Home Redesign…
Work with what you have to create a beautiful, practical space that reflects who you are and supports how you live. We help you feel more at home in your home by helping you create a space that is aesthetically and functionally pleasing to you using the things that you already own.
Sometimes you don’t need new stuff—you just need a more pleasing arrangement of the old stuff. Whether you’re not sure what to do with your old things in a new space or your old space lacks the comfort and style you desire, we can help you make the most of your existing furnishings and accessories at a price you can afford. After all, why spend money on things that you don’t really need when a skillful redesign may be all that’s required?
Often, the whole redesign process can be accomplished in a day—sometimes less or more, depending on the scope of your redesign project and your resources. For example, does your space need cleaning and painting, decluttering and organizing, or are we simply rearranging your belongings?
Some redesign projects can be completed without additional help. Sometimes, we will suggest that you invite or enlist your friends and/or family members to assist with the redesign—high school athletes and college students have also been known to assist for a modest fee. Since everyone’s health and safety is important to us, if you have valuable, heavy furnishings, we may suggest that you hire professional movers to assist with the process, although in our experience this is rarely necessary. However, if it’s a choice between saving your back or a buck, save your back.
After the redesign is complete, we may leave behind a list of a few things you can do on your own to further improve the space—for example, adding a lighting fixture to a particular area, or simply changing the kind of light bulb, organizing a cupboard, or sorting through your books.
For more information about our services, please contact us:info@luminaliving.com / 1.206.780.2998
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Decluttering & Organizing…
Do you wish you could find what you’re looking for when you need it? Is your home beginning to feel like an obstacle course? Do you have too much stuff for your space? Do you waste time hunting through stacks and piles? Are you burdened by your belongings? Do you have a closet full of clothes but nothing to wear? Do you have to get out of your house to relax? Is your house an unnatural disaster? Has bull-dozing become an appealing alternative to housecleaning?
“Out of clutter, find simplicity;
From discord, find harmony; In the
middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
Albert Einstein
There are many things that create stress in life; unnecessary clutter should not be one of these. Sometimes less is more. Whether you are preparing to sell, just moving in, or updating in your home, eliminating clutter and organizing your belongings is a simple way to enhance your well-being.
Clutter is all the stuff you no longer need, use, or love. It’s the stuff you used to like before your tastes changed—or you came to your senses. It’s books that you’ve read or been meaning to read that no longer interest you, the t-shirt that belonged to your x, the mix tapes that ought to be burned, the ab-cruncher, and that…um, other thing, that seemed like a good idea at the time.
It’s the recipe clippings gathering dust in the cupboard, expired cough syrup, coupons, old newspapers, broken gadgets, past holiday cards and meaningless photos. It’s the tea-cozy from Aunt Suzy, and every other gift that you don’t like and don’t use but think you should keep because so-and-so gave it to you on some special occasion. It’s all the clothes that don’t fit, the sock singles in the laundry room, and the pants that looked great in the store, but have never left your closet. It’s the sort pile long past sorting and the junk in the junk drawer that you can’t even identify, but somehow seemed worth saving.
It’s the “mystery” box in the closet unopened from your last move, the garage sale stuff still sitting in the garage and all that other stuff that you’d think twice about keeping if you were moving. You know the stuff. Clutter is visual noise that distracts you from being at peace in your space.
“A place for everything, everything in its place.”
Benjamin Franklin
“Life seeks to organize so that more life can flourish. Systems are friendlier to life. They provide support and stability. They also provide more freedom for individual experimentation.”
Margaret J. Wheatley & Myron Kellner-Rogers
A Simpler Way
Disorder is defined as a condition in which there is a disturbance in normal functioning—it is a lack of organization that impedes your ability to use your stuff and your space easily, efficiently, and productively. It is time wasted looking for things, and money wasted buying duplicates of stuff that you already own, but couldn’t find. It is mental energy spent avoiding certain cupboards and drawers because opening these is so unpleasant. It’s piling the clean laundry on the dryer and using the exercise bike handles as an extra clothes rack because it’s easier than getting into your closet. It is being late because you couldn’t locate your keys again. It is worrying at the prospect of having guests in your home and dreading the unexpected sound of the doorbell. It is procrastinating on time-sensitive paperwork because it means sifting though the stacks on your desk. It is wishing that the TV, exercise machine, or name-that-particular-thing was someplace else. It’s feeling frustrated, embarrassed, ashamed, or overwhelmed by the state of your space. It is having to leave your space to think, breathe, or relax.
