Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
Respect the Housekeeping
Recently I was with a client in her classic six on the Upper West Side when I grasped her problem. It wasn’t space, effort, the presence of tiny ones; it was she! She, like so many of us, was always busy and her mind had whittled taking care of her home into meaningless chores.
Of course, she wasn’t very happy with the result (which is why I was there in the first place), but in that moment, I saw clearly that her problem was that she had — without ever realizing it — devalued the very tasks which would make her home the comforting place she wanted it to be. There were little piles of things that hadn’t quite made it back where they belonged. She was always rushing, going fast but to where? Her cabinets, spacious and not over-full, sat like unused theater seats.
The Perfect Daughter, no stranger to the drudgery of housework if kept in that grim mental mindset, advised her client to practice mindfulness; Household maintenance is not a waste of time. She had to find pleasure in her daily rounds, or else what else is there? Focusing fully on any task can make it more pleasurable, and, get this: more efficient. It’s not just the Wall Street crowd that knows the difference between working hard and working smart!
My brilliant insights, such as how to fold jeans into thirds to fit them into standard dresser drawers, were not delivered in a blinding flash of light. These ideas came when I was completely committed to finding a comfortable home for items instead of smashing them into a drawer.
We have so much. One of the ways to shift our mindset to consume less ( see issue no. 16, “Less is the New More”) is to give more attention to what we have. Shoes shined? Clothes ironed? Thoughtfully getting oneself squared away is not beneath you.
Every paper should have a path, be it the file folder or the shredder. Every towel gets its spot on a shelf or a rack or in a basket. Treating objects with care will honor them, preserve them and bring a sense of order and peace to our homes. Just as the environmental movement encourages us to respect the earth and treat it kindly, I encourage you to treat your home and possessions kindly. Make ‘housekeeping’ a creative act. Bring your whole self to it.
Where can you bring mindfulness? The clothes you decided not to wear that are tossed over the chair? Which drawer is your albatross? Deal with it, folks.
Don’t avoid the minutiae of housekeeping. Embrace it, lean into it, breathe through it. Housekeeping can be as Zen as you choose to make it.