CLEAR AGENDA

There’s nothing like a brand new year to trip the ‘get organised’ switch and that, combined with an office relocation, has prompted a long overdue clean-up of the H&G storerooms and personal files to boot.

When you’re in the zone and enter peak ‘toss’ mode, it’s amazing how easy it is to discard things once too important to part.

It’s also wonderfully liberating. But shedding obsolete files is one thing; books and magazines another entirely. So while there are recycling bins filled to the brim with old reports, we’ll take the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves with us. They’ll line an entire wall, bringing warmth and familiarity to the new space – a decorative tool and research resource in one.

This issue is full of ideas to advance the streamlined home (and office) and ease our minds at the same time. As Laura Barry reports in All In Order (page 144), 40 per cent of Australians felt anxious, guilty or depressed about clutter in their homes when surveyed by the Australian Institute a decade ago. Given the rise in consumerism since, it’s unlikely this figure has dropped. Meanwhile, decluttering services and minimalism documentaries pop up as the counter culture. Add in the pressing need to reduce waste and the desire for a well-functioning home is difficult to suppress.

Kayla Gex’s decorating story (page 25) taps beautifully into the mindset, picking up on a Japanese term, shibumi, an aesthetic probably best described as warm minimalism. It centres on the notion that the things you surround yourself with have function and beauty and meaning. Each piece has a story, a reason for being. The result is wonderfully calming spaces with a real sense of timelessness, too.

Storage is the other path to streamlined living and the range of attractive off-the-shelf storage solutions is seemingly boundless. Just as exciting are the bespoke designs that can be magicked into a home to complement and improve its look and functionality.

Every home in this issue is united in the pursuit of order, without sacrificing personality. Common threads in the contemporary renovations and new builds are miles of accessible storage, desk/tech nooks close to the kitchen and display shelves to highlight pieces they really love. And upfront, Kate Walker (page 16) puts antiques to good use, delivering character and storage.

It’s time to hit ‘send’ on this issue… and pack some more boxes. Bye for now!