There’s a lot in life beyond your control, but organizing your space is well within your power—and your budget. Just as holding onto things that you no longer need, use, and/or love creates unnecessary stress, living with the stuff you need, use, and love in disarray takes energy and time away from things that really matter. Disorder and clutter take up physical and psychological space, literally and figuratively hindering your movement and flow.
Make room for what really matters. Resuscitate “dead” space. Find order at the edge of chaos. Let us help you create a clutter-free, organized space so that you can focus on the things that really matter.
For more information about our services, please contact us:info@luminaliving.com / 1.206.780.2998
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Home Staging...
Relocating? Preparing for resale?
“A 2003 HomeGain Survey found that home staging paid for itself—
and then some—by boosting the final selling price. According to a 2006 StagedHomes.com survey, homes listed for sale without staging spent an average 4.5 months on the market; homes staged before listing spent less than 1.5 months on the market. The average time for a staged home to reach a ‘sales pending’ status was about a week…”
Gayle B. Ronan, MSNBC Contributor
September 2006 article, Professionals Set
the Stage for Quick Home Sales
Our home-staging process is designed to depersonalize and optimize your space so that it appeals to prospective buyers. Because buyers will look at your home with critical eyes, it is essential that you prepare your home to be seen in the best possible light. Yet, when you’ve lived someplace for any length of time, frequently investing untold time and energy into turning a house into your home, it is often challenging to see your home with the objectivity necessary to make significant improvements. That’s where we come in.
We offer a fresh perspective on your home and recommendations about how to improve your home’s first impression before any buyers walk through your door.
We offer the unvarnished and caring truth about your home, offering recommendations about the overall aesthetics, function, and flow of your space, as well as specific detailed instructions for home improvements that will help you sell your home more quickly and more profitably.
We help you...
Create conventionally beautiful and obviously functional living arrangements…
When you’re designing a home for living, taking liberties with how you choose to decorate and use your space is completely understandable. After all, you’re the one who has to live there. If orange happens to be your favorite color, and you like your cousin’s found art, by all means, go wild. If a computer station in your dining room and work-out gear in your living room works for you, no matter. And if you don’t mind moving the overstuffed chair to get to the bookshelf, that’s ok too. But when you’re designing a home for selling, it’s no longer about you and your comfort; it’s about helping buyers envision themselves in your space, so providing more conventionally beautiful and obviously functional living arrangements is a simple way to sell smart.
Eliminate or minimize your home’s less appealing features…
Reducing personal effects, making minor repairs, and cleaning every nook and cranny are well worth the time and effort in the long run. Where you see prized possessions, memorabilia, and pictures of your family and friends, a buyer is going to see clutter. The camping and cycling gear in the garage that reminds you of wonderful family outings is going to remind a buyer that there may not be enough storage space in your home or room for the car. Things like the squeaky screen door, the ugly light fixture in the back hall, the window in the kitchen that sticks, and all the other little idiosyncrasies of your home that you’ve come to accept will have a buyer wondering about maintenance and repair costs.
We help you see the things you no longer notice that may distract a buyer from seeing the best of your house, like the weeds along the walkway, the overgrown shrub beneath the dining room window, and the oil stain on the driveway. Likewise, the rust stains in the bathtub, the finger smudges on the cabinets, the scuff marks on the doors, or the dust-balls behind the refrigerator that you’ve given up trying to clean will attract the wrong kind of attention. After all, living with a certain amount of our own dust and dirt is just part of life, but let’s face it; we’re not willing to live with, let alone pay for, someone else’s. All of these things add up to reasons for a buyer not to buy your home or make a lesser offer.
Showcase and enhance your home’s most appealing features…
The goal of home staging is to create a home that presents well. From the moment buyers see your house, they are already determining whether or not they want to buy it. We help you create a first impression that sells your house. By offering clean, beautiful, functional spaces in which buyers instantly feel at home, we help you set the stage for top-dollar sales.
Bottom line: our goal is to help you make your home most attractive to buyers by eliminating or minimizing all of the features that might detract from the sale, as well as showcasing or enhancing all of its most appealing features, so buyers see a house that they’d like to call home, and you sell your home quickly and profitably.
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Home Therapy…
"What you do to any part of you that you call your 'surroundings' you are doing to yourself...The more you notice and learn about your 'surroundings,' the more you are learning about yourself."
David K. Reynolds
Sometimes changing your space is the first step
in changing your life. As odd as it may sound, sometimes "rearranging the furniture" is exactly what you need to create the groundwork for needed internal change and greater psychological well-being.
