Survey #258—Full Response from Jacqueline
| Pronouns | She/her |
|---|---|
| What useful decluttering or organizing strategies or methods did you take away from the book? | Take it there now, 5 minute pickup to reset |
| Please share your favorite quotations or key ideas and concepts from this book. | Look, look, always look. As much as you think you know or remember what is in a space or container, you’re probably wrong and look anyway. Even if you just close it up and put it back without moving or decluttering anything, your memory is now refreshed. |
| White suggests a decluttering process that requires making a final decision about each item (keep, trash, or donate) and placing the item in its appropriate home right away rather than into a “keep pile” or “keep box” for later organizing. If you’ve used her method, how has the “take it there right now” approach worked for you? What are the pros and cons of her suggested strategy? | When I look at a bunch of things or a pile, it can be overwhelming to me. When I view it as single items, and pick up one or two items, I only have to make a decision about what is in my hand, and I take it there now and put it away and it is done. If I make piles, then I have to remember again later what each pile was and I still have to take it and put it away, and I have to decide twice for each thing what to do with it. Before I read her book, for example, when I was tidying up the kitchen, I might find something that belonged in the bedroom or bathroom, so I would take it and set it on the bathroom vanity or the top of the dresser in the bedroom to deal with when I was tidying those spaces, where it would sit, sometimes for weeks, becoming part of the background. |
| A big part of White’s decluttering philosophy is the “container concept”—the idea of setting firm limits on the containers you use to hold your stuff, where “containers” are understood to mean the boxes, bins, racks, baskets, drawers, cabinets, shelves, etc., that you use to hold stuff, as well as the rooms that must contain the containers—and then decluttering to fit those limits. If you’ve used her method, how has the “container concept” helped or hindered your decluttering? What are the pros and cons of her methodology? Are there areas or categories of stuff for which it works better than others? | I think the container concept has helped me pay more attention to what is actually in a drawer or cabinet or other space that is getting used or not getting used and can be decluttered. I like to be able to see everything that is in a space without having to rearrange it or shuffle things around in it, so getting rid of stuff that’s not being used makes that much easier. Things need to not only fit in the container, but they need to be easily accessible, easy to take out and put back. |
| White suggests following the “visibility rule”: Start every session of decluttering in the most visible places in your home. If you’ve used her method, how has the “visibility rule” helped or hindered your decluttering? What are the pros and cons of her suggested approach? | My house has a “great room” kitchen/living room with a big island which is generally where I start, because that is where most things get set down that need putting away. I have decluttered quite a lot, so the rest of the house stays pretty clutter free. |
| Here’s your chance to ask Gayle and Ed any question you’re curious about. It need not be related to this survey’s topic(s). If we think that your question—and our answer—might be useful or instructive to The Clutter Fairy Weekly audience, we’ll share them in an upcoming episode. | I am a crafty ,creative person and I am always making something. I crochet, I sew, I paint, I do photography, and I will try out any other craft you can think of. I craft because I love to do it, and I love to realize ideas that I collect into physical things. My home decor is almost exclusively artworks that I have personally created or artwork that I have purchased from another artist. I have almost no generic home goods type decor. My aunt once said to me “You have the highest creative output of anyone I know”. This is good and bad, because I’m running out of places in my house to display stuff. I don’t want to stifle my creativity and not make things just because I’m out of display space. I’m only in my 40s so I hopefully have many years of creating still ahead of me. I do make things for other people as gifts, but taking commissions kind of takes the fun out of it. |
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