First, some things I believe: Everything in your home is speaking to you. It’s telling you “take care of me!” or “tidy me!’ or “put me away!” So when you have less stuff, you have more mental calm. (Minimalist Mom on youtube has a *great* video on this topic).
AND YET even though we live in a tiny house and I believe this firmly, I also have two children under the age of four, and the random junk just accumulates. For us, our cubby system under the stairs works well for some things that have specific spots. But some bins, like the boys… craft? game? random junk they don’t want to throw away? bin has become a vortex of despair. I literally throw anything in there I don’t know what to do with. And then it’s so hideous I just throw more stuff in there + hope it sorts itself out. I was feeling very productive yesterday + decided to tackle it. I started trying to sift through what was rubbish + what was to keep, and found myself aimlessly shuffling papers around completely overwhelmed and I realised: WHO AM I? WHAT AM I DOING? I was applying none of my tiny home philosophy to the way I was tackling this project. So I stopped, got ahold of myself, and did it right 😄 And the system worked. Applying the same philosophy we take with our whole house to even a small task like tidying the junk drawer went from overwhelm to purpose and productivity.
So, here’s my recipe:
STEP 1: What do you want?
This is kind of a basic question, but everything you do next hinges on it. Another way of saying this is: “What do you value?”
In general, I value creativity and free play. I value my kids being able to make messes and be creative on their own without tons of help from me. I also value an orderly home.
In the case of the vortex of despair, I think it started out because I wanted a place for the kids to get craft items, which then turned into a holder for games (now that they are older) and random recycled junk, and precious treasures they don’t want to throw away.
So I decided that I want: a place for random craft/recycling supplies so the kids can be creative, and some games.
(Please note, my first response to this question was, “For there not to be junk everywhere!!” but that is not a good enough answer! 🙂 Dig deep, people!
STEP 2: Start with a clear slate
Picture Mary Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life” just swiping rolls of wrapping paper and junk onto the floor to make way for the collection can at their Christmas party. (If you haven’t seen this movie- what have you been doing every Christmas until now??)
Just take EVERYTHING out. My mistake was randomly sifting through things and trying to pull out what I knew I didn’t want. When you do that, you end up just rearranging your stuff, and not actually dealing with it.
So I emptied everything out of the crate and imagined the crate AS I WANTED IT: an easily accessible space for the kids to store their games and crafts.
STEP 3: Only put back what is useful and beautiful (in line with what you want).
There were certain things that I immediately put back: the games, the paint brush jar. Then, there were other things that were a bit iffy.
One million toilet paper rolls? My kids can’t create if they can’t find the toilet rolls buried under the recycling paper. So I put in some and canned the rest, because, frankly, we can EASILY get more toilet paper rolls!
Recycled paper … I want to obsessively save every piece of paper that only has writing on one side, but actually, too much of that (or too wrinkled) isn’t going to be used by the kids. If the crate is packed too full, they can’t actually get out what they want. So I recycled a lot of scrap paper. 20 sheets of drawing paper that can be accessed by little hands is better to me than 100 pages they will need mom’s help with!
Former art projects: Some of these actually were quite sweet. But for *THIS SPACE* I wanted a spot where the boys could easily play and create, and they couldn’t do that if their old projects were also crammed in there. These were beautiful, but they weren’t in line with what I said I wanted. So I put them in a different pile to either hang up, or put in the mail to family members.
So, there’s the recipe! 🙂 Decide what you want for the space, clear your slate, and only put back what is useful and beautiful.
Let me know if you use this recipe to tackle any vortexes of despair in your own home!
Stephanie Ebert 