Feng Shui

I live in a perpetual state of organized chaos. Most of the time when I try to "organize" I end up loosing something. This means that I tried to find a place to put said thing, and wherever I put it made perfectly logical sense at the time. However, it does not make sense whenever I go looking for it again, therefore I can't find it. When you live this way, stuff tends to pile up. Especially if you are also a professional procrastinator.

Ken and I had a rough weekend. There has been a lot of stress in the house. and I really couldn't put my finger on why. Then Sunday night, as I tried to get to sleep, it dawned on me: if I controlled the chaos in the house I could control the chaos in our minds. If your place of comfort and sanctuary is always a mess, then it has to mess something up psychologically. Unless you're perfectly fine with it that way. For us (especially my OCD husband), it wasn't working. I was trying to ignore the mess. I didn't think it bothered me, but deep down, it did. For example, by the front door there were clothes that needed to go to the cleaners, a socket kit, containers of unused motor oil, stuff to go to Goodwill, a radiator (in a box), and lots of dust bunnies. It was visual chaos as soon as we walked in the door.

So yesterday I gave up my whole day to clean and put stuff away. Put stuff where it goes! Where I will remember where it is! Because it's where it always goes (except for the radiator), I was just too lazy to put it away in the first place! And I did. I took stuff to the cleaners, and I organized. I matted, framed, and hung a poster on the wall that had been sitting on an easel in an awkward location for a year. I also hung a mirror on the wall that had been in an odd spot. I cleaned out my closet and gave a lot of my old office clothes away (good riddance!).

Now when I walk in the house, it's instant calm. The entire visual aesthetic of the house is so much nicer. All I had to do was put stuff away. In its right place. And it worked. It's amazing what de-cluttering can do. Home feels so much better.