As I continue the massive purge and try to fight my hoarding tendencies, I also have trouble getting myself over to the Salvation Army on the west side of town to do the dropoff. If I’m not done purging, I tend to let it pile up really high so I don’t have to make more than one trip. This is dumb, because I’ll never be done. Frequent trips must coincide with cleanouts.

Usually my motivation there is a reward trip to Bungalow Classic or Forsyth Fabrics, but acquiring more stuff is rather counter-productive. If I keep the giveaway stuff in the guest room to pile up, it doesn’t bother me, because I can just shut the door. So my advice is to put it somewhere really inconvenient where the mess will get on your nerves. For me, the dining room is the one room I can consistently keep looking picked-up and nice, and it’s open to my living room, staircase and kitchen. Even though I can barely pick up this television set, it won’t be sitting here for long, because it is getting on my nerves big time. Another trick is to put it right into your car trunk immediately.

P.S. You may recognize those IKEA sconces from my D.I.Y. disaster. I finally got some cute, still in the packaging replacements at Habitat for Humanity’s Re-Store for $2/apeice.

Here are a few quik modern nautical ideas using products we shill over on the retail part of the site. I admit it, I just wanted an excuse to play on Polyvore all afternoon:

Modern Nautical Living Room by thebubbreport on Polyvore.com

Nautical Inspired Modern Dining Room by thebubbreport on Polyvore.com

Sometimes when I’m stumped I pull out a jumbled box of fabric samples, favorite postcards, little scraps I’ve torn out of magazines and other ephemera and throw them on an inspiration board. I’ve finally learned not to bother feeling like I have to glue anything down or make it permanent, I can keep rearranging and playing around with it until I see something I like, snap a photo, and move on. Do you ever do this?

Awhile back I was ready for summer and feeling patriotic so everything was red, white and blue and nautical. It’s making me want to change up my house for the hot months that are coming our way here in Georgia with some crisp blue and white so that I can pretend I’m on some island off the New England coast.

Inspiration Board Tip: Try to work in Wonder Woman whenever possible.

I’ll try to pull together some of my favorite nautical products from Design Public on Polyvore in case you are in the mood for a nautical decor change-up!

DwellStudio’s Peacock Citrine Duvet was featured as a high-quality bedding option for the Ola, Portugal! trend alert in the May 2010 issue of Connecticut Cottages & Gardens (Living in Style issue).