Reclaiming Your Space
The Home Edit's Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin coined a phrase I find myself repeating to clients constantly: "You can have the stuff, or you can have the space, but you can't have both."
It sounds simple. It might even sound obvious. But it's one of the hardest truths in organizing, because every item you keep takes up real estate — physical and mental. At some point, the stuff wins, and the space disappears.
I saw this firsthand with a couple I started working with a few months ago.
Bob and Kim's Story
Bob and Kim have lived in their home for over 35 years. They raised three kids, who are now adults with four children of their own. Bob works from home as an engineer and has serious hobbies — gardening, cooking, fitness. Kim works outside the home and has her own passions: photography and baking.
Over three and a half decades, items that used to live neatly in storage slowly migrated into the living space. Not all at once — just a little at a time, year after year — until Bob and Kim looked around one day and realized their home was working for the stuff instead of for them. There wasn't room for Bob's projects or Kim's hobbies, because the space that should have held them was already full.
That's not a failure. It's just what happens in a home that's been lived in, and loved, for a long time.
We're now in the process of reclaiming that space in Bob and Kim's home, category by category, creating systems so both of them can actually use their home for the things they love. The difference already is dramatic.
Five Steps When You're Ready to Choose the Space
Whether you're facing a garage full of gear or just one overstuffed closet, here are five actionable steps to start with — especially for the moment when you know you should choose the space, but when decision time actually arrives, you find yourself choosing the stuff.
1. Pick one category, not one room. Don't tackle "the office." Tackle "cables and chargers," or "cookbooks." A category is something you can see in its entirety. A room almost never is.
2. Pull everything out before you decide anything. You can't make good decisions about what to keep until you can see the full volume of what you actually have. Half the overwhelm of clutter is that it's spread out enough to hide its true size.
3. Ask what it's replacing, not just if you like it. If keeping something means something else has to stay in a box, ask whether it's actually earning that space. Liking an item isn't the same as it deserving a spot in your home.
4. Give every category a home, not just a hiding spot. If it doesn't have an assigned spot, it will migrate back into the living space exactly the way it did before. A drawer you shove things into isn't a system — it's a delay.
5. Build in a maintenance check. A reset without maintenance is temporary. Even a quick seasonal check-in keeps the systems working long after the initial project is done.
If This Sounds Like Your Home
If your home has quietly filled up over the years — not because of one big mess, but because life happened one season at a time — you're in good company. Most homes I work in got that way exactly like Bob and Kim's did.
If you're ready to choose the space, I'd love to help. I offer a complimentary consultation, and I'd be glad to walk through your home with you and build a plan that actually fits how you live.
Remember, the only way to finish is to start.
Jenn Gershon is the owner of Consider It Done Organizing, serving individuals and families throughout Boston and MetroWest, Massachusetts. Book a complimentary consultation at www.consideritdone-organizing.com, email jenn@cidorg.com, or call 617-300-9903.