Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter

My Living Room is a Mess

Right now, my living room is a mess.  I’ve got an extra table with a jigsaw puzzle going, we’ve got an accordion file of our 2020 taxes on the desk, towels with drying sweaters on the floor and a silver teapot that I’ve been polishing intermittently when I have a minute. It’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t “belong” for my taste. But on the other hand, we are here—a lot. Nothing here is frozen or abandoned. The jigsaw will be finished in a week (if my eyes don’t go first), the sweaters will be dry before I go to bed tonight, and the taxes will be done before April 15th.  It’s just the river of life, flowing through my living room.

Years ago, when my son was taking guitar lessons, the teacher advised us not to keep the guitar in the case. He said if we put it away, we’d be creating an obstacle to picking it up and practicing, and what we wanted was for my son to pick it up often. As much as that advice went against my natural inclination to put things away, I saw the wisdom in it. So, we left the guitar out, and my son did practice and he become an excellent player.

I also recognize that this is the motivation for a lot of my clients’ clutter. So many of the people I work with are very visual; they feel like if they don’t see it, they won’t do it—whatever it is. The fact is, if you leave the project (jigsaw puzzle, tarnished teapot, guitar, taxes) out, you’ll find some spare moments to work on it.

Our homes don’t need to be frozen and perfect, like a picture in a magazine. Make no mistake: I can’t wait to be able to have friends over, and I’m looking forward to whipping my apartment into shape before they arrive. But I’m also comfortable knowing that there’s a lot of life happening in my messy living room right now—homework, crafting, reading, puzzling, and yes, taxes—and as long as it’s moving, I’m totally okay with that.