Do you struggle with wanting to live clutter free but also wanting to create a warm and inviting feel to your home?
On today’s show, Kathi sits down with Myquillyn Smith to talk about her book, Cozy Minimalist Home. Myquillyn shares her insights into what it means to be a “cozy minimalist,” one who wants the most amount of style with the least amount of stuff.
Kathi and Myquillyn also discuss what it looks like to go from a “stuff manager” to a “home curator.” And Myquillyn shares the one thing you can do today to start your journey towards a cozy, minimalist home. You don’t want to miss this fun and informative interview!
Cozy Minimalist Home releases on October 23, 2018!
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Enter to win a copy of Myquilln’s book!
Two lucky winners will win a copy of Cozy Minimalist Home
Enter by answering in the comments, “Which room do you struggle with the most when it comes to being a cozy minimalist?”
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Meet Our Guest
Myquillyn Smith
For the last ten years, Myquillyn Smith, known online as “The Nester,” has encouraged women to embrace their homes – imperfections and all. In Cozy Minimalist Home: More Style, Less Stuff (Zondervan), Myquillyn helps readers see their home’s hidden potential and create beautiful, functional spaces they love.
Myquillyn is a self-taught, design school dropout who took a week-long course so she could be a certified home stager and redesigner. She and her family have lived in 13 different houses, apartments and condos and spent plenty of time getting real world design experience. Millions of women have been inspired by Myquillyn’s blog, The Nesting Place and her home has been featured in Better Homes & Gardens, Ladies’ Home Journal, Cottages and Bungalows and the Charlotte Observer. Christianity Today named her one of 20 Creative Innovators of 2016. Her first book, The Nesting Place: It Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect to Be Beautiful, released in 2014.
My guest room/turned office and soon will be baby room. Has turned into a dumping ground where I just close the door.
My craft room, embarrassed to let anyone see it.
Probably my biggest struggle is the living room. There is so much going on there that I’m constantly trying to pick up all the things my family has left there and there is really no style. “Picked up” is my desired style right now but it could be better than that.
I really struggle with the whole house but probably the biggest struggle is the living room. There is so much going on there that I’m constantly trying to pick up all the things my family has left there and there is really no style. “Picked up” is my desired style right now but it could be better than that.
I struggle with the whole house! It’s so hard to my family to put things back where they belong. But mostly the kitchen! I’m trying to reduce the items we have so we don’t have as much to leave around.
I struggle with our family room because there are so many different activities that go on there.
Oddly the living room. It seems to be the room everyone else had put together. But in our house it is a playroom, entryway, landing place, gathering place, resting place, and some times eating place. Aka: a hot mess!
My bedroom where I spend a lot of time. Always seems cluttered with my books and knitting, yet I long for it to be a place of visual quietness!
I struggle with our living room. Our house is small and cozy, which is great except when four people, two being children who love to play, occupy one small living room.
My challenge is the family room. It is all minimalist and no cozy because I don’t know what to put anywhere. Since I get overwhelmed with stuff I just leave it empty
Our “storage room” in our attic, but I am so working toward this goal for our whole house.
My Kitchen/dining room! It’s my hot spot… always cluttered and when I clear counters & table, it feels stark and unwelcoming.
My kitchen. It is the dumping ground and where everyone comes together. I just have not figured out how to simplify and organize it.
Definitely our guest room/office/soon-to-be baby room!!! It needs to serve SO many functions that it is overwhelming to figure out how to keep it organized. I need to spend some time “editing” and “curating” to create a room that functions well for our family!
My Goodness… So many of the Rooms! I struggle with my Dining Room, which is also a space for our library for our grandchildren + a play space for the little ones. I also struggle with my Homeschool Room, which is also my office spot & a wanna-be craft space. Oh. And the Garage… 😀
My biggest struggle is the master bedroom. It should be a place of rest and calm but it is far from it. It is the biggest bedroom my husband and I have ever had so I think that is one of the main reasons that it gets ‘junked up’. I have difficulty sleeping and I’m almost positive the clutter is to blame.
The room I would love to adapt the cozy minimalist style to the most is our kitchen. It is our family’s dumping ground. I would love for it to feel clean and clutter free. Since I spend the most time there, I would also like to be able to decorate it in a way that makes me happy without feeling overwhelmed.
I have a hard time declutterimg my kitchen. I can get everything put away and it starts back over with clutter.
I struggle with the kitchen. I don’t have much cabinet space and I like to cook and have pretty dishware for holidays and get togethers. Some of my cabinets are narrow and deep–very hard to organize!
This is perfect timing–I am putting new flooring in my familyroom and striving for cozy minimalism in this room, hopefully it will pour over to the rest of the home.
My kitchen is so hard to keep minimal and decluttered!! My desk and our island are both in the kitchen and so challenging to keep everyone from dumping things there. When the counters are cluttered that makes me feel crazy as well!
My open concept living room dining room space. It’s difficult to make it feel warm and cozy without it being overwhelmed and feeling cluttered.
My dining room. I have a small house and my desk is in there as well as my dog’s crate so everything just ends up looking cluttered.
My bedroom! It’s where I put everything I don’t know what to do with, hoping that eventually I will have the time to go through it all.
“Which room do you struggle with the most when it comes to being a cozy minimalist?”
