Taking Care of Your Home in Confinement

Cleaning

1. Go room by room

In order to properly sort out your house, focus on cleaning one room at a time. Once you have chosen your first room, start by sorting out everything hiding in the drawers, in the cupboards and on the shelves. You will quickly accumulate a pile of objects that you have not used in a long time. Take your time when sorting through your things; you can decide to do either one room per day or dedicate an entire week for sorting through everything. It all depends on the size of the room and how much free time you have. The important thing is to go at your own pace.

2. Keep it or toss it?

It’s always difficult to part ways with possessions – even more so when they have sentimental value. When deciding whether to keep or toss something, ask yourself these questions: How useful is this object? Can I live without it? Am I ready to get rid of it? Be honest and sort accordingly. 

Reorganizing

Once you’ve finished cleaning everything out, it’s time to reorganize. Having a well-arranged room can make your home feel more elegant. It can also create a feeling of serenity when everything is in its place. There are a few easy ways to get started reorganizing. Start by putting unneeded items in storage. With warm days coming our way, replace the winter clothes in your closet with t-shirts, shorts and dresses. Make sure to keep some jeans and sweaters just in case, then put the rest in storage in your closet, under your bed, or wherever you have space tucked away. Next, rethink your storage spaces. If you have a bookcase, rearrange it by sorting out your books by size, genre or alphabetical order. You can even add a few items to decorate the bookcase.

Rearranging your home

1. Save space

Confinement is also the perfect time to move your furniture around to save as much space as possible. Doing this once or twice a year can create the feeling of having a brand new home without spending anything!

Try repositioning your couch, tables or lamps, but keep a few things in mind. First, locate your room’s electrical outlets and figure out where your lamps, computer chargers and other electronics need to be. Be aware of natural lighting as well. For example, if you have a desk, you don’t want to have the sun’s reflection on your laptop’s screen. Test and move things around until you find the perfect layout.

2. Harmonize

When decorating a home, harmony is important, and balancing the number of different colors in a room is the number one rule in decoration. If your bedroom has white walls, a gray bed, green night tables and a blue mat, the amount of color might create visual confusion. Instead, try to match the color of the night tables with the bed and add a white or a black mat. This will create a more elegant and serene environment. You can also add a brighter color (e.g. yellow or red) by adding lamps, small statues or paintings that make the room livelier. Above all, stay constant and don’t mix too many colors.

Arrange an Office Corner 

Being confined with family can be great, but it can make working more difficult. To stay focused, create a space where you can isolate yourself and concentrate.

1. Pick a room

If you don’t have a home office, choose one where you know you will be able to focus. If you work in your kitchen or living room, use the tables or kitchen counters as a desk. If you live in a small apartment you can use half of your table or the top of a low shelf.

2. Customize your office

Next, start customizing your work space. Add green plants near your computer or tape a planner on the wall to keep up with meetings and stay organized. For a personal touch, add family photos or your children’s drawings.

You can find more interior design tips and learn more about Annelyse Gaston-Carrère's work on her blog,

Déco-Centrées.