Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
Are you a Squirreler?
It happens like this: I’m working with a client and I hold up something, it could be anything-a magazine, a lacquered box, some unused notecards-and I say, “this doesn’t belong here; do you really need it?” A funny look crosses their face, and then they say, “You’re right, I have a place for it” and they whisk it away.
Cut to an hour or a week or a month later, when the client and I are in another nook or cranny in another room, and we come across the same magazine or box or whatever-still in a totally random place-and I see what happened. They squirrelled it away.
Squirreling is a very common tendency among my clients. When I get into these little nooks (back corners of closets, the upper reaches of closets) I feel like I am deconstructing a bird’s nest, a seemingly random conglomeration of bits and pieces that, mushed together, have created a solid… something.
Now I’m wise: “Don’t just squirrel that away,” I’ll warn.
I’m a very nonjudgmental organizer. I think you can keep stuff just because it makes your heart sing. I’ve created keepsake and memento boxes from Westchester to the East Village. There is a place for notecards. I can repurpose your lacquered box for thumbtacks or paperclips. But there is something very furtive about squirreling. It’s almost as if the client knows there is no good reason to keep something and therefore there is no reason to think about where it belongs, but they just want it. If you are going to keep something, fine-but let’s put it in the right place and stop this shoving stuff into dark corners. You know I’m going to find it eventually.
So watch yourself. See if you are exhibiting “squirrel-like” behaviors. If you are keeping something: keep it, commit to it, defend it, but if you feel like you need to hide it, then chances are you don’t need it at all.