Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
Redistribution
No, I’m not jumping onboard for Bernie Sanders here. This newsletter isn’t about redistribution of wealth, it’s about redistribution of stuff.
Sometimes, after a few sessions with a client, I’ll notice that an area we did early on has gotten “junked-up” again. Upon further inspection, I’ll realize that we’ve been playing an elaborate game of whack-a-mole in which I’ll pull things out of a cabinet and say, “It doesn’t seem like this belongs here, do you need it?” At which point they say, “Oh, you’re right, I know just where that goes.” Which is fine until I come across the same object a month later in another place where it doesn’t really belong.
Organizing is not about moving your stuff around until it fits. It’s about categorizing and making it easily accessible. Yes, sometimes it turns out that you have a plethora of scarves that you really do wear, and we find space for them in your sweater drawer, but the most important idea is that we winnow to make a category fit into it’s allotted space.
It’s not unusual for a client to take something out of my hands and say, “Well, I can fit the Nutribullet (that I never use) up here by the champagne glasses (that I use once a year).” And I think to myself, “Don’t be rigid, Amanda, just because you are putting all the small appliances in that cabinet, which is getting full, doesn’t mean the Nutribullet has to go in there.” However, they just said that they don’t really use the Nutribullet, and they have a blender, and the champagne glasses looked so nice before. The client has just tried to redistribute when I think they should weed. Of course I point this out, in the nicest possible way, and if it’s a good day, they let the Nutribullet go.
So, the next time you are tackling an area of your home and you find yourself shuffling stuff from one area to another, ask yourself: Am I really organizing? Or am I just redistributing?