Ann

I’m not necessarily a person who likes knick-knacks and décor just for the sake of having them. But, having grown up in a transient lifestyle that keeps me from revisiting former homes or communities, there are many “things” that serve as reminders of the places I’ve been.

My husband and I both have souvenirs from different countries as well as items that represent our lives over the years. But, that means stuff, and stuff accumulates, especially after 40+ years of life, 20+ years of marriage, an incredible number of moves, three children, and a lot of memories. For the first ten years of our marriage, organization meant finding a place for all of the stuff. In more recent years, though, we’ve become more aggressive about purging and being much more selective of our mementos.

Meanwhile, I am a perfectionist who really likes to have everything organized just so. My husband dislikes clutter and likes things to be tidy, but he also doesn’t care if there is any specific order to something when it is put away. Over the years, we’ve both mellowed a bit in our organization systems, finding a middle ground. We both believe in a house full of bookshelves, and neither of us are good with or concerned about décor. (Our house is a hodge-podge of hand-me-down furniture, unfinished bookshelves, and randomly placed wall hangings!)

But, we want everything to have a place. He’s okay with me deciding where things should go so there is a good order. I’m okay with him solving storage problems, even if it doesn’t always make sense to my system of order. Over the years, we’ve learned a system of problem-solving organization.

First, we lay out the problem clearly. Then we study it from a variety of angles, determining if what we have on hand will solve the problem, especially when combined with purging or reorganization. After all, with our transient personalities, we love any excuse to rearrange the house!

Only then do we evaluate if there are purchases we need to make to accommodate the solution. We used to vacillate between going overboard and being very resistant to buying organizational supplies — each one as a reaction to the other tendency.

Now, we are very willing to buy what we need, but only if we determine that we really need it. And, purging has become a huge part of our organizational approach. It’s a struggle for us, and we don’t always part with things well. But, we’re getting better and practice has made us very discerning about our purging.

Tiffany

Before I had children, organization meant having my CDs and DVDs alphabetized. With my personality, I can obsess about organization if I choose, but I will wear myself out trying to keep a certain standard, and I’ll try to govern other people’s behavior as well. So, I instead choose to not obsess about organization, which makes for a happier home.

I really dislike cleaning, and as a mom to four boys, cleaning house often feels like shoveling a sidewalk during a blizzard. I would rather go make hospital visits, rescue stranded motorists, or attend funerals than clean my house! So, I try to delegate to help balance the load.

The quality may suffer because my boys dislike the job as much as I do and often do shoddy work, but it helps get it done. I do always try to at least have the kitchen cleaned up and the laundry put away every day. Trying to cook in a messy kitchen is a quick way to trigger a bad mood, and baskets of laundry sitting in the living room mentally distract me.

When it comes to more general organization, my husband and I tend to be opposites. He would prefer to have more organizers to sort his stuff, where I would rather have less stuff to sort.

I once helped clean someone’s house after a fire, and that was one of the most taxing things I’ve ever done because there was so much junk to sort through. Although I do agonize over throwing things away, especially something that might be important to someone else, I am trying to be purposeful about not leaving a lot of junk that my friends and family may someday have to deal with.

Our home is furnished with mismatched, hand-me-down furniture and bookshelves, and I’ve often been discouraged by the lack of money to invest in keeping things organized. But I have discovered that home décor and organization is cheaper than expected, especially if I shop the clearance aisles. So I am trying to buy at least one thing (usually $10-20) for the house each week.