I recently put the One In One Out Rule into action.
A year or so ago, my mom gave us a small set of glass storage containers. I’m in love with those things.
A while back, Costco put a similar set on sale with their monthly coupons. I was excited to get it, but by the time I got to my closest store, they were all gone. The same set (an affiliate link)
This month, the deal was back!
As I put the box into our cart, I warned Hubby that we weren’t getting new storage containers. We were replacing our old storage containers.
There’s a difference.
At least there’s a difference for me.
And for him.
Once upon a time, when we were dating, he cooked for me. He sent me home with leftovers packed in an orange “sunburst” Tupperware container. I thought I was demonstrating awesome Future Wife Material Characteristics when I returned a NEW, cooler Tupperware container of the same size. (I was a Tupperware Lady at the time. Really.)
He was thankful, but he wanted the orange one back, too.
I was irritated, which is kind of funny considering my own issues caused by a lack of understanding of the one-in-one-out concept and all the problems that would cause in our future home.
But now we’ve both learned that we can’t just get new stuff. We have to replace old stuff with new stuff.
Otherwise, we end up with too much stuff.
Replacement is how it works in non-slob homes.
When you “get” and don’t “replace” . . . storage container cabinets become avalanche cabinets.
Or, as my good friend calls them . . . crapalanches. (TM – Cliff Bowen.)
Here’s how it went:
Right. It was a disaster of randomness before.
Yes. There are things (that I know are there) shoved in the back of that after picture.
Mmm-hmmm. There are half-drunk water bottles in the before photo. (Post about that coming right up.)
You betcha. I do store containers with the lids on. Here’s why.
This “project” took all of about five minutes. Five fun minutes because I was admiring my new stuff. It was EASIER to put them away because I pulled out the old stuff first. I didn’t have to find a place to shove them.
What have you decluttered lately? Take a picture and then go enter this giveaway on my post from yesterday! (It’s for a $500 Home Depot giftcard!!! For real!!!) THIS GIVEAWAY IS OVER.
--Nony
Going to do some hijacking here… I just read your book “28 days to hope for your home”, and I loved loved loved it — it’s the first time I come across a method that can possibly succeed for me, expressed in a language that I can easily relate to. I feel excited that I could at long last find advice from a kindred soul. BUT I still have a major issue, which has been a huge problem in my past efforts to get my home clean and organized. That’s the loss of the blissful “slob brain”. Once I can’t afford to ignore my environment altogether, I get obsessed by it. Right now, for example, my dishes are clean, my kitchen floor is broomed, my bathrooms are without (visible) mess and I’ve just spent 5 minutes putting stuff away in the living room. But from my seat at the computer I can see a spill on the tile floor, by the window. It bothers me (I could see it before of course, but as I had accepted my house was a pig sty it was forgotten as soon as seen). So I get up and spot-clean it. But as I’m going back to my laptop I can see that the mirror is covered with my 3 yo’s grubby handprints. It now bothers me. I could get up and clean the mirror, but then my eyes would fall on the cupboard door with coffee stains on it and it would bother me etc etc. The only way I ever found out of this frame of mind is to get back to a “can’t be bothered” attitude. Else I just can’t seem to think about anything else but housework — and not in the pleasant way of “look at all I’ve accomplished”, but in a sense of “OMG this whole thing is futile”. And I start feeling aghast when my husband leaves his dirty tissues around the house (he’s a slob too, but takes it for granted that any kind of cleaning or organizing is my sole business) or when my son is eating a piece of cake on the sofa and spraying crumbs around. In my slob frame of mind, it would have been at worst a slight annoyance, now it enrages me.
Totally understand this problem. I know I’ve written about this, but can’t think right now which posts to direct you to. Over time, I’ve started to see long-haul progress as better than short term. And that has helped a lot with this. I’m GOING to fail. And that doesnt’ mean it’s all over.
One of the posts I found very helpful to “re-set” my way of thinking was “All Housekeeping Points Expire at Midnight” which was posted February 3rd, 2010. Truly, when a family lives in a home, the work is never done. But you sure can get further down the road! Do what Dana says is the minimum (sounds like you are doing that). Then add on 5 minute quick tidies throughout the day. And do your level best to change your thinking so that messes don’t enrage you. I used to live that way, too. But there is a better way. Start training those children in small increments and they will soon be a help. They may not “see” the messes and automatically clean (wouldn’t that be great), but they can do 5 min tidying up with you and the whole atmosphere will be improved. Yes, things will go immediately down hill, but a few hours later, tidy again. It’s an uphill battle, but it CAN be better.
I know that you like to “contain” things. My small food containers are stored in a bigger container. Perhaps equivalent to 4 shoeboxes. Neat and tidy, and can be stored on one of the high cabinet shelves. It is lightweight for lifting. Everything is contained, and nothing extra can fit in. Better than a cupboard of tumbling stuff
Slobette could be my sister separated at birth. This is exactly what I am like. I’m either a slob and ignore it all or get obsessive about each little thing and jump all over cuz every little thing makes me crazy. Although I wish I was not this way, it makes me feel a bit better to know I’m not alone:)
I buy cheap plastic containers so I usually buy new ones when I have broken or tossed the old ones. 🙂 So, I don’t tend to get the over crowding problem. 😉 At least for storage containers.
