The difference between storage in a storage room and storage in a living space
It might seem like a Zen conundrum, but there is actually a difference between the way storage in a bedroom and storage in an attic works, which naturally tidy people seem to understand instinctively and which naturally messy people don’t. The problem arises because we use the same word for both types of storage, and it isn’t clear that they function in very different ways.
Attics, or any space which is outside a main living area and is used purely for putting seldom used items in, is easy to organise. We all understand the principles of using the space efficiently (stacking boxes and so on) and of putting ‘like with like’. People don’t tend to access such spaces very often, and provided the containers in them are well marked, then finding things and keeping some semblance of order in them isn’t usually a problem. But more frequently used and lived in spaces often are, and it is a common trap to believe that the only way around the fact that you’re in these living spaces all day ‘messing them up’, is to tidy up frequently. In fact, if the possessions in your living spaces are well organised, then they will tend to gravitate back to their correct places automatically, and tidiness becomes something that almost seems to maintain itself.
Understanding the way storage should work in a living space is key to attaining this state of organisational ‘nirvana’. To begin with, in a way, you might think of every single item in a bedroom as an item that is being ‘stored’ there. But in the case of larger and frequently used things such as the bed, which wouldn’t be put in there unless they were essentials, we see very easily that they are being used and are therefore not being ‘stored’ at all.
But what about the less frequently used and smaller items? These are the ones we tend to insist we need ‘storage’ for in our bedrooms (whether we choose wardrobes, chests, chests of drawers or cupboards). But are they being ‘stored’ in your bedroom, any more than the bed is? The answer is no. Smaller and less frequently used items in a bedroom need to be just as easy to access and use, as the larger and more frequently used ones. If they’re not, you will subconsciously feel that you’re living in a broom cupboard, and that things are not set up to help you. That will be because they’re not.
The point is that with larger items of furniture, it’s easy to see that they form a living working system, that you need to access and use every day. What is just as essential to know, if you want to stay well organised effortlessly and without frequent ‘tidying up’ sessions, is that every single item, however small and infrequently used within a living space such as a bedroom, needs to be regarded as part of a living working system too, and placed accordingly.
To understand more about the way to place items in the home so that they tend to gravitate back to their correct places please download the free excerpt of ‘Banish Clutter Forever – How the toothbrush principle will change your life’ from the main menu, or order a copy via this site.