Although we human beings have an amazing capacity to habituate to even the most uncomfortable circumstances, when we are uncomfortable where we live, we frequently experience anxiety, stress, fatigue, and dis-ease. When our physical space is out of alignment with our psychological state, we experience discord. For example, we feel productive and organized, yet our space is cluttered and distracting. Bringing inner and outer states into alignment reduces unnecessary stress and greatly enhances our overall well-being.
At other times, our physical space may accurately reflect a dissonant psychological state that we would like to change—for example, our cluttered minds are perfectly mirrored in our cluttered homes. Because of the interconnectedness between inner and outer states, it is possible to change one's life from the “outside in” as well as the “inside out.” When we’re feeling mentally or emotionally stuck, sometimes the most practical thing we can do is change our context—the most obvious, yet often overlooked, being our physical environment. When we change our external surroundings, it can dramatically alter how we feel internally. Even when we are mostly content at home, making subtle changes to our personal environment can significantly impact our experience, enhancing joy, inspiration, creativity, and well-being.
Let us help you change your life, beginning with your home environment. We can help you redesign, declutter and organize your home in a way that supports who you are and how you want to live.
For more information about our services, please contact us:info@luminacoaching.com / 1.206.780.2998
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How we work:
1. Onsite Consultation—
we meet with you in your space to get a sense of your needs and style. We discuss how you currently use your space, what’s working and not working, and how you’d like to use it in the future. Basically, we take the time to get to know you and learn about how you would like to live in your space. (Usually one to three hours)
2. Planning Session—
we meet to offer recommendations and discuss how the space could be redesigned based on our understanding of your needs, preferences and resources. (Usually one to three hours)
3. Hands-on Redesign—
once we have a plan, we roll up our sleeves and get busy creating a space that you’ll want to live in. This usually involves removing everything from the space and then, reconfiguring the space according to the new design. Of course, be prepared to be surprised. As your belongings are brought back into the space, we sometimes experience spontaneous bursts of inspiration that alter the original design, a welcome and common part of any creative process that always enhances the end-result. (Usually, four or more hours)
How we work:
1. Onsite Consultation—
walk-through assessment in which we spend time with you in your space to get a sense of your needs, identifying and prioritizing the areas that you would like to address. We discuss how you currently use your space, what’s working and not working, and how you’d like to use it in the future. Basically, we take the time to get to know you and learn about how you would like to live in your space. (Usually one to two hours)
2. Planning Session—
we meet to offer recommendations and discuss how the space could be cleared and organized based on our understanding of your needs, preferences and resources. This may involve planning a series of small tasks that can be tackled over a period of time, or scheduling a weekend project. (Usually one to three hours)
3. Declutter Session(s)—once we have a plan, we get busy creating a space that you’ll want to live in. This usually involves clearing the clutter in a space and placing each item into four piles—Keep, Toss, Sell, Gift. Then, we begin sorting through the Keep pile using a similar process. Before we end the session, we create a plan to address the stuff to be tossed (the stuff beyond recycling or repair that goes straight to the dump), sold (the stuff to be priced, listed, and/or sold online or in your upcoming garage sale), given away (the stuff to be delivered to the appropriate charity, family, or friend) within a certain time period. (Usually, four or more hours depending on the size and purpose of the space and the amount of stuff to be cleared)
4. Organizing Session(s)—ok, everything has been sifted and sorted. Now, it’s time to organize your space. Sometimes this is a matter of simply using the existing storage, furnishings, and systems that you have more efficiently. Other times, we completely redesign the space, often introducing new storage and systems that will allow you to live, work, and play in your space with greater ease and efficiency. Whatever your situation, we create custom solutions designed to fit your lifestyle. Our intent is always to find what works best for you. (Usually, two or more hours, depending on the size and amount of stuff to be organized)
CONFIDENTIALITY:
Our work can be very personal in nature, however all work is carried out in a patient, non-judgemental way. We respect and hold all client information in confidence.
How we work:
1. Walk-through Assessment—we visit your home and help you assess how it will appeal to prospective buyers.
2. Planning Session—
we identify high-leverage "to-dos" and provide a detailed list of things you can do to enhance the value of your home from a buyer’s perspective and increase the probability of a faster, more profitable sale. Then, we work with you to create a do-able plan.
3. Hands-on Assistance—
We help you get the job done—from hands-on redesign, decluttering & organizing to managing small renovation, repair, or landscaping projects—we ensure that things get done on schedule within budget. Selling a home and moving is often overwhelming enough without the added burden of home improvement projects. If you find yourself wanting to make the most of your house without the time to devote to doing what it takes, hire us to help you get the job done.
For more information about our services, please contact us:
info@luminaliving.com / 1.206.780.2998
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