Functional & Esthetic Organizing
Professional organizers live in this weird space.
We are not house cleaners, but we will help you keep your house clean.
We are not stylists, but our work in your closet can improve your wardrobe.
We are not designers, but our work can feel really pretty.
This made me realize that there are some distinctions that needs to be made in the organizing world. For me, there are two part of organizing - functional organizing and esthetic organizing. It might seem like a small distinction, but I’ve found making this distinction allows clients to make clear decisions about their space. Instagram and Pinterest are filled with images of beautifully decanted pantries and rainbow fridges. This is esthetic organizing. (What instagram doesn’t show is the hours of work and calculation it takes to maintain those pantries and fridges.) I love doing the work of decanting. I organize closets because of the feeling I get when the work is done. The more Pinterest Pretty the result, the more satisfying the work is for me. But that doesn’t always mean the closet or pantry is actually functional on a daily basis. That is where functional organizing comes into play. When I am organizing for function, I consider things like accessibility and upkeep.
Before I get too deep into my reflection on these organizing styles, I want to make sure we are all on the same page in terms of what I mean when I use the term functional organizing and esthetic organizing.
Let’s start with esthetic organizing. Esthetic organizing prioritizes pretty. The primary goal of esthetic organizing is about looks, and then it is about how people use the space. Let’s take the gold standard of esthetic organizing — the rainbow bookcase. The goal of the rainbow book case is to look pretty. It is to showcase the books by color. It is not about finding, or accessing, books. It is about displaying them in a way that is pleasing to the eye. Rarely do we look for our purple books, and if you’re a real book lover you know that different editions have different colored covers. This means, if you rainbowize your bookcase, and you have multiple editions of a book (which book lovers do), then you might end up with the same book in two different spots.
Now, let’s look at functional organizing. Functional organizing prioritizes people’s actual use of the item, over the pretty factor. Let’s now look at the gold standard of organizing for functional organizing — the Dewy Decimal system. This comprehensive system of organizing books doesn’t take esthetics into account whatsoever. Instead, the system relies on two levels of categorization — first, subject, and second alphabet. This is because that is how we actually, functionally look for our books. If we are thinking about what we wan to read, we think, “I want to read about centipedes.” The Dewy Decimal system allows for us to find our books here. Now, this system leave something to be desired when it comes to looks. Not only does it not take into account things like color, it also doesn’t take into account features like size. Thus, you might end up with very small books between very large books. This design might be displeasing to the eye.
After reading this, I bet, some of us will be naturally drawn to esthetic organizing and others of us will be drawn to functional organizing. To learn more about your home management style click here take this quick quiz.
When considering a space that needs organizing, consider your goals for the space as well as the time you have for the project. I’ll be blunt here. So many of us scroll Instagram and Pinterest. We see edited and staged images of pantries and closets, and we think we want those. But the reality of so many of those spaces are attained with big investments of time and/or money. This big investment can make it hard to actual use the space too.
Think for a minute about the time investment in decanting your dry goods (or pouring your dry goods into matching, often, labeled jars). This is time consuming, and unless you can find jars that are just under the amount that comes in the dry good, you often find yourself with left over “back stock” that you then have to store somewhere else. If you are busy, you might end up with a pantry that is full of half empty jars, boxes, and bags of dry goods.
However, if you just throw your dry goods into the cabinet, you might never be able to find them. Additionally, if the space is not visually appealing, then you might not use the pantry as much, or as well, as you would if your pantry is full of visually appealing options.
Align your home with your needs. Depending on the time in your life, you will have different needs and capabilities. When you make that decision, consider maintenance. Often, the more esthetic the organizing is, the more time it will take to maintain.
How you organize your home really comes down to your present needs and your present style. To learn more about your style, click here to take this quiz.
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