Happy Starts at Home: Change your space, transform your life Hardcover – February 11, 2020

I purchased this book for myself and, after reading it, ordered four more copies to give to friends. Some of the author’s quotes are going to stay with me forever, i.e. “Clutter, even when out of sight, takes up space in our brains and makes us feel stressed.” Have a hard time, like me, letting go of items with sentimental attachment? Can’t get rid of things gifted that make your home unhappy? My new mantra from this wonderful book: “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” What I particularly like is that this book does not preach about how you should decorate, rather acts as a guide to use your own strong internal compass as to what you truly love about your home, and how, with focus and intention (and on your budget), you can make it an even happier home. I’ve looked at many magazines, books, and YouTube videos on decorating and their rooms tend to look so very elegant, tasteful, and forgettably generic. As a design psychology coach, Rebecca helps you create your very own tasteful yet unique nest –your home. But careful, you might be so inspired by Rebecca that you start redesigning your LIFE!

This book offers little gems of wisdom for creating the home you really want to spend your life in no matter what your age age. Too often we do not take the time to really explore what it is that really makes you content in your home. This book guides you into making choices that are uniquely yours across a broad spectrum of criteria. Too often we keep things that really no longer serve us and can be put to good use elsewhere. It may also save you money by helping you to hone in on what is really important to you in your home so that you do not purchase things on a whim and then regret it later. It helps you to get to know yourself and, as a wise friend once told me, make your home into a garden in which you can flourish!

Our local newspaper had an online chat with the author, and it was so interesting that I decided to order the book. This book is different from other decorating books as it gets you to dig deep into what really makes you happy, what you want your home to feel like, and how to make it work for all the parts of your life. It has lots of exercises to help you identify these things. Very cool book!

This book was worth every penny and then some! I serendipitously found Rebecca while working on a kitchen remodel & subsequently came upon her book when it was unavailable on Amazon! I'm SO glad to see it's available again for readers. I was grieving the traumatic loss of my brother & this book just reached me at an unexplainable soul level at the perfect time & has changed how we inhabit our home. I have bought several more copies and given this book as gifts to friends going through transitions or friends who just want their home to be more 'them.'One of the many ways Rebecca's book has been transformational was my closet. It had been a source of frustration b/c it has two long hanging rods for tops, but NOT enough space between the hanging rods for dresses, jumpsuits, pants… so instead of living with that any longer, I simply took a rod out AND put the rod where I could reach (for my 5’3” self)! How can such a simple thing like that be so magical? But it is! And literally, until her book I hadn’t given any of this a second thought- I was just living with the daily frustration of straining to reach some of my clothes and keeping the others in a different closet that fit my dresses, etc.Rebecca's book will help you see your home with fresh eyes and not in some far, out of reach design way; rather in a way that is relational to YOU and who you are as a person. I cannot recommend this book or Rebecca's design help (even by Zoom!) enough. Grab a cup of coffee, REALLY slow down, ear mark pages, underline her words, and see your home and life transform.

Great book, very helpful. More please!!

I love reading about home design and also have bought most of the organizing books out there. There is something so wonderfully different about this book...yes, you will see soMe of the things you’ve seen before but the author helps you figure out why YOU might be stuck. The work sheets ask great questions and help you “ see” things you may have missed. I have highlighted so much of this book and am putting the ideas in practice. Somehow this book goes so much deeper into the why of the clutter or why the house doesn’t feel as it should. This is a gem.

This book is super relevant for today living in times of a pandemic. It’s a wonderful and beautiful guide to creating a home you’ll love being in.

this was such a great book book! I found it super insightful for figuring out what I wanted from home. A very thoughtful and heart felt book.

I have had problems with my house for years: nothing ever seemed to work, no matter what I did. I've spent weekends changing rooms around, moving bedrooms and tables, only to still end up with a space that seemed awkward to live in. I've spent hundreds of pounds on furniture and storage, only to find it didn't solve "the problem" -- not that I could ever define what "the problem" actually was.I found myself at the point, yet again, where I knew something had to change in the house, purely because my daughter had turned four and our space was becoming beyond stressful to clean, work and relax in -- it was not a supportive space whatsoever. So I thought I'd try to research just how to fix my interiors, and somehow I came across this book.West does something pretty remarkable: she asks you to figure out what you need and want from your home before you do anything or spend any money. Then she asks you to do a deep dive into what and why you think the way you do about your home and possessions.It is a series of very effective techniques, and uncovered a lot of bizarre beliefs I had about what a home is supposed to do, and why I have the possessions I have. I realised I have legacy beliefs inherited from my mother and grandmother about what a home is supposed to be like and what possessions you must display (or never use), and I had tried to tack on my own needs to those beliefs, resulting in a house that just did not work for our lives.Since reading the book and doing the exercises, my husband and I have gone through our entire house and completely reorganised rooms according to what we actually need for our lives now. A lot of things have been donated or recycled. The house now looks completely different, and the only money we will now spend is on paint to tidy up the walls and ceilings.For us, this book has more than paid for itself, considering it has probably stopped us from spending more money on furniture or storage solutions that we didn't actually need.Indeed, I've been so impressed by some of the exercises, I've now applied them to my "time", as well as my "space" -- to very interesting results.I do need to point out that this book is not a book about interior decorating. West is not going to tell you where to put your sofa, or whether or not you should have table lamps, instead of floor lamps. What she does, instead, is force you to consider what you need your space to do in the first place.

Good book for starting to work on HOME

Lovely read. Going to give it a go