NonFUNctional Clutter
One of the most surprising things I’ve learned as a professional organizer is organizing products often contribute to CLUTTER. It seems counter-intuitive, but I often find organizing ‘solutions’ clients have purchased to control clutter have instead become part of the clutter. After all, the organizing industry is a $10 billion industry and it only stands to reason that some of the boxes, bins, and baskets we purchase are unnecessary. I experienced organizational product clutter myself when I moved from the home my family lived in for 20 years to our ‘downsized’ home. Read on for more about my experience and the other reasons organizing products can become problems instead of solutions.
The real solution is less stuff
If the underlying problem is too much stuff, all the organizing baskets and bins in the world cannot help. Every space has a limit of how much stuff will comfortably fit. Once that limit is exceeded, the space and the people in that space simply will not function well. Start any organizing project by sorting and editing and wait to purchase containers once you have confidence you’ve eliminated clutter.
Solutions that are too much work
Do you love to decant every chip, cracker and noodle you purchase into perfectly labeled pantry organizing products? There is no wrong answer to this question, but it does need to be asked. Many of the amazing spaces we see online have been styled or belong to people who have the resources to maintain a complicated system. Are you the busy working parent of three kids that all have a specific favorite cereal? Are you going to buy an expensive container for each cereal? Will you always take the cereal out of the box and fill the containers? What happens when someone makes the Costco run and there is more cereal than fits in the container? What happens when your youngest decides he wants to try a DIFFERENT brand of cereal?! What I see happening is a pantry filled with containers AND cereal boxes - crowding out everything else. My goal in every space is to make it function for the owners of that space. Hello busy working parent! A pretty system that is unworkable for your life just won’t work! Let’s focus on what functions for you instead of being ‘influenced’ by what we see online.
Solutions that don’t fit the person
What’s your organizing personality? I have a personal hatred of stacking letter trays because, in my office, they become a dark cave where papers go to hide. That’s me and my hangup, but they are perfectly functional for some of my clients. For the client that hates visual clutter and functions best when they cannot see ‘too much going on’, I’ll use containers that conceal, like lidded baskets. I have clients that are the complete opposite and need to see stuff to find stuff. For them, we are only going to bring in clear containers. Clients are often surprised at how easy it is for them to maintain a space once we edit out the wrong solutions and use products that actually function for them.
Solutions that don’t fit the space
The best solution is the one that amplifies the space you have. An awkward solution can only make a space less functional. For example, drawer organizers that don’t fit the drawer will waste space. Some products simply don’t work well, and I’ve seen a ton of closet ‘organizers’ whose only function in life seems to be to frustrate the owner of that closet. We can often rehome products to another part of the house. Those unused sweater organizers taking up valuable hanging space may be repurposed in a utility room to hold toilet paper or beach towels.
Organizing Products from the Last House or Apartment
The organizing solution that wowed in your former home may be a dud in the new one. This was a personal struggle for me! My former home had a lot of closets and cabinets and built-ins. The new house has half the storage and it’s configured completely differently. Prior to the move, I reduced categories of stuff like clothing and crafts and memorabilia by 50%, but I never edited my organizational products. They just seemed so functional, and I was sure I could put them to use, somewhere. Months after the move, I realized key spaces like the mudroom and laundry room were cluttered because my organizing solutions were actually in the way! Lesson learned—if we downsize our space and our stuff, we will ultimately need to downsize the stuff that was holding all the stuff, as part of the unpacking process.
Summary
Boxes, bins, baskets, and other organizational products are a key part of the overall organizing solution but only work well when they are part of the whole organizing process. That process always starts with sorting and editing, then containerizing. The RIGHT organizing solution or product is the one that fits the person, fits the space, and makes it easy to maintain the organizational system.