The Magic Of Minimalism
Give yourself the gift of freedom. Downsize and organize to manage limited space.
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Am I Actually Getting Organized?
As I have stated elsewhere, I am a list maker. I start every morning with a list of what I want to accomplish that day - plus I alter my “longer term list” - goals for the next few days or week ahead. Items further in the future tend to end up on a spreadsheet.
If you have browsed around our blog or remodel projects, you know we have been renovating our house. Moving from a HUGE house in the Southwest, to our “cottage” in the Pacific Northwest really pushed us on our quest to a more minimalist life.
By the way, I highly recommend Joshua Becker’s book The More Of Less. Yes, this is an affiliate link - if you click and buy we might make a small compensation. I actually have this book, and it has been a huge help to me in deciding what is most important in my life. As he states, minimalism doesn’t just mean throwing away our possessions. It isn’t about getting rid of stuff for its own sake. It means clearing space in our lives for our true passions. He defines minimalism this way, “Minimalism: the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from them.”
Would you rather spend the weekend hiking, or tidying up your home? Would you like to waste time trying to find the paint you need for that new project, or quickly find it? That is what it comes down to. Having less “stuff” means having more freedom to pursue what we actually want in life, because it means more TIME (and more money if we don’t keep buying things we do not need).
If you truly want to get organized, de-stress (looking at all that clutter is stressful!), and make room in your life for what you desire most, I highly recommend his book.
“A place for everything and everything in its place.”
What? Me Messy??
Yes, I was once a total disaster in the organized vs tidy department. Part of my problem was not knowing how to organize what I had, but a larger part was having too much in the first place. Plus, I had some bad habits. I will get to more on that later.
I once knew a man who lived by the motto: “A place for everything, and everything in its place.” I was not raised in a tidy household, so I was intrigued by this. Was he a neat freak, or did he have something here? Did he just have no interests in life? I knew that wasn’t true. He was a musician, and played as much as he could when not at his day job, but I didn’t see any clutter around. Where was his stuff when he wasn’t practicing his music? He loved gardening, but I didn’t see any gardening books or tools lying about. Neat as a pin.
At some point, I decided to get organized. I bought books on organizing. I bought organizing containers. My husband was patient (he is naturally neat and tidy), and helped me on my new journey. The books and articles I read had good ideas about organizing my piles, but really did not teach me how to get rid of excess. More help was needed.
Habits - Time For A Change?
Habits must change. I read a very helpful article that pointed out the importance of changing our habits. Our acts must be INTENTIONAL. Don’t toss stuff around in the first place! A friend pointed out to me that you can move an item once - or multiple times. When you bring in the mail, do you toss it on the table or counter, only to move it later to a drawer - and then find you cannot relax knowing that “someday” you will have to tackle that drawer? OR - do you handle the mail immediately by sorting into recycle, shred, garbage? Much can be eliminated as soon as it enters the house. This is where living in a small home helps - I don’t have to walk far to my office. A few steps and I am at the shredder or desk.
Do you set dirty dishes on the counter or in the sink only to have to move them to the dishwasher later? If so, you are handling the item TWICE, when you could have saved time by putting it in the dishwasher in the first place. Of course, you can only do that if the dishwasher is cleaned out of dishes. The biggest time saver I know of is to keep the dishwasher cleaned out. Spend a bit of time now, rather than lots of time later. If you are moving the same item over and over, you are multiplying time and work load.
Bad habits - change them.
I relieved a lot of work in my house by creating a new rule. The kitchen must be clean every night before anyone goes to bed. Who wants to get up to a mess? NO dishes are allowed in the sink or on counters. If the dishwasher is full of clean dishes, my kids had a choice - empty the dishwasher and put their dish into it, or hand wash and dry their dish and put it away. Yes - it was easily enforced. Anyone found guilty of not complying was on dishwasher duty for one week. It’s a simple solution to a messy kitchen - keep the dishwasher empty and ready for dishes.
Problem Areas
I also learned how to identify “problem areas”, which are areas that seem to grow clutter. Part of my job over the years was to identify inefficiencies in companies and develop a solution. Surely, I could tackle a messy area in my home. Maybe? My dining table was such an area for me. Mail, to-do lists, items not put away from the store - they all seemed to end up on the table. No - I am not “perfect” - I do not always sort mail right away.
This prompted a new rule. The table must be cleared every night. Or at some point in the day. No accumulation day after day. One of the problems for me was catalogs or other printed material I thought I might want to look at “later.” Back to the rule of “a place for everything and everything in its place.” I cleaned out a drawer for mail I would read later. Each week, I empty the drawer.
