Surround Yourself with Stuff You Love

The main feature of The Oprah Magazine’s March issue is “Our Stuff, Ourselves” and they’ve got tons of ideas. The first article, on page 156 is an interview with Nate Berkus — Oprahs’ favorite interior designer — by writer Lisa Kogan who has got to be an Organic Freedom because I, an Organic Freedom always and I mean always identify with her. I love the photo of Nate’s living room and it gave me tons of ideas and in reading the interview I thought, this guy is probably an Organic too.

Why? Because an Organic’s main function in life is to attain and maintain harmony in the name of idealism. So a lot of times we tend to adapt to our surroundings — to keep the good feelings flowing — to the point of forgetting who we really are or what we really want.

Nate used to be a staunch minimalist, making sure that his homes were all clean lines with no clutter. But eventually he realized it wasn’t who he was. He started surrounding himself with things he loved like books and shells and candles. It took him a while to let go of “what my space should look like. Once I started letting stuff in, I really started making a home for myself.”

We Pixies love when we hear the word should. Because the minute we hear it we know it’s time to make a change. And that’s exactly what Nate did. I won’t paraphrase because it’s something all Organics immediately identify with:

What I’ve come to understand is that if things have meaning, if they sing a little song to you when you look at them, that’s when you can really start breaking the rules, quote-unquote, of design. Why not take a two-dollar creamer with the lid missing and fill it with Q-tips? Who says you can’t reupholster your chair with a shearling rug or take the fantastic vintage necklace you never wear and hang it around the neck of a lamp?

Fact is, Organics always feel better when they’re surrounded with things they love. And we so often forget this. Lately I’ve been thinking about all the photos I love that are in my mom’s photo albums. I could probably describe each one to you in detail. So I’ve decided that on my next trip to Cleveland I’m going to photocopy all my favorite photos and hang them up on my wall. Because I’m an Organic Freedom this might take me a year or so, but I’ll let you know when it gets done.

Originally published March 7, 2011.