The Clutter Fairy Weekly #53
Nests, Empty or Otherwise: Reclaiming and Surrendering Space
The changing seasons of our lives require fresh approaches to the way we use and manage our homes. In episode #53 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, discusses the challenges of finding ourselves with an “empty nest”—and of children or elderly parents moving back into our spaces.
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Homework Assignment
Last week, we introduced a new segment tentatively called the “Homework Assignment.” (We’re still looking for a snappy title for this ongoing segment. See Contest below.)
The oven is also a place where you can bake things
For this week’s homework assignment, we encourage you to identify a space, a piece of furniture, or even a large appliance in your home that is being used as a storage space instead of the purpose for which it was intended. Let’s try to reclaim that space and make the bathtub a bathtub again.
A space converted to storage from its original purpose should serve as a large, blinking sign that you have more than you can store in your home. You may want to keep the stuff in your bathtub, but keeping it there reflects the larger problem of too much stuff. Figuring out whether you need to keep what’s there and where it really should be stored is this week’s task. It’s in the bathtub because you can’t put it elsewhere, but what if you could? What space needs clearing out to accept the bathtub pile?
Identify your converted storage area, then examine the items that you’re storing there and answer a few questions:
- Is there a more appropriate place I could keep this?
- What could I gain by getting rid of this item?
- Is there another space needs clearing out instead so that I can keep this stuff?
Chat Transcript
Download a transcript of the chat that took place during the live event.
Note: For best results, we suggest you right-click (Windows) or control-click (Mac OS) the link above to download the chat transcript text file, then read it in your text-reader or word-processing app of choice. If you click the link directly, you may get quirky results viewing the text file in your browser.
Contest!
We’re looking for a catchy name for our new “Homework Assignment” segment. E-mail us your suggestions. Our panel of experts will pick the winning entry, and the winner will receive a free one-hour virtual-organizing session with Gayle!
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