I used to be an organizer. I worked at an organizational store. We sold storage systems and boxes. Metal, wooden, plastic, cardboard, big, small. $50 compost buckets and $200 trash cans.
One woman came to see me repeatedly, asking me for advice and products that could help her stay afloat with all the stuff she had to organize. Her boyfriend had over one hundred pairs of shoes, she had filled three closets with clothes, one room was devoted to furniture she didn’t have space for.
Two of the times she visited, she broke down crying at how much junk she was drowning in.
I hugged her in front of our wall of 20 different shoe organizers, telling her it’d be okay. Seriously.
At the time, I guided her to the best organizational tools I knew—a few dozen boxes of different shapes and sizes, seven shoe racks, countless kitchen doodads. And each time I saw her, she told me about how much all of it had helped.
But I wonder…when she was crying on my shoulder about all the stuff she had to organize and how stressful her life had become…was sending her out the door with cart after cart of MORE stuff really the best answer?
The organizers might say yes. The minimalists, no. And I would say NO.
It’s obvious when you think about it…
Buying More Stuff Isn’t The Answer To Too-Much-Stuff.
How do you deal with a big mess?
How do you deal with too much?
Do you clean and organize? Do you stuff it in a box and push it aside? Do you ignore it and surf the internet?
The organizer answers “buy a better box.”
The minimalist answers “get rid of the stuff.”
The organizer asks “what type of storage system should I buy?”
The minimalist asks “can I throw this away?”
The organizer ends up buying more stuff to organize the stuff they already have.
The minimalist winds up not having to worry about organizing in the first place.
This Is The Ultimate Answer To “Where Should I Put This?”
Unless it is contributing value to your life, put it away from you.
Instead of thinking “A box? A drawer? A shelf? A container?”
Train yourself to think “The dumpster? Craigslist? Recycling? Donations bin?”
