Deft Rerun: Setting Up

Photo courtesy Flickr

Of the millions of words that have been written about organizing a household, none of them is worth anything if it doesn’t center on a computer.

So, with laptop in hand, messenger bag at your feet, and the new key inside the door, how do you deal with the rest of your stuff?

Perhaps not at all. Or perhaps not right away.

Start by having someone detail the new quarters. It will be easy to do in empty rooms, and if you play your cards right, it may not be necessary to do heavy cleaning for years.

Find someone to advise you about managing the garden. Get the garden right, so the work you do inside will put the finishing touches on the property. Think about gardening to eat and to save water.

Unlike children, possessions hold still, so it’s not necessary to hover over them. This will give you time to think.

Decide how many people you want to entertain at a conventional table, store that many places in the cupboard, and use paper plates or a party rental for big occasions. Once you decide on an entertainment maximum, it’s easy to decide how many chairs to have.

Traditionally, the western house is a museum. The Japanese house is theater. Their spare interiors are supported by a fireproof storage building on the back of the property. Fine Japanese artifacts come in well-designed boxes, so they can be stacked compactly in storage. Metro epoxy-coated or chromed wire storage racks (The Container Store) stocked with flap-lid plastic bins all in one size are a utilitarian equivalent.

Innkeepers divide “the house” into front and back areas. The front is for reception, entertaining, and guest rooms. The back is for production. The more back areas you define, the easier it is to get the work of life accomplished. Add a Goodwill container to your recycling and garbage array. It’s fun to keep an art junk box, too, and strangely gratifying if all the containers look the same.

Until the twentieth century, a home was a center of production rather than a center of consumption.

Choose one room to hold media, books, all the small precious objects you might worry about, some comfortable seating, and a table to eat at. The first European-Americans called this arrangement a “keeping room”. By setting up a warm keeping room for sedentary activities and leaving sleeping quarters and standing production areas on the cool side, I have cut my heating oil consumption by seventy-five percent in two years.

When you pack, separate things you use every day from inventory that gets pulled out for special occasions. It may not be necessary ever to unpack some things again. Storing in kits on wheeled racks makes it easy to reconfigure space. Label the kits. If something doesn’t seem worth packing in a flap-lid bin, it may not be worth keeping. Use obsolete closet space to squirrel away bulky items.

Keep each room as empty as it can be. Soften the atmosphere by keeping the windows and light bulbs clean and by using Ikea’s paper-shaded lamps.

Control clutter by establishing a “toy bank” for each child. Have her decide what favorites will be front and center for a couple of months. Going to the toy bank for a fresh supply will be exciting. Promise in writing never to discard a toy without permission, even if the child is too young to comprehend. She’ll understand the tone.

Place discards in transparent plastic bags. Ask each person to approve the discards. Do it in writing.

Inventory problems are a sign of abundance.

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