Below are my sustainability takeaways from both my professional and personal experience. These musings don’t focus on products because products change rapidly, they are difficult to assess, and IMHO, they are not the star of the show.

A bigger opportunity happens with a shift in our mindset. As a colleague once said, “consumption got us into this mess, it’s not going to get us out.”

Our brains are wired to have unhelpful expectations of fashion, size, perfection, personalization, and price. The most sustainable solutions will come from creatively responding to these wants to develop something better.

• Investing in an sustainable interior design project for a structure that is not energy efficient is putting the cart before the horse.

• One of the most impactful things you can do is keep as much waste out of a dumpster as possible. The system doesn’t make that easy. But, just as we teach our children, ease should not be basis of our most important decisions.

• A small space is typically more sustainable than a large space.

• Your fridge should be long lasting and as energy efficient as possible.

• Research suggests that people don’t live in their homes as long as they think they will. Implementing a design that gets trashed by a new owner is not sustainable.  Long-game, versatile design is sustainable design.

• Long-game, versatile design does not mean boring design. You can personalize your space — and quite creatively if you want. It’s just a matter of how.

• Fast fashion isn’t just a clothing phenomenon. .

• Unlike any other material, replacing cabinets leads to replacing everything else in the room. Thus cabinet quality, maintenance, and material are important. 

• Entropy is inevitable. Designing for “patina” helps avoid “wear.”

• Gravity is a fact. Perfection is an opinion.  Perfection has been weaponized to sell materials that are not sustainable.   

• Biophilia – nature-inspired design -- is a helpful antidote to perfection and status anxiety.

• It’s helpful to source big, heavy things close to home.

• If it smells bad, avoid it.

• If a design requires that you throw away or hide your existing tools or treasures, start over.

• If a design will make the rest of your house look bad, start over.

• Just because something can be recycled doesn’t mean that it will be recycled.

• Discontent fuels consumption. Examine your contentment carefully.

• In surveys, the number one regret kitchen buyers report is that they didn’t spend more for the things that mattered.  This happened to me too.  The decisions we make when we are nervous are not the same as when we feel safe. And we’re usually safer than we feel when we build a new kitchen. Buy things that matter.