Tuesday, April 14, 2015

That One Thing

Everyone has a"one thing" they collect. I'm not talking about spoons or stamps here.  After ten years of helping people get organized, I have found that everyone, regardless of how organized they are, has one thing that multiplies in their home over time.

For my mom it was baskets. When she entertained she would put out these baskets for chips and snacks when family or friends came to visit.  I don't recall her ever buying the baskets, we just always had them. When we had to clean out the dining room, we found an entire piece of furniture dedicated to containing all these baskets.

For my dad, it was magazines. Years and years of magazines.


For my friend, it was boxes of herbal tea.  Things got a little tense when I suggested she consolidate her twenty half empty boxes of herbal tea into a smaller container.

For another friend, it was armchairs. If someone offered her a chair, she couldn't refuse.

My neighbor was just over the other day describing all her "card making" supplies stashed in the depths of a closet.


And let's not even talk about tupperware.


Many "one things" really don't have any personal or sentimental value, they just accumulate.


My one thing is "stuff I plan to paint or repaint someday". You won't see it if you come over, but up in my little attic corner is a stash of frames, lamps and mirrors that have cracks or scratches, dents, or are otherwise not able to be used in their current condition.






From time to time I take one out, put it in a spot in the house to "look at" for several days in various spots. Eventually it goes back up in the attic because it's an unfinished project staring me in the face. I forget about it for a bit, until I go up to put something else in storage, only to see it again.  Then I start the cycle again, taking something out, putting it somewhere, and eventually putting it back up in the same place!

It's been a year and a half since I moved from a small single story ranch house in New England to a bigger, taller home in Texas and I still haven't used or painted any of those things.


So that should tell me something about those things. That I really can't use them, I am not going to paint them, and they need to find another home.


Sometimes the clutter you can't see is just as bad as clutter you can. It represents extra work, time, and effort you may not have or want to put in. These "one things" start to take up a lot of mental and physical space and if left ignored, continue to multiply at a rapid pace if you aren't aware.


So, I challenge you today to identify your "one thing". What are you going to with it? 


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