I was
thinking, "What would be a good Midweek Motivation to send for the
New Year?" I looked through several websites for articles on
how to organize or manage our homes but as I looked
through them they all seemed so complex and required a lot of time. So, I
decided that maybe you would like a personal testimony instead. During
the holiday break, I became inspired by the information on this website listed below
and in two days "dejunked" my home. My motto was "If I can't keep
it up; I can't keep it!" With all the things I have going on in my
life right now the house had to be able to take care of itself
so I knew it was time for a change. I set the goal for two
days. I would devote the entire two days to the project and I would
not overwhelm myself on any one area of my home. I didn't have
an elaborate plan (unusual for me) but I knew my closet had to
be first and then the laundry room/storage closet next. Everything
else would fall into place after those two things were taken care
of. I also made a promise to myself that I would not juggle stuff
around from room to room. It went amazingly well. I was not overwhelmed
because I wasn't trying to organize my stuff but getting rid of my
stuff. I filled up the entire blue trashcan on Monday. The garbage
man emptied it and I had it full again on Tuesday. (I'm
going to ask my neighbor I can use hers for the rest of it)
I
asked myself these three questions:
1. Have I used this item recently?
2. Does this item help me in my life's goals?
3. Do I need to own
this item? Or is there a way that I can rent, borrow, or improvise
the function of this item when I need it?
You'll have to use
your judgement in answering the first question, "Have I used this
item recently?" How much time is "recently"? Every item has its own
use pattern. Seasonal items don't get used for months, but think back
to last winter--did you wear the gloves? Did you wear the coat? Other
items, like dishes, might be hard to track when you use them. You
can place such items in a box and put them away and see how much time
it takes before you need to use them again.
The second question goes
to the heart of why you have anything--to support your life's goals.
You have to know what those goals are (see "Live Your Dream"), but
a way to think about this is to imagine yourself having achieved a
major life goal. Do you see this item in that picture? Is this item
instrumental in that goal? Do you see yourself carrying this item
on that journey to your goal?
The third question is what I call the
"anti-warehouse attitude." By this attitude, you acknowledge that
you are not trying to packrat every item you could conceivably need
in your life. You can always improvise, borrow, rent, or buy used
when you need some specific item. That was it! See how easy. No time
deciding how to better store something but time spent on whether it
was even necessary to own it in
the first
place. Take an inventory of everything you own. Does taking an inventory
of all your stuff sound like a daunting task? If yes, then you have
too much stuff! After all, what you have after the purging process
is what is important to you. If it is important to you, it is worth
documenting. If you don't feel it is worth documenting, then take
another look at it.
This was good advice. At first glance you might
say "What?!" But there are very few things I own that I would want
to take the time to inventory or take a picture of and put in
my photo album. Which is exactly the point! This gives perspective.
If I didn't want to take the time to inventory this item, how important
was it?
So, on Monday I hit my closet, under the bed, and the laundry
room/storage area. That was all I had time for that day because they
were the worst off. I love looking at my laundry room closet now.
There isn't a whole lot on the shelves. You can see the bottom of
the shelves and there is space between the items. I love it! My closet
is done in a simple enough way that the kids can actually get
the clean clothes in the right location after the laundry is done.
This is a big help on laundry day!
On Tuesday I attacked the kitchen
cabinets, bathrooms, and living room. Now I only have a
small drawer of makeup items, (I used to have tons and tons)
the bathroom cabinet is sparse and everything is easier to clean.
One example of "If I can't keep it up; I can't keep it!" is the living
room. I have a large glass table that houses my teapot collection.
I used to have lights around the teapots. While this was pretty, it
made dusting a nightmare so I looked at it and said - If I can't keep
it up - wait! - I wanted to keep it so I knew I had to change the
situation. I taped the lights under the glass instead of them lying
on top of the glass and now dusting is a snap. Just an example of
something that was going to have to change if I wanted to keep
it.
Often, we say "I'm going to do it! I'm going to buy (the
latest storage gadgets) and I am going to get this place organized
for the last time!" Well, I don't mind cleaning and I love organizing
but sometimes life gets too busy to do a good job of either. That's
why I had to make a change - tossing what wasn't essential
and making everything else work better in the space that was left. I
have to tell you - It feels great! I felt so good when I woke
up this morning and there wasn't anything to clean or clothes in the
chair to put up or boxes on the washing machine or well, you get the
picture.
Instead of sending you a lengthy list of how to store things
better, I thought I'd just share what worked for me - not storing
things at all. Now if I could just do the same thing with all
my scrapbook supplies...hmmmm..
See you in 2004! Angie Lippard
