Like with Like & National Geographic Decor

I know that “Like with Like” is a no-duh organization 101 kind of thing, but I cannot tell you how many times we’ve come into somebody’s home and found beautiful things cluttering up a space making it look like a mess when all we need to do is move a few things around and voila!: organization, beauty and original decor. Better yet for all the Organics (NFs), Classic Freedoms (SFJs) and Fun Freedoms (SFPs) — you don’t have to throw anything out.

One of these things is not like the others is a great segment on Sesame Street for a reason: even toddlers know when something is out of place. So why did it take almost 10 years in the business for me to realize that my mom’s National Geographic magazine collection needed to take center stage? This image I have up here? I saw it in Home Beautiful about five or so years ago and thought, like the dreamer I am, that it would be perfect to have in the beach house we were going to buy, one day.

So living in my folks’ house as I convalesce from my multiple medical issues has made me want to pixie and organize it when I have the energy and wherewithal. Mom’s got tons of children’s books in the house, from our childhood and her years as an art therapist. They’re in the attic and the basement. I let the books stay in the attic because mom painted it with clouds and sky on the sloped ceilings and a life size flower garden mural on the short walls. It’s a blue and green and bright colored beautiful room made for children, complete with a couple of hidden pixies flittering about the flowers. So after six months of living in this garden it finally occurred to me that the beach house might be a few years down the line yet and that her stacks of National Geographics that were getting in the way on the stairs up to the “garden” should get center stage on the bookshelf up here. Especially since the other half of her children’s book collection was in the basement.

And yes it took me a couple of weeks or so to realize that moving all the children’s books into the basement and putting all the National Geographics on the shelf up here was organization 101. Putting like with like. In fact it wasn’t until I was tidying up the basement — that also has all the toys, so putting the kid books down there made even more sense — that I found ANOTHER stack of National Geographics! Mom loves to use the magazines for inspiration for her artwork, but she’s never found the need to display them. But they look SO good all together. It’s like a forsythia bush in bloom up here now! I swear it’s also what gave little sister Kelly the idea to save her bright yellow and black Playbills from Broadway shows to put on display in the family room of her suburban home, one day.

So before you throw out all your clutter, make sure it’s been put in the right place. The children’s books have been sorted by size, hardcover separated from soft, and they look soo much better. They’re also up high and out of reach from the toddler who doesn’t like to be read to, but just likes to take stuff down. And yes I realize I should have a photo of my new bookshelf of National Geographics, but because I am an Organic Freedom (NFP) my attic project is not done, yet.

(Instead I found the photo from House Beautiful I remembered, plus lots of other National Geographic magazine decor ideas. It’s extremely inexpensive to buy your own collection off of ebay, so also a good idea to remember when someone is holding onto a collection they don’t particularly need or want and don’t have the space to display it. You can always buy it again for a fraction of the cost, years down the line!)