. See, he really can tell my future. Like today (but I knew this yesterday...)

Artists love to play with perspective. Musicians enjoy mixing sounds. A picture alters dramatically depending on what you place where. A symphony can be transformed by allowing a different instrument to dominate. As you look at what needs to be altered, try keeping the same basic components but arranging them in a different order.

He knows just how to appeal to my artist within. All the pieces are good, but perhaps just a rearrangement is necessary. But is it time to move the furniture around a bit, or is it time to move myself? I think I know the answer.

One of my aforementioned wise sisters said to me, "It's easy to live small. When you live big, it will always feel better ultimately." It's just that it's scary to forge new ground. Feel the fear and do it anyway. Good advice and my favorite self-help book title.

Time to make my move!

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Back then, the move was literal, trading suburb for city. Today, it’s figurative. Introducing Lit & Fig, where I’ve taken the same basic components of my life and arranged them in a different order. What may seem disparate at first blush is just me multi-hyphenating: writing, editing, decorating. For all the knowledge, wisdom, and truth of the process, I’ve landed here. Beauty. Function. Meaning.