Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
The Two-House Conundrum
Whether you have a weekend place upstate, a summer home by the beach, or a winter condo in Florida, having a second-home always presents organizational challenges.”
How often have I had clients put things aside, especially clothing, and say, “Oh, I’ll take it to the country/beach/Florida” Only to have them call me and say, “Oh, it is worse here! Can you come to the Berkshires/ the Hamptons/Palm Beach?” Having a second home can make it seem like you have a lot of extra space, but of course, nature abhors a vacuum, and any space gets filled quickly. So don’t succumb to the impulse to rob Peter to pay Paul by de-cluttering your city pad only to junk-up your beach house.
Wardrobe presents it’s own set of difficulties. Do you take it back and forth or just have a second wardrobe that you leave there?
The weather and your lifestyle are key considerations. If you leave New York City for the cold months or head for the Hamptons as soon as school gets out and stay until Labor Day, then you can leave most of your summer clothes there. Likewise, if you wear suits to work but go upstate and wear jeans all weekend, you shouldn’t need to do much schlepping.
My father and stepmother spend half the year in the city and half in Florida They have opposite approaches to the problem, but both have found solutions that work for them for very different reasons.
My stepmother, Mary, packs most of her clothing in three large wardrobes and has them shipped from New York to Florida every November, and then back again in May. Most of Mary’s clothes are year-round and very good. For her it would be prohibitively costly to re-create the wardrobe that she has spent years creating. Since she does similar things in both places, the same wardrobe is appropriate.
My father, on the other hand, takes very little with him from New York to Florida. As an avid golfer he spends most of his life in Khakis and golf shirts, so keeping two sets of everyday clothes was not an expensive proposition. When he goes back and forth from New York to Florida, he takes a good suit and a few sports jackets and slacks.
As you can see they both have a system, and though very different, they both work because they both make sense.
So ask yourself what you really need in your second home, what should really stay in the city, and what you really don’t need in either place.
No summer home? Me either. Still a new season is always an opportunity to winnow, and when you start to put away your summer things in a few weeks, think about that white dress you never wore all summer and then let go of it and make room for something new. Better yet, don’t buy anything new, and you’ll be on the road to a magazine-worthy closet.