Living room/computer room. Computer armoire is a mess…plus the bookcases.
I also struggle with hanging artwork. “Perfectionist” in me is scared to hang them…LOL!
Yes, the living room/mud room/entryway/toy room/piano/TV/etc!!!!
My office and family room
My living room/kitchen! There’s so much clutter and the flow into one another. My son said it’s like an “Eye Spy” book (aka a ton of little things all over! ?)
Oh my gosh, I need this book! I desire in my heart to be a minimalist, which is no small feat with my family of 7, but after hearing about this book, I see I am struggling because I want to be a cozy minimalist to fit what I am desiring. My biggest struggle in my house is decorating any room. I am so in fear of the nail hole thing – and holiday decorating – don’t even get me started! STRESSFUL!! My best friend and I both have fairly new houses and so I think we would have a lot of fun reading this book together.
I’ve always been a minimalist decorator due to funds, indecisiveness, and small children. I desire that coziness I feel when I visit friend’s homes. I guess I’d like to start with the living room and make it not feel cold and sparse.
I think it would have to be my breakfast room and my office. Both seem to get overrun by paper! I can’t seem to get a handle on it.
The kitchen! It always becomes a catch-all area for clutter
I struggle with the bonus room over the garage. During our remodel it became the “catch all storage unit in situ “ ….remodel is done but it remains….like a beached whale!
My kitchen is my hardest room to keep organized. Small space, few cabinets and lots of cooking pans,pots,bowls,etc.
My entire house has become unmanageable. But my biggest struggle would be my living room and my craft room. My living room because it’s all open to the dining room & kitchen via an open bar area & everyone just comes in & drops everything on EVERY flat surface & I have become just completely overwhelmed. (This started 15 years ago when my husband’s adopted father moved in with us in our 3 bedroom home (were already a family of 5)) My father in law moved out a little over a year ago, my son 5 years ago and the sunroom/bedroom has now become my craft room, but more than anything it’s where everyone throws (literally) things to hide them “for the moment. I have lupus as well as other health issues, work full time, my middle child has recently went to college & my youngest (16) is very involved in school activities and like I said before, have allowed myself to become completely overwhelmed. ANY help would be greatly appreciated!!!
The living room is tough for me. It’s the first room anyone sees and it’s a large space. Presently it’s filled with older items. Freshening it up seems costly.
My office and closet are my trouble spots.
My kitchen/dining room. It’s all one area and there are six of us. I’m not sure if the area is too small or my table is too big. I’ve tried rearranging cabinets, maybe I need a round table instead of rectangular, I don’t know. I’m at a loss. I hate cooking.
Do you have a transcript of this for the hearing impaired?
I’m getting better, but my living room still needs some work. I have too many small things.
I live in a organized clean 200 square feet studio. One closet 24 feet deep , no linen closets and zero inside storage. I have everything minimual except the kitchen which i struggle with. I want to keep all my kitchen things so i end up with a bakers rack full and to much bakewear.
I’ve been working toward this for a while now – giving a space that “full” feeling with less stuff. So glad to find this decorating theory has a name, and am looking forward to checking out the book. Thank you for this topic!
Just one? My garage is my catch all as we have no extra storage…so that’s my worst “room”, and I would love for it, too, to be touched by cozy minimalism even though it’s a non-living space. Inside, it would be a toss -up between our playroom downstairs and our bedrooms upstairs. They tend to be the places where the catch-alls go…what has no assigned place. They are functional but not cozy…yet we spend so much time being creative or relaxing it making memories there. Those spaces definitely could use the most help here. 🙂
My living room! I struggle keeping it clutter free yet cozy! After hearing this podcast I really want to read this book!! I think it could teach me so much and give me the freedom I have been looking for!
Our bedroom! Looking forward to listening and reading her book.
The “studio” room. An extension of the living room for the purpose of creating and collaboration. The idea is for the space to be one that draws out the creativity. Yet it is too full of art supplies, instruments, etc to be inviting.
I struggle with my bedroom. It ends up being a dumping ground for stuff
My master bedroom, time after time it becomes my catch all. The more I organize through out the house the more the bedroom clutter seems to grow.
Can I pick aspects of all the rooms? ? I would honestly have to say my kitchen and pantry… I built them the with a “nothing on the counter” look in mind and large enough to be party central. Some they is the case my counters are mostly covered the the pantry is too easy to hide stuff in, so a lot get dumped in it
I have a “room” that’s supposed to be for crafting/sewing but ends up collecting everything. Not conducive to either pursuit and certainly not cozy.
I struggle with our family room. It seems like that’s where all the stuff lands that doesn’t have a home or hasn’t been taken to the attic storage area yet. I’d love to get the family room organized and simplified so I don’t have to scramble each time company is coming. Yikes!
I’m working to declutter my whole home, but I think my master bedroom is in the worst shape. That seems to be where I “stash” stuff to get it out of the more visible areas of the house.
Help! I struggle with my incoming paperwork/mail/pay bills area. Some may refer to it as their office area.
I struggle with the living room. It always feels cluttered!
I struggle with the playroom. As my last kid is a teen,, it is time to turn that room into something else.
I struggle with our living room, which is where my family gathers most often. I want all the things in there!