Before Everything Has a Home, It Has to Earn One

Recently, I was scrolling social media on my phone and I stopped to watch a video from a content creator.  She was strongly advocating for everything in our homes to have a home.  And I totally agree.  And, if you like this type of content, too, I know for me, it is so satisfying to watch people put things away. 

The items in our homes do need a home so we can create order quickly out of seeming chaos.  Love it!  And it is calming to watch, at least for me. so we can put them away. We put them away to protect the item, to give us clear spaces in our homes, and so we can find an item again when we need to use it again.

But even when mindlessly scrolling, my organizer brain reminded me that she, and we all, need to ask a few more questions about our stuff before deciding where in our home our items will have a home.

The important first question as we review our stuff is “Does this item earn a spot in our home?”, and THEN we decide where the Home is for that item.  

The definition of clutter is “Anything we don’t need, use or love.” 

We first need to review our stuff and determine if it’s important to our lives because we need it, and we use it, and we love it. If an item is not clutter, if it passes the test, and we do need it, we use it and / or we love it, then yes - it gets to stay and we need to assign it a home.

However, only focusing on finding homes in our homes for all of our things? That is not actually organizing. It’s a step in the process, but only one.  You are not fully organized if you only have an Away for things.

Let’s get specific:

I completed a very satisfying project with a client in a linen closet last week. And this client was NOT the example I’ll give here - I need to say this because last week’s client is a listener! - but her project reminded me.  

Years ago, I worked with another lovely client who very proudly showed me a large, broad hall closet with accordion doors. The closet had 6 shelves approximately 8 feet wide (48 linear feet of storage), filled to capacity with towel sets. The towels were color coded, grouped together by set, folded similarly to create a very soothing visual.  It was lovely to look at.  

But, this client lives alone. She had 2 bathrooms. She had guests regularly but also has time to do laundry between visits. She struggled to find storage space for other items, even related items, like sheets and blankets. Yes, her towels have a home, and they were lovely to look at.  But I had to ask, is it too big a home dedicated to this many duplicates?  The answer is yes, of course.  Yes these particular things have a home but the necessary editing needed to happen first.   We had to ask, Do they all EARN a home?

Think about your own home or work.  What are those items for you?  What items need to earn a home?

As I write this, I recall an even earlier client experience when a client had turned two coat closets near the kitchen into pantries.  She asked me to come in ahead of getting the house ready to sell, to help her get started.

She, like all of my clients, was a great person and had stocked up and even overstocked on food items out of a desire to take care of her family, to be frugal and take advantage of a good deal on groceries, etc., all good things, truly.  But she had purchased items more quickly than her family had consumed them, and now we needed to dig out of the backlog.  Regrettably, there were items that were well sorted and categorized and displayed in her pantry closets, but they were also now well past code and she did not feel comfortable feeding long-expired foods to anyone. In terms of selling the house, having that many pantries might make it appear that the kitchen didn’t have enough storage for kitchen things so we needed to turn them back into coat closets.  

Everything had a home, but she had not asked that first question as she stocked up - did these items EARN a space in her home?  Need / Use / Love? Having a home for an item may not be enough to redeem it, to keep it from being clutter.

As we assign homes to our stuff, What IF… We only kept what we truly need, use and love?  We make the decision on our current items on which items can stay, and which items are clutter and need to leave.  AND, we consider this question before we even START consuming, from now on?

Once we decide an item can stay and needs a home, then we have to ask ourselves Where?

More than 60% of the population are strong visual learners. Recall, all of us are a blend of learning styles - visual, auditory, verbal and kinesthetic - and visual is strong in a majority of the population.  For some people, that means they need to see their important items in front of them. That is how being a strong visual learner shows up for some people. For some visual learners, seeing everything in front of them all the time is overwhelming, overstimulating, and therefore, having their things put away is very helpful because it's less overwhelming when stuff has a home. And they can, you know, gently close the cabinet on those things, and yeah, all of that is very helpful. 

And here’s the real rub, we can all be both of those types of visual learners, depending on the item and the situation. Our stuff has earned a home, either in front of us, or behind a door or in a drawer, etc?  It’s a sticky situation, for sure.

I want to share a related idea that can help you answer the ““Does this item earn a spot in our home?” and then the “Where is the home for this item” questions before we even take on an item.

Consider Form and Function.

Form is the physical form of an item - obviously, but also, for today, the aesthetics of an item.

Function is how an item functions, what service it provides, how you use an item, etc.

And, as we ask the question of “Does this item earn a spot in our home” for both our current stuff and also for new things coming in, please consider both Form and Function.

The goal is to have good Form AND good Function, of having both, but you may not always get both.  And in some areas of our homes, function needs to win. And what I mean by that is organization needs to win over having everything in a pretty basket or an aesthetically pleasing array or color coded anything.

Form and Function together, that’s great, but function needs to win when it comes to being organized. 

Let me explain.  I guess I am all about client examples today!  (And they are all such non-descript examples with no identifying details that my client identities are safe!)

I worked with a client long ago who had this really cool old wooden cabinet in her office, like an old apothecary cabinet or library card catalog, kind of cabinet. It looked so interesting and she really loved the piece.

However, she had to cut all of her pieces of paper, every piece of paper that she owned, down to fit in the drawers instead of storing something other than paper in the drawers finding a different place to store her paper. She was really committed to this item that didn't actually function the way it needed to.  Instead of heeding to function, she bowed to form and added a whole lot of work to her own schedule as she was running her own business.  Who has that kind of time?!  That is one example of bowing to form over function with less than organized results.

As an organizer, I have been asked to “Insta” a pantry, as in make a space “Instagram Photo” ready.  I will organize a space like a pantry for function and I can also make it lovely (for Form), but the function comes first. A favorite client paid a lot of money to have another service provider come in and “Insta” her space. And it is lovely. Every basket on the shelf matches, and the space is bright and airy and ready for Instagram worthy photos, that is amazing and good for her!

However, in that process, there was not the consideration of how my client and her family use the space. The pantry is beautiful, for certain, but there was a box of leftover food and accessories that didn’t fit back in the space.  Form led the process, not function.

The challenge when Form leads the process instead of Function, we are left needing to change our habits and work flow, or cause ourselves extra work chasing after items that we HAVE deemed worthy of a space in our home but perhaps NOT where we will actually use it and need it.

To recap:

Yes, our stuff needs a home. We need to be able to put our things away, to protect them, to find them again, to use them again, and to restore order in our spaces. 

But before we purchase an item and then assign a home to our things and put them away, we first need to ask “Does this item earn a spot in our home?”

And if it does, as we consider the WHERE the home is, consider Form and Function. Of course we want items and spaces that are both functional and aesthetically pleasing in form, but in organizing, Function needs to lead!

As you tackle home or work organizing projects, make sure to consider these two ideas as you make your decisions.