It all started with my mother pointing out how horrible my carpet looks. “You’ve had it for years. It’s a disaster. You need to change it now.” Thanks to her efforts, a few days later I found several square selections in my room to choose from and made my decision, but that was only the beginning. After coming home from work one day, once again, my mother had another revelation about my room. “I am imagining your room completely differently. I want to work on it and change everything.” EVERYTHING? If you know me you know I am not change’s biggest fan.

“Your bed needs to go.” I love my bed! There’s nothing wrong with my couch! What’s the matter with my coffee table?! I didn’t realize what was wrong with them until I met my new bed, my new couch, and my new coffee table (which were all found on a random Saturday trip to The One). As soon as I entered the Marina branch, there it was, my new bed. “It’s lovely but you haven’t even seen the other ones!” My mother protested. Fair enough, we went around to see the other ones. We saw every last bed in the whole place and I just knew the first one was it. One bedside table, carpet, dresser chair, and couch later we had found all the missing pieces of my new room. Three days later the carpet was changed and the furniture was delivered and now I never want to leave my bedroom when I’m at home.

Changing your room really changes the comfort you feel at home and in your own space. It is a whole new take on design and inspires you to keep everything in it impeccably clean. This includes perfecting and organizing the closet! Needless to say, the following Friday was spent taking every summer clothing article and packing it away into the upper closet space. You guessed what follows next, organizing by categories and color. This sounds like SUCH a drag but after two hours on a lazy Friday afternoon it’s amazing what you can do for your room. This in turn changes your whole week and how easily you can pick outfits out. Organizing my room and closet space to such an extreme extent, forced upon me by my new carpeting, turned out to be the best gift. As tedious as it was going through old boxes, pictures, cards, and random useless belongings I had hoarded for so long, the end result was fantastic. Now I can’t stand seeing a tiny mess in this new spotless room. Even when all I want to do is fall asleep I see a jacket on the couch and just have to put it back into the closet before giving in to my drooping eyes.

This is not to say that you have to get a whole new room to be this motivated, but that’s what gave me the push! I recommend that everyone take a day on the weekend when there’s nothing else to do and go though your entire room, corner by corner and drawer by drawer with a large black trash bag at your side. There will be things of sentimental value that you could never throw away, so just put these into a box and store it somewhere safe. Not EVERYTHING has to stay in your room. I think I threw out every last CD since, let’s be honest, who uses CDs anymore? This goes for DVD boxes, too (all DVDs stored in a case). I can’t stress how important it is to get rid of shoes, bags, and clothes that you don’t wear anymore. Make sure you spend a good amount of time doing a clean sweep of your wardrobe and accessories. This goes for jewelry, too…no need to keep that heart necklace from the 7th grade! Take the time to do this and it will change the feeling that your room is a mess, as well as push you to keep it clean. If you do this, you can just add a few new pillows and bed case into the mix, giving your room that ‘evolved’ feeling. Go for a new painting or carpet and enjoy your lovely new and improved budoir. Happy first month of the year everyone!