don't clean up for the decorator

I know it seems like common courtesy to tidy and clean before someone comes over, but please don't for the decorator.

When you hire a decorator, you need to know you can completely trust them and be totally candid. Without that, it is hard for the decorator to understand how you live and what your very personal needs are. And this, of course, includes allowing your house to be the way it always lives for the decorator to truly understand you.

Here's an example: Do you leave lots of shoes by the front door? If you're OK with that, then maybe all it is is a solution to tidy them in one spot. If you hate it, then a closed solution would have to be explored. But without the shoes all scattered by the front, how would the decorator know this was an issue? Get the idea? 

For me, it's all about learning about my clients in the first little bit of the consultation. And what better way then to see how their house truly functions (or doesn't function) for them. So please, don't tidy for the decorator... we'll find better solutions together if we know how you actually live.

...And trust me,  there is a solution for everything if we know what to look for.