What inspires my work?
Before Marie Kondo got famous, there were those of us who started under the radar long before she showed up. My Mom says I was born liking order and cleanliness. She should talk. She made my sister, brother and I clean every weekend. I remember my sister commenting as a teenager, “I like to vacuum first and then dust as vacuuming raises all the dust.” Wow, I thought, okay, ..got it. When I was very young I started cleaning homes and babysitting … the going rate was $1.00 per hour! I learned that when I tried to clean people’s homes, their stuff got in the way of cleaning. They either had too much stuff and you could not see straight or they kept buying multiples of things when they already had 3 comets under the sink. An idea was born! Could I clean better if they had less stuff, less clutter, less mess? Did they know they were wasting money that was valuable? It was the 70s; come on, …everyone was poor.
1) Minimalism has governed my life, for better or worse, since I was young. Spare some say, boring say others. I like to know what I have and how much of it. I like to keep a running total of how much I have of extra cleaning supplies. I have very few clothes, and regularly clean out my closet. I tend to wear something to death and then buy something new for the next season. (I think this is a leftover from wearing samples in the fashion industry and then the next season would come along … Marie Kondo popularized this in her famous book, “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying” and “Spark Joy”. I like to value what I have. I see the value in some things that I have inherited from my grandmothers - mostly their artwork and pottery and photos of them when they were young and fashionable. I value people, not things. Don’t get me wrong, I like things but I do not need a huge house to hold all my belongings. Perhaps, too, it is because, essentially I am a nomad: I have lived in 29 different places in my life… and I am still moving. I feel lighter on my feet if I have to pick up and move again. What is essential for this next move?
2)Overconsumption - Americans purchase big homes, big cars, big debts, and big vacations. Our GDP is one of the highest in the modern world. Our home sizes are the biggest in the world, behind those of Australia and New Zealand at 2,164 square feet. Our SUVs and trucks are some of the biggest in the world with the likes the Cadlillac Escalade, the Chevrolet Tahoe, the Toyota Tundra CrewMax, the Ford Expedition Max… Again, Australia and New Zealand like their cars big. In 2005, New York City dwellers threw away 1,242 pounds per person. Containers and packaging now constitutes 32% of all. household waste. We buy big, and we throw away big. Because I work in people’s homes, garages, storage units, and offices, I see redundancy after redundancy. We do not know we have something because we have so much stuff so we cannot see what we actually own. We have a love affair with Amazon ( I am guilty as charged as well!). It’s as easy as pressing a button and ordering. Did we actually look to see if we already had something?
3)Holding onto something that we think we eventually will use. It takes hard work to think about our belongings. To look at it, hold it, thank it for its value, and let it go or to grab it and give it life. We all fill our spaces until they are full. It is a natural tendency. Do you find when you move or have to move, that bags and bags are filled with stuff that you no longer need and need to donate? This is so common. I once had a storage unit and hired a neutral party (Thumbtack) to come and help. Turns out, 90% of what we had in storage, we did not really need. Each new home presents a challenge of how to fill the living spaces. If we move and store our stuff, our new home may not be home with our old stuff. Couches are too long, tables are too short, rugs are out of date, furniture is too damaged or too worn. When we dive into these hard conversations with ourselves takes time and energy, and the best mind space. Hoarding, which I will not delve into in this post, will take another entire post.
4)Knowing what you have and why? Do you ever look into those boxes that you cannot get to because they are too difficult to open. Can’t find the time to actually go through them? Such obstacles are common and normal. We do not like to do the things that are difficult. There are so many ways to remember our youth, our memorable events, our highlights, and low times. Oftentimes, this is done is digital ways that most of us find elusive or cold. There are nicer ways to frame photos and our memories that are easier to do and more tactile.
5)Efficiency - going to graduate school and working full time made me somewhat of a time efficiency nerd. If you don’t have much time, you do your best in the amount of time provided. Once done, you have to quickly move on to the next thing. You have to be fairly vigorous with your schedule and finding some down time - late at night or early in the morning - is what works. I feel the same way about homes, especially kitchens. Working with your particular space, you prioritize the main things you do in a kitchen. Putting your main dinner plates by the dishwasher, good idea. Putting your baking pans near the oven, good idea. Putting your utensils and spices away in the pantry not near the oven, bad idea. These are easy to get, but you would be surprised by what I see in homes. We spend our lives moving in certain ways throughout a house - the ‘high use’ areas. Getting to know these sometimes is hard, sometimes it is easy. The faster we can learn these movements, the better we can set up the kitchen to match your movements.
6)Cleanliness-you cannot clean if a space is too cluttered. You cannot see what you have, if your space is utterly cluttered with too many things that use or have not used in 10 years. If a space is organized, you can see what you need to clean. You cannot clean if clutter is in your way. It is a vicious cycle and circle.
7)Health- in recent years, there has been a lot of research about the stresses of a messy, cluttered home. Your cortisol level rises when your home is cluttered and messy and high cortisol levels mean extra stress. The visual stimulation of stuff tends to weigh heavily on your mental health. Clutter competes for your attention, distracting you from areas of your life that you need to focus on. The mental load of having to do so much and can’t get to it weighs on your time and your energy. Just search the internet for articles and article headlines for the importance of staying mentally health in your organized home.
8)Environment- you can be a good steward of your environment when you stop overbuying, stop sending your waste to the landfill, It is important to buy what you need, use to its fullest extent, and say goodbye when something no longer serves its purpose. Every product has a life cyle - birth, life, and death or where it ends up. Think about this when you buy your household items.
9)Simplicity means ease- A simpler, more organized home means that you can relax more, rest more, sip a cup of tea, stretch, love your family, invite your friends over. A simpler home can mean beauty and style. It can mean relaxation, comfort, coziness.
I hope I have not overwhelmed you with this blog. It certainly fills up a lot of space. Perhaps one of these resonates with you, perhaps all of them do. We all have our histories, what brings us to this moment, what inspires us. My inspiration comes from how we live in the spaces that we own, we rent, we call our own. Make them yours.