A decluttered state of mind
Shira Gill had an adventurous spirit from an early age, traveling solo to Europe as a teenager to study art in Florence, Italy, and theater in London and making her way from California to perform with Chicago’s Second City. She had filled her life with big experiences by the time she married her husband, Jordan, at 28; he’d been waiting patiently for her to stay put ever since they met as camp counselors in Yosemite 10 years before.
Both from the Bay Area, Jordan and Shira had a brief stint in Los Angeles where Shira became pregnant with their first child, Chloe. Working nights and weekends as a talent agent no longer made sense for the new mom, yet it never occurred to her to turn her knack for organizing into a career. “After helping one of my actor friends declutter her space, something I’d done for many other friends,” Shira recalls, “she told me, ‘You changed my life, you should do this.’ ”
Today, Shira runs her own one-woman show at Shira Gill Home, where she helps new moms prepare nurseries, embrace their post-partum bodies with closet makeovers (while ditching bags of dated clothes) and helps with other rescue missions that involve decluttering, designing and organizing. To her, simplifying your home is more than a cosmetic need — it can be a life-changer. “Clutter can hold people back,” she says. “I’ve helped people purge remnants of past marriages to start anew and helped others go from being ashamed of their home to hosting parties and playdates with confidence.” Clients come to Shira for her clean, calming style, which leans heavily toward neutral Scandinavian modern.
The Gills’ Berkeley Craftsman home is just blocks from the charming Elmwood area. Jordan loves the home’s warm Craftsman-style woodwork while Shira saw it originally as a design challenge. “To me, you can never have too much white and light,” she says. Both agreed on the Room and Board Harding sectional in the living room (great for family movie nights) and their master’s bedroom Marlo bed, also from Room and Board. They scored the farmhouse dining table and vintage French school chairs at the Alameda Antiques Faire.
When they moved into the home three years ago, with a second daughter, Emilie, they made just a few easy updates: freshening the kitchen by painting the cabinets white, adding new white subway tile and installing big-impact lighting from places like Schoolhouse Electric. “I always love to have fresh flowers in our home too,” says Shira, for an easy way to add a refreshing pop of color. The Floral Cultural Society is her go-to for beautiful bouquets from local flower farms.
The 100-year-old home lacks the storage space of today’s mod- ern homes, but that doesn’t rattle a minimalist like Shira. Her girls share a room with twin West Elm platform beds and a curated collection of books, art and timeless games. “There is so much pressure to keep up with trends and buy all of the latest gear and gadgets,” she laments. “My kids will play for hours with a cardboard box or a pillow fort. I think having less inspires creativity and play.”
Still, with birthdays and holidays, a heavy stream of gifts makes its way into their home. “I use a hanging tote in my closet to toss things like clothes my girls have outgrown and toys they no longer use.” When the tote’s full, it goes off to a local charity. She makes sure to involve the girls in her clean sweeps, too. “I try to remind them to create space and give to those less fortunate in order to make room for new things — of course, it helps that they know new things are coming!”
With a smaller home, the Gills take advantage of their outdoor space, where they often entertain friends and family, and venture out to their neighborhood, where favorite haunts include Wood Tavern, Advocate and Nabolom Bakery. “For my clients and for myself, I try to focus on values — what do you want from your home? For us, it’s about experiences rather than objects,” she says. “With less stuff, we have this sense of great abundance, flexibility and freedom to our lives.”