Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

Good morning.

This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast Podcast.

Today's tip is don't decorate with cereal boxes.

Anything that is visible in your home is part of your home's decor.

So it's best to be intentional about what you display.

Today's tip comes from McKellan Smith, who blogs at The Nester, and whose latest book is House Rules,

How to Decorate for Every Home, Style, and budget. In a podcast interview I heard recently, she said,

everything that sits out in my home is a decoration.

She explained that this means that if you have cereal boxes sitting on your kitchen counter,

you are decorating with them.

Now it may make you giggle to think about decorating with cereal boxes. They tend not to be all that attractive. But if you are like me, when you look around your home, you may realize that you are doing just that.

Do you have bags of coffee beans sitting next to your

coffee maker? Dental floss by your bathroom sink? Laundry detergent at the foot of the stairs

that you intend to take up to the laundry room at some point.

A big box of diapers on the floor and the nursery.

Turns out, you are decorating with all those things. None of these items are intended to be part of the

decor but if they are out they function as part of the decor anyways. People's eyes don't have some special filter that pumps up the

intentional decor and hides the stuff that's stored in plain sight.

Everything is visible all the same.

That beautiful framed artwork you chose because you love the colors

...