filed in Daily Life
Is Everything in its Place in Your Place?
I was catching up with old neighbors on Sunday, and sat idly in their backyard as they cleaned out and rearranged the items in the shed. There were plastic bins for everything, from the nails and screws to the extension cords and light bulbs. I was in awe watching them organize it all. My place is neat enough, but I don’t have the patience for that level of detail. Do you?
Photograph by Henry Hargreaves from Things Organized Neatly
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My office desk at work is a study in what may appear to others as chaos, but I do have a sense of where things are. I’m pretty well organized at home, though. That said, I dislike too many containers and holding bins–I know where my stuff is (and there is an order in place), but I don’t feel the need to use a new container to hold something. I know which shelf the light bulb collection is on, but I certainly don’t have a bin for the bulbs. The Container Store certainly isn’t generating any profits from me. I’m much more apt to simply get rid of stuff than to place in a new holder.
The inside of their shed looked a lot better than the inside of my closet.
Things I don’t use everyday – Christmas decorations, craft supplies, etc.- are neatly stored in bins with labels so I can find what I need, when I need it. Things I use everyday, like the files in my office, seem to get the pile management treatment until I have a “white tornado” day and sort, file, or trash everything on my desk.
Pile and file, that’s my approach. My desk is messy until the end of the work day on Friday, when I try to make some order. Sometimes I wait and have a “white tornado” moment.
Unfortunately, I do have that level of organizational patience. For the most part, it’s a tremendous waste of time, because real life doesn’t work efficiently that way. It’s an OCD thing, a sickness really.
I don’t have the patience, but I appreciate people who do, and have been the beneficiary of organized people (including my parents). So, thank you.
Right now I’m trying to feng shui my apartment. I use the term a bit facetiously since I don’t know too much about feng shui, but think that the placement and organization of things in a room can really affect a persons mood within the space. so basically, I’m trying to organize things and get rid of as many things as possible. I can’t believe how easy it is for me to acquire stuff and to create clutter. so no, I don’t really have the level of organization as your friends…but think that it’s an admirable quality, and one that I strive for!
I agree, Meghan. Where things are placed in one’s home is really impactful. I don’t like visual clutter, so there’s a lot of empty space in my apartment. But the inside of my closets could use some work.
I subscribe to both theories. I have boxes, containers and trays all beautifully labelled and ready to go. Then, more accessible and time efficient, the piles of ‘stuff’ found in strategic locations throughout my flat, waiting to be sorted into them. ‘Getting organised’ is a great procrastination activity. Anyone for a trip to Ikea this weekend?
I went on a huge IKEA run before moving into my condo. It saved me.