Organizing: How to keep stuff.
In contrast to minimalism, organizing is how, when and why we keep items. What about those items makes us want to surround ourselves with them? We get ourselves into trouble when we are mindless about the items surrounding us. Below you will find a process and a tool you can use for deciding how to keep items around us in a mindful way.
The following questions can help us stay mindful as we organize the items we decided to keep:
Am I keeping this items for love or for function?
These are two basic reasons I keep items in my home — it makes my life better or it makes me feel good.
If you are keeping the item for function, is the item stored in a way that it is useful to you?
On a basic level, this means storing items, like silverware in the kitchen because that’s where the item is used. But on a more micro level this means storing items that you use with the oven near the oven.
If you are keeping the item for love, is the item stored in a way that helps you keep that love alive?
If you have a favorite blanket from your grandmother who has passed, have you stored it on a high shelf in the back of a closet, or have you stored it on the back your favorite, most comfortable chair, where you can see it everyday? I hope you store it where you can see it everyday.
Does the item have a permanent home?
If you’re going to keep something in your home, then make sure it has a home in your home. For example, where do your keys live when you are home? When we don’t have answers to that question, we are more likely to lose them, and lose precious time with our family and friends.
As you organize there will be some items that will immediately jump out as you as garbage, or ready for the donation box. However, some items will trouble you. Click here for a tool that you can use to help you organize those pesky items in your home that you’re just not sure what to do with, or that you’ve struggled with for days, weeks, or even years.
In my next blog post, I write about my own use of this tool.
