"We interrupt this 'History of Modern Housekeeping' for a brief housekeeping Public Service Announcement"
Pre Winter Declutter
We are putting away our summer toys and outdoor gear, bringing out the skis and skates and winter outdoor gear. This change of seasons, where we tend to go inside our buttoned up homes and hopefully turn to our families as we gather for the holidays, is a good time to have an objective look at our homes and homestyle habits. Let's take a moment to think about how practical we are about our storage habits.
If you have closet doors that do not close all the way or have closet doors that have to be carefully opened because stuff falls out when the door is opened, you are living with a very dangerous situation.
If you have lots of towels and bathrobes hanging behind the bathroom door and it does not open all the way, but bounces back halfway closed when you open it, you are living with a very dangerous situation.
If you have anything sitting on the basement steps or any stairs for that matter, you are living with a very dangerous situation.
Sit quietly and take a deep breath, close your eyes and picture the inside of your home. Now picture it full of smoke with a fully laden fireman storming through your house to rescue you and your family. Is this fireman going to be able to safely open every door in your house to see if it's a room? Is it possible to barrel up and down your staircases unhindered if these staircases are unfamiliar to you? Could a paramedic rush into your bathroom and pick up your child and be able to get back out that bathroom door or will it be half shut and right in the rescuer's way because it has towels etc hanging on the back? This is what I mean by "homestyle habits".
There is no place in the world as safe and comfortable as our home, at least that is what your home should be. It's really easy to establish bad habits when you are in that "relaxed at home" state of mind. "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg, which came out earlier this year, is the most recent information available to us out here in the big world, pertaining to our conscience and unconscious habits and is a very interesting read. I'm not a psychologist so I can't type on that with any authority but I can recommend this book and suggest we all educate ourselves about how our psychology works. As a housekeeper, I can type intelligently about the severity of bad habits that get established in our homes. If somebody doesn't bring it to your attention, you aren't going to know, so here I am, typing away, hoping you will consider my suggestions and act on what seems reasonable to you.
Decluttering is the next great challenge for us in our homes. We've been through about 2 generations of materialism unlike anything the world has ever seen. Just after WWII, the manufacturing and advertising industries colluded to remake the American zeitgeist (zeitgeist - the general intellectual, moral and cultural climate of an era - as defined by Merriam Webster) or what I call Common Knowledge into the image we have today of a consumer based society. Prior to that, the "Common Knowledge" or the American Way was to make our own products, maintain them, repair them and to pass them down to our kids. For our families, our neighborhoods and our country it meant to be independent, meaning depending on ourselves for what we needed. Now, after 70 years of consumerism we find ourselves with way too much stuff and most of it is poorly designed and of crappy quality. Is it difficult for you to consider "your stuff" in these terms? Maybe you do have good quality stuff, maybe that stack of magazines does contain valuable information and of course, you did get a good deal on all that stuff. If you're not ready to declutter, that's OK. It's your house and your stuff and totally your call. If you are ready to declutter, I have some suggestions that I can recommend because they worked for me as I worked against my own pile of "way to much" stuff.
My main clutter weaknesses were clothes, art supplies and artwork. I spent many years in retail and costuming for the stage, so I love clothes, styles, shoes etc. I know fabrics intimately well. I owned over 200 t-shirts and there are not even 200 summer days in which to wear them. I had to become my own "Mother" and make parental style rules for myself. I could keep 7 black t-shirts and one of each other color. The rest had to go to the homeless shelter. Period. So, I pulled out all my t-shirts and for the first wave of decluttering, I threw out all the stained and worn out ones, if they were concert t-shirts, I cut the front out and put in in my sewing raw material pile. (My sewing raw material pile grew pretty big, but I dealt with that area in time.) I "shopped" my own clothes, meaning I pretended I was at a t-shirt store and picked the one hot pink T I liked best out of the 4 of them. The others went into the homeless shelter bag. I picked out the 7 coolest black T's I had, let go ones too small and too big. I now have a manageable amount of T-shirts, about 15 of them, 7 black ones and one each of lots of other colors.
