ReSPACED Portland

What does your closet say about what you wear most often?

I recently read an interesting statement from Rachael of Kitchen Courses, who was guest posting over at Organizing Junkie. She said: “The way you organize your food defines your eating habits.” She went on to explain that if you keep your junk food front and center in your pantry, you are most likely to reach for that when you are hungry, because it is the most accessible.  Thus, whatever you keep most accessible will strongly influence your eating habits for better or worse.

This got me to thinking. We professional organizers are always encouraging our clients to put what they use the most in the most easiest-to-access places in their homes, usually at eye level. This provides for ease of use. But what if we don’t purposefully put our most frequently used stuff in the best spots? What if random stuff just ends up there? I strongly believe that that random stuff will become the stuff that we reach for most often.

For example, we will end up wearing the clothes that are front and center in our closet most often. Thus whatever is easiest to grab defines our wardrobe. Kids will end up playing with the toys that are the easiest to access in the playroom; thus, their playtime habits will be defined by those toys. If the TV is in the cushiest, most comfortable and accessible spot in the house, guess where everyone will congregate at the end of the day?

This can be to our detriment when we have some bad habits we need to change. Take a look at what occupies the most primo spot in your home and ask yourself if keeping it there encourages that bad habit.

The flip side is we can use this fact to our benefit when we want to change our habits. For example, want to get those bills paid on time more often? Then put the bills with the envelopes and stamps in an accessible, highly visual spot in your house. Want to cook at home more regularly to save money? Then put your cookware someplace extremely easy to access.

If we want to keep our kitchen and bathroom clean more consistently, we can store a container of Lysol wipes on the counter. If we want to be better about filing our papers, we can put the filing cabinet someplace easy to get to and store a package of new file folders on top for when we need to make new files.

Whatever is front and center in your home tells you what you use the most often. If you don’t want those things to define your lifestyle, then remove those items and reserve that space for the items that will help you achieve the lifestyle of your dreams. How you store your stuff truly will either help you or hinder you in accomplishing your goals. Now is the time to take charge of your life by first taking charge of your space.

Image courtesy of Lara604 at Flickr.

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