It’s a simple habit that’ll transform your life.
I lead a pretty typical life for a working mom in Hong Kong. My husband and I go to work. We have a helper at home that attends to our son and all household chores.
Until recently, all our tabletops would be covered in books, magazines, pamphlets that my husband and I have promised ourselves that we would read at some point.
Whenever we have guests over, our helper would move the paper mountain from one tabletop to another.
The Lassie-Faire storage approach is not limited to reading materials. We have similar methods for other stuff around the house. For example, we have accumulated 5 or 6 calculators over the years. And you’d find them scattered between the kitchen, the office, and the living room. There is no justification for their locations. We rarely use them, plus they are most certainly not created for decorations.
Over the years, our helper has developed a method to keep our place looking reasonably tidy. Her approach is a simple one. She just hides things in spare places without any regard for categorization nor retrieval.
It’s not uncommon to see shower gel stocked behind the medicine counter; medicine hidden behind camping equipment; party materials stored next to pots and pans in the kitchen, etc. Tools and batteries can be found in all drawers around the house because they are SO important to be kept handy.
We ended up buying stuff repeatedly because we could never find whatever we needed when we needed it most. Our helper would then put away the replenished supply into some unrelated domain, freeing their existence from us once again.
I couldn’t help but feel defeated each time when I had to rush to buy something that I know for a fact that I have it at home.
A few weeks back, I got my son and I working on a project to get our house in order. We started with his toys and books and finished with my vanity cabinets. Yes, plural. I suspect nobody expects that of me, and now armed with that knowledge, everyone would probably want to know what brands I use so they can avoid.
My son and I both felt great after the effort. So we celebrate it by buying new toys, in moderation.
But soon, I realized decluttering is just part of the process. Building a habit of putting things back where you found them is foundational to living a clutter-free life.
The logic is straight-forward.
You always know where stuff is, which saves you time and angst from looking for things.
Shopping now has become intentional. You can foretell the future by when your stock will run out. You also know how much storage space you have to stock up. That helps in deciding to what extent you’re going to take advantage of the bulk discount.
You’re no longer loitering in the store, wondering what you might have missed that will bring you back to the store again that same afternoon.
All of a sudden, a simple habit unlocks doors to your inner peace and rewards you with more free time on your schedule to do the things that you’d rather.
A simple habit that I wish I had developed a lot earlier than now. But it’s better late than never.