The technique of being your own "Mother" or "Dad" works really well. We all have 2 basic personalities, the more mature aspect of ourselves that makes good decisions, is responsible and doesn't flip the boss off when we are asked to do something we don't want to do. Then there is the brat child in each of us that does flip the boss off, pout and whine. That aspect of our personalities usually doesn't come out unless we are in a safe place with people we trust... like at home, for instance. In order to do what we need to do to be responsible adults, we have to bring the responsible "Mom" aspect of ourselves into our really personal place, our home and our homestyle habits.
After 3 focused efforts, which spanned a couple years, I have been able to fit all of my clothes, all seasons, into one bedroom closet, one full size dresser and one small dresser (not including coats, jackets and shoes, those are in the mudroom) It feels great!! The way I maintain this manageable amount of clothes is to abide by this rule, Nothing comes in unless something goes out. So, if I see a beautiful blouse out in the big world, I ask myself, "do I like this blouse better than the ones I have at home?" maybe yes, maybe no, but if I bring it home, another blouse goes into the homeless shelter bag. I have donated clothing to other organizations as well, Goodwill and St Vincent de Paul's Thrift store in Lewiston have received lots of clothes and raw fabric, sewing and craft supplies from me. I've donated good office type work clothes to Dressed For Success in Portland, but unfortunately they have not been able to raise the funds to stay open, so this wonderful organization which helped women prepare to enter the work force by providing good office type clothing is closing. I have had great luck with many second hand stores also which gets you some cash for your clothes. I love getting the thank you letter from the various charitable organizations and take those tax deductions. It's win, win, win. You declutter, someone in desperate need gets some relief and you get the tax deduction and the soul satisfying knowledge that you shared your over-abundance. It's your call, you do as you see fit with your stuff. Keep it all if that's what is important to you.
I tackled my art supply gluttony after having enough of the sadness and guilt of carrying around these supplies thinking I'll have time to do bead work, wood carving, collage, quilting, book binding, macrame, decoupage, mask making and Ukrainian egg painting one of these days. In the meantime, I never had the time, and middle and high schools are suffering from lack of funds to keep art supplies in stock, day cares are having to be creative on a tight budget and lots of kids out there have little or no creative outlet. So, I (my internal Mother) firmly suggested I keep the supplies for the 3 creative styles most important to me and the rest had to go. I kept the raw materials for quilting, bead work and rubber stamping and the rest I gave to local day cares, high school drama departments and I sent the last of it to the American Folk Festival in Bangor, who requested donations of art supplies to set the kids up with something hands on and creative while the parents listened to the music. I now am free of the angst of never having enough time to do all the arts and crafts because the raw materials are no longer staring at me and weighing me down. It's awesome and I still feel as creative as ever before because I'm able to focus on what's most important and not be distracted by what might be, maybe someday....
My last great declutter success was with artwork and nick nacks. I come from a very artistically inclined family so there is no way I can give away or even sell any of the art and stuff. So, what I do is "rotate the exhibit" like galleries and museums do. I divided up all the art and nick nacks into 4 seasons and packed safely away 3/4 of the stuff and display one season at a time. The overwhelming benefit of this is to be able to enjoy each piece and not be overwhelmed by everything all at once all the time. Every 3 months or so, I get to handle every bit of art and enjoy it as I bring it out and pack it back. Each season brings out lovely pieces that my Mom painted or my brother carved that I hadn't seen since last year and it's wonderful. When everything was out all the time, it was all dusty and lost in the crowd. Keep in mind, the only really safe place for a valuable piece of wall art is on the wall, but if you give consideration to how and where you are storing artwork it can be safely stored. You can't just shove these valuable treasures under the bed or in the closet and expect them to not be damaged.
This is the most important concept I hope you will consider, If you own a thing, you must maintain it. If you possess something, it is your responsibility to take care of it. If you can't take care of it, you either have too much stuff, you are too irresponsible or just not in a suitable position to own it. I know this sounds like some really stern Mom bringing the hammer down. Damn straight. It's the truth even if it isn't part of the Common Knowledge any longer. It's your house and it's your family and it's your stuff. You do as you see fit. To quote Mitt Romney, "..everything depends on the success of our homes." and I agree. Just ask yourself, "is our home really as safe and comfortable as I think it is?" That, is housekeeping.
My next posting is the companion piece to Decluttering... Recycling.
thank you for your attention, soon we will be back for the conclusion of "History of Modern Housekeeping".
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