Naturally Neat People
To naturally tidy people, some of this may seem silly. Such a person already does these things. They THINK AND ACT WITH INTENTION. For the rest of us, it is a learning process. We have to become conscious of our actions and learn to act intentionally. Now, when I have an object in my hand, I ask myself, “Do I want to deal with this item once, or several times?” I am making progress.
Healing Environment
Mess and clutter cause stress. Nature provides beauty, serenity, and cleanliness. Human-made clutter is not natural; it is not the environment we were given. When I see clutter, I see a huge “to-do” list. Clutter just sits there looking at me, saying, “Look at all this work to be done!” I cannot relax. I am stressed. I cannot thrive in such an environment.
When my youngest daughter was only 4 years old, she informed me that I was not to put her clothes away anymore because I “didn’t do it right.” She wanted everything in specific places in her drawers, and I was not accomplishing that to her standards :-)
She had the smallest bedroom of anyone in the house, yet her room was the tidiest. She did not spend hours cleaning her room. She simply did not make a mess in the first place. This continued when she was in her teens. She would periodically go through her room and donate items she no longer needed. Her room was her safe space. Her sanctuary. She battled serious health problems at times, and we learned that she healed best in a calming environment.
Not being naturally neat myself, I learned a lot from her. We all have a choice. Do we want to live in a healthy, clean, organized environment? Or in a stressful space?
An important benefit of being tidy is cleanliness. When I see clutter in a house, I know that house cannot be clean. Is someone emptying floors and counters and other surfaces to clean and dust and then putting all that clutter back? Probably not. If a bathroom floor is piled with “stuff”, how often is it being cleaned?
Don’t Just Organize - Create A Space Budget
Organizing was not enough for me, because I still had all my unnecessary stuff. It was organized stuff, but still around. And when I got it out of the box, it tended to not get back into the box. Sooner or later, boxes became full, or there was no longer space for storage of all of the boxes.
Here is how I look at it. We all understand the need for financial budgets. We have a certain amount of in-come, and it cannot be smaller than our out-go (expenditures).
In a previous life, I was a personal financial consultant. Not for investing - but for personal money management. I helped people create budgets and understand their spending habits. I had a client who felt that she and her husband should have been able to create a savings, but he kept saying they couldn’t spare the money. She had a feeling that something wasn’t right. Her income was steady, but his was not - he had months where he made more than other months. What was the problem? By going through their finances, I was able to show them that their expenditures expanded or contracted with their income. In other words, during months that he brought in more, they automatically spent more. More dinners out, more movies, etc. Expenditures adjusted with amount of income - and they were not aware they were doing this. The graph I presented to them was a powerful visual for them. From that time on, their “extra” during higher months of income went into savings.
Just as we must live within our financial budget, we must live within our space budget. How often do you hear someone say, “I do not have enough space”, rather than, “I have a surplus of stuff.” Notice the difference.
If we find ourselves spending too much money, we ask ourselves what expenses we can cut back on. What are essentials and what are luxuries? Our space budget works the same way. If I see clutter and do not have a space for the items that need to be put away, I ask myself, “What can I get rid of?” I have to make choices.
I go through this process in two projects that are posted on this site. I create a nice environment, and make choices on what to keep.
I call it my closet laundry, because it is actually a laundry area within a closet. I no longer have my large laundry room that I enjoyed in Arizona. However, I also no longer have the large room to clean. I am happy with that.
We went from a huge house to a small house, yet still have plenty of space. I have no idea how we managed to fill our old house. It was a huge undertaking to donate or toss out the majority of it when we downsized.
Our garage is what I call The Final Frontier. Items that came with us on the move, but we have no space for, are out there waiting for us. We recently inherited boxes of family treasures that must be sorted through. We have clothing that must be donated or put away. We also continue to need workspace. Projects never end with a house - we are always thinking of new improvements we would like to make. The garage has been hanging over my head since moving here. It will get handled next spring and summer. It is an example of clutter taking away freedom.
Tips In A Nutshell
A place for everything and everything in its place.
Move something ONCE, not many times.
Stop buying - start donating.
Identify problem areas and create solutions.
Budget your space.
Be kind to yourself.
Use kind language. “I should clean up this garage.” OR “I would like to make sure certain people get these family treasures.” Notice the difference. One feels judgmental and makes me want to turn around and head out of the garage. The other provides incentive and positive benefit for getting the job done.
More Help :-)
Projects and sewing patterns to assist you on your journey as you downsize, organize, and make the best use of your space.