Is there a simple way of navigating between chaos and order in our child-filled houses while not only staying sane, but also being happy and thriving? We think we’ve found the answer.
Having kids doesn’t just change your life – it revolutionises it. Picture this: a whole village of dinosaurs scattered around your living room, colourful blocks planted inside your boots, and raisin toast smashed onto your favourite linen pillow. The change is palpable. Before kids you had – or maybe dreamed of – a KonMari-inspired capsule wardrobe and an extravagant succulent collection. Now your life is an intricate juggling act. Every day you are fighting to carve out the last chunk of ‘me’ space after you have changed, fed, wiped, hugged and played with the little, ever-demanding, but irrevocably loveable humans.
Our modern world is ruled by an unrealistic notion that everything must be smooth and sleek rather than unpolished and imperfect. We feed off the glossy images that social media serves us and every day we find ourselves yearning to have it all: fulfilling jobs, clean houses, ideal spouses and the perfect wardrobe, and often end up feeling that we fail miserably on all fronts. In our fast-paced, consumerist world, wabi-sabi becomes an ode to the simple, natural, unpolished, reclaimed and sustainable. Think: thrift shops, your grandmother’s wooden bowl, the smell of vintage leather, or the cracks of an old wooden floor.
Refreshingly, accepting things as they are – perfectly imperfect.
Embracing wabi-sabi gives us license to reorder our priorities, letting go of what we think is required of us and replacing it with our own version of what special and meaningful look like on our own terms.
8 steps to a wabi-sabi-inspired home
- Make small changes and look at your surroundings differently; your world will begin to shift. You don’t have to buy a whole new set of clothes, furniture, beauty products or ceramics to live more authentically.
- Take cues from nature. Visually, wabi-sabi is all about a natural, rustic look. For your home, pick natural materials (preferably sustainably sourced): timber, stone, clay, porcelain and try to use natural fibres like linen for clothing and bed.
- Cherish the old, inherited and reclaimed. Make yourself at home in second-hand stores, which are a treasure trove of old and delightful objects. Look into storage or ask your parents – some of the toys from your childhood may still get lots of love from your children.
- Embrace impermanence. Wabi-sabi is the best teacher of the passage of time, as seasonality has long been valued in Japan. Make use of seasonal ingredients in your cooking to live closer to nature’s cycles and to connect to the unique energies of each season.
- Consider the role of the five senses. Embrace low light and darkness when it suits the season and your mood. Teach kids how scents create memories and let them pick their own essential oils – for bath and bedtime, a little foot rub or playtime.
- Bring nature in. To make an unpretentious home styling, collect flowers, branches, nuts, feathers, leaves, shells, pebbles and so on. Discover the joy of creating visual poetry with the gifts of land and sea.
Less is more – in makeup, home décor, clothing and life’s undertakings. If you have less, you can’t make a mess! Decluttering saves money and brain bandwidth – science proves that we get stressed less in clean, visually harmonious places.
