You have been home a lot more, not going out as much. You might be on an organizing frenzy or want to be. You are tired of seeing your same old stuff and need change. Yes, you can throw your stuff away, you can donate it or you can sell it, but you can also keep it and create a Household Boutique.
Well, how about creating a household boutique?
What is a Household Boutique? Well, it’s a store, but in your own space! You can apply this idea to your office, too, but for the purposes of this post, I’ll just talk about the space at home.
A Household Boutique is something that lives in a storage space that acts as your store or shop. It can be as big as your basement or as small as a bin. The main concept is that it’s the place where you go to “shop” before you actually go to a store (or online shop) and spend money on something you may already have. This format is different from a storage room or closet, as it isn’t a place where you store stuff and forget about it. This is a living, breathing set up for you to go to first, before going shopping. In order for it to work, it should adhere to three simple concepts: be easily visual/accessible, be well cataloged somewhere, and have a shop name. Read below for details and the simple outline of how to create one of your own.
Your home is like a store. Every item in your house should have a purpose or a value, so very once in a while, you should do an inventory of your “stock”.
You’ll Need:
- Stickers
- Excel or Microsoft (or any searchable document will work)
- Shelves or bins
- A special place designated for your mart like a closet, an extra room
Creating your Household Boutique
- After cleaning out and re-organizing your space, separate the items that you are not ready to throw or give away. These are the things that are in limbo. Maybe you don’t use them often, maybe they’re brand new or maybe you just want to take a break from them. This differs from items that you know you won’t use anymore and are ready to be retired or thrown out.
- Choose to do either a well-documented catalog of those items or how you will display them so you can easily “see” them and get to them. You can choose to do both but that’s one extra step and who has time for that?! (But heck, go for it, you flamazing gal!)
- Catalog: this can be listing all of your items on an Excel sheet (or Word) and making it easily searchable. The goal is that a year from now when you are looking to redo your bedroom and wondering which “lamps” you might own, you will easily pull up what you already have “in stock”. Can you repurpose them? Here is where this list will be very important. If you end up using that item, great! You just saved yourself from spending money on something you already had at home. If you do not use it, then you will mark it on your spreadsheet. Next time you are ready to purge your shop, you’ll go through your list and see how many times you passed on that item. After 3 times, it’s time for it to go! There truly is no purpose for it in your life.
- Display: if you have space and/or you are a visual person, then this method will be for you. (Keep in mind that displaying anything means it will collect dust, but the payoff is worth it!) This method is simple — you display your items so when you need something, you just open up the area and choose what you want to “buy”. There are a few ways in which you can keep track of what you have used. Put a color sticker on the items and, when you use it, remove the sticker. After a year, take a look at what still has a sticker and determine if you still want it.
- A name! Every shop needs a name. Pick a name for your shop/boutique that speaks to you. You’ll want to visit your shop a lot more if you personalize it.
- Lastly, regardless of what method you use, take pictures of your items. Not necessarily one by one, but just enough so you can see what you have, and place it in a folder. Most phones allow you to catalog your pictures and place them in a “folder” while the pictures remain in your general album.
