All in Musings
Just a short note about fighting the good fight against the kid's mess in our home (sticker covered, grease spots on the couch, mangy walled, tattered furniture, trail of crumbs in every hallway, parents around the world, you feel me?). Aim high. Aim for clean floors and clear counters smudge and free light switch plates. Clorox commercial clean. Yes, I'm serious.
I'm going out on a limb here because I have been pushing against a writer's block for a month. What does writer's block look like in my world? A large, broken hunk of concrete with rusty twisted rebar jutting out. While that image may not be pleasant, that's what's sitting in front of my creative outlet these days.
How did we get this way? The-too-much-stuff problem. The clutter problem. The trillion tote bag problem. The six pairs of jeans and only one fits problem. The every family member over the age of 60 living in various stages of hoarding problem. The wasted food problem.
So often, in the realm of organizing, either self or professionally imposed, there are insurmountable hurdles. These hurdles take the shape of an unavoidable pile on the floor, resembling nothing like an elephant except for in size.
“Good habits are worth being fanatical about.” - John Irving Fanaticism acts as cement. It hardens your best habits into a discipline which then becomes, simply, who you are. Fanaticism about certain habits prevents me from being lazy, which I am, inherently.
All the messy types of the world just got a get out of jail free card with this recent New York Times article. I mean, we all know genius has no time to attend to hair.
Hello. I'm back. I was away for bit, two months to be exact. A very long pause. My whole family went up to the northern Catskills for the summer. It was sublime.
I have been reading picture books to my kids nearly every day for the past six years. What have I got to say for it that relates to Tame Space?
I inherited quite a few cookbooks from my mother and grandmother when they downsized homes. So I have been lugging them around from apartment to apartment the last twelve years.
In the past 15 years, more and more people have joined the lifestyle movement known as minimalism. It's amazing really. My favorite minimalists are Graham Hill and The Minimalists.
If you're not familiar with Hoarders (and it's TLC equivalent, Hoarding: Buried Alive) it's a television show intended to examine (humiliate) a person who has accumulated so much in their home that they are nearly unable to function.
Has this ever happened to you? You realize it's been a while since you looked at pictures of your grandmother. It bothers you that since she died you cannot remember her face as clearly as you used to. You long to see her face.
For a year I was the book buyer for the interior design section of an evil super-sized bookstore on the upper east side of Manhattan. The buyers at the home office figured this store should have this special section for students of the New York Interior Design School situated near by.
After all, how can a professional giver of advice on all things streamlined and utilitarian have these dusty things hanging about in her own closets and under bed storage?
As a (somewhat) reformed pack rat I know I should only be telling people to live with what they need and what they absolutely love. Everything else should go. That's a major rule, a principle, something to live by, no exceptions!
