Week 7 – Managing Storage
I’m still working my way through the seemingly never-ending “komono” (Miscellaneous) category at what feels like a snail’s pace. Between a busy week at work (big grant application) and warmer weather (preventative maintenance for garden weeds), I got very little accomplished on my KonMari plan. Fortunately I have a wonderful support network to keep me from beating myself up about it too much: Christian has encouraged me to rest when I’m exhausted so I don’t burn out on the project altogether, and my friend Stacey (who is Kondo-ing her own house too) reminded me that it’s not worth spending the time tidying if I’m not going into it with the right mindset.
Image credit: [1]
Marie’s agenda for Week Seven deals with storage. Fortunately I tackled most of my Christmas category during Week Six (Sentimental Items), which allowed me to look through boxes! In my family, we keep and reuse wrapping paper, tissue paper, ribbons, and really nice boxes. The attics in my house, my parents’ house, and my grandparents’ house have (and accumulate) boxes full of boxes that we keep for wrapping presents. And yes, Christmas presents are an art form in our family, so starting with a good quality box is key.
What I have learned in just two weeks of sorting through miscellaneous items is that if something is still functional but I can’t give it away (half-used bottles of lotion or soap, for example), I will keep it and use it. Call it my hoarding tendencies, call it my desire to be green, but I refuse to trash consumables that still have utility, even though the goal here is de-cluttering. Our bathroom closet is still crammed full, but at least it’s organized now – and with everything sorted into boxes where we can see what all we have, we know we will never have to buy Band-Aids again.
Storage Solutions
At one point in her book,[2] Marie states that storage experts are just better hoarders. I felt that comment in my bones as I kept, organized, and stored large quantities of miscellaneous items over the past few weeks. (Seriously, I will probably never use all of this tissue paper!) The KonMari method involves parting with unnecessary items so that there is less to tidy in the first place. The goal is not to keep more, store it better, and (frequently) forget about it.[3] Given that, I found it highly amusing when she launched a line of storage products, which are featured prominently on her 8-Week Tidying Challenge website.[4]
Part of me wondered if she just expects most people (particularly most people in America) to discard less in the first place and then spend money on storage solutions, which honestly feels like an easier option than parting with my stuff. But once I actually looked at what she has for sale, the items really align with the things she recommends, like storing papers upright and subdividing dresser drawers. In any case, her promotion of these items is not gratuitous, and she also encourages using things you might already have around the house. For example, on one episode of her show, she guided a family to use old shoe boxes as clothing storage on shelves for children who didn’t have a dresser.
So with piles of useful boxes lying around (all of which survived the purge during Week Six), I have started to put some of them to good use as storage solutions. One very nice box and its equally sturdy lid were the perfect size for my underwear and sock drawers, creating the opportunity to layer more delicate dress socks on top of more sturdy gym socks while still providing easy access to the latter. (The box was from the Nest thermostat we bought several years ago; the packaging and instructions had been living on the bookshelf ever since Christian installed the device.)
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Although it is not in Marie’s plan to organize and store as you go in each category, we honestly do not have the space to get everything out at once, tidy it, sort it, and put it all back at the same time. (And honestly, when I think about that approach, I can easily imagine it bringing about the end of our marriage.) There is still so much stuff to examine that it will realistically take months, not weeks. Also, without access to our primary area of storage space (the attic), there is almost no room left in the house to sort through our things. One half of our living room has served as my KonMari staging area for the past seven weeks, and doing that blocks the one path through the house whenever I’m actively tidying. Our only viable course of action is to unearth, sort, and box up one sub-category at a time, and then put them aside for when they can move back to the attic… eventually.
If this is the bar for adulthood, I’m golden.
Image credit: [5]
Our roofing adventure, which started more than three months ago,[6] is just about done with the major components completed, but we only just scheduled our attic weatherization work for the end of May. Weatherizing the attic will raise the floor by eight inches (it will take a lot of insulation to get us up to code), which will also reduce the amount of usable floor space under the eaves. However, I’m hoping that after we’re done tidying, we won’t actually need to use all of the approximately 160 square feet of storage space up there. As it happens, the attic is difficult to access, and Marie discourages storing things in such a way that they can easily be put away and forgotten. Unfortunately, the layout of our house doesn’t offer much in the way of storage opportunities outside the attic, so that is likely where most of our seasonal decorations, sporting equipment, and brewing supplies will go.
When I started this challenge, I told Christian that the house was going to look a whole lot worse before it looked better. I knew that would be the case, but I didn’t fully comprehend how frustrating it would be. The fact that we currently can’t make use of the attic storage space has exacerbated the problem by creating more clutter, even as I’ve removed bags of clothing, boxes of knick knacks, and reams of old papers from the house. Since the beginning of quarantine (when I thought “great, now I’ll have time to finally clean the house!”), we have gone from three rooms that can’t be used to two and a half rooms that can’t be used. If the loss of attic storage for five months doesn’t help me pare down my belongings, nothing will.
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There’s one more week in the challenge, but likely many months to go in reaching my goals. Hopefully I’ll be able to remain kind to myself and spark some joy along the journey. Have you been following along at home? What do you do to stay motivated during this marathon?
Thanks for reading!
Keep Reading –>
[1] https://konmari.com/konmari-marie-kondo-tidy-challenge-week-seven/
[2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22318578-the-life-changing-magic-of-tidying-up
[3] https://www.housebeautiful.com/lifestyle/organizing-tips/a25908482/marie-kondo-book-life-changing-magic-of-tidying-up-tips/
[5] https://twitter.com/boardgamebloke
[6] https://radicalmoderate.online/my-cabin-doesnt-leak-when-it-doesnt-rain-part-1/
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