I try to decide before I purchase: Do I need this to add to what I have or do I need this to replace what I already have? I bought two pairs of jeans last week to add to my tiny wardrobe. Not joking, now I have 3 pairs of jeans. But, when my MIL surprized me with a set of cereal bowls, I had to get rid of old cereal bowls. Nobody needs that many cereal bowls! A friend at church keeps bringing new clothes for my daughters. At first, I was just adding to their wardrobe. As I think about it, I realize that I do not need to add to their wardrobe. We need to pull out old, worn, too small clothing to make space for the new items. 😀
Mine’s the “Jenga” cupboard and it could do with a good sort right now!!! Although I’m liking crapalanche very much 🙂
I love your idea of storing tupperware with the top on. I always end up scrambling to find the right lid…and I always have lidless containers and containerless lids. Plus, taking up more space is actually not so bad – will encourage me not to have too many containers to start with! Thanks! 🙂
Just wanted to let you know that if your awesome glass storage containers are like mine, they will nest inside each other with the LIDS ON. What a giant leap forward in clutter reduction. Try it…hope yours are like mine!
I store mine with lids on too. I have a couple plastic containers (probably too many if we’re being honest) for small things for the kids and then about 5 glass containers with lids for hubby’s work lunches and some more up in the cupboard for packing away leftovers after dinner (too big for lunches).I wish my costco had the snapware pyrex ones. They have the snapware plastic ones but when you use toaster ovens and no microwave, you need pyrex, not plastic.
Crapalanche is perfect!
I love your methods. Frankly my basement was so crazy that I literally had to gather and take out the totes/containers wash them and then start. And I ran all of them through my dishwasher and that’s when I had a great clean slate to start sorting. Because just like you I would simply shove stuff in cabinets with all my body weight and hope it closed knowing that there were tons of things and then they didn’t have lids. I can’t believe how badly I simply wanted to just throw the totes and containers in a corner and just start organizing but washing those totes and containers had to be done so that I could start logically in a way that I could handle it Thank you so much. Because otherwise I simply would have thrown stuff away that wasn’t clean they have to buy new ones and that’s a waste of money. I had to wash and then go through them they were that nasty. Lol
I know it’s an old post, but, Dana, you helped me with a big decluttering project yesterday which fits with this idea of replacing, not adding.
About 15 years ago when I was single, I bought a car, a darling white Alero with a sunroof and a good stereo. It was wrecked and rebuilt, but it had low miles and worked really well for me. I drove it all through college, many miles to various jobs, drove it the weekend my man fell in love with me, to the church for our wedding, away from church on our honeymoon, packed our first three foster placements in the back seat, drove it thousands of miles for work trips. Over the years, it developed strange electrical issues, but mostly we could work around them.
Now I drive a minivan filled with our four children, and my sweet car had become my husband’s ratty work car. It finally had so many issues, there was just no hope for it. We upgraded the work car and listed my old Alero for sale. After two months, we sold it last night for a measly five hundred bucks. Lumps and all, I was sad to see it go. It held so many memories!
But I literally heard your voice in my head (after listening to allll those podcasts over the years) telling me that I can remember the moments just as well by looking at pictures instead of keeping the actual object. And I knew you were right. We’re letting it go so it can be used by a man who will fix it up and use it as he gets his life and family back together.
Now we have two vehicles that work well and that fit the space we have in our driveway. We don’t need that old car. We haven’t lost the memories just because the car is gone. Thank you, Dana, for supporting me through that decluttering project. It helped, truly.
I’m jumping in here years later, lol.
What drives me whacky is that just as soon as I get the kitchen caught up and walk out of the room, someone comes home and cooks their own food and the kitchen is in disorder AGAIN! Gets me so mad. But it’s kinda hard to ask certain members to take the time to wash their hot frying pans after cooking eggs before running off to work. Still, I’m trying to get across this idea:
As a home-maker, I am more than willing to clean up after my husband, and from a FAMILY meal. But I do NOT want to clean up all the little separate meals in between! So basically, the law is: Don’t cook and run!
Please note: I’m not a slave to my husband, and he cleans up after himself almost always. I’m just saying that, as a wife, I’ll joyfully be his helpmate when he’s tired from a long day or rushed out the door to pay bills before work, or whatever.
The pendulum swing reads: slob/neat-nik, less of a slob/very neat, messy/neat….. cleaning like a normal person. Be patient with yourself and others while you figure out what is normal for your home and family. I don’t care that other people think there should never be dishes in the sink. My “normal person” rule is that I don’t go to bed until the dishes are done. And sometimes I break my own rule for my own reasons because I can.
When my boys were little we had this book called “21 rules for our house” or something like that. My young men will still say, “when you make a mess you clean it up” and clean it up, SOMETIMES. Since I had to learn these things as an adult, I have to give them at least as much time to learn them.
I do the dishes once a day. In between things must be stacked or soaking. I just have to look the other way when it untidies so quickly after I am finished.
I don’t have the glass ones, but I’m seriously considering them. The lighter plastic ones don’t stay stacked when folks are adding to the cupboard. Soon I have a tumbled mess (even with lids ON) and have to sit down on the floor to go through them and organize AGAIN. Maybe the glass ones could help with that. My question would be, would Hubby LIKE carrying glass containers around to work? Not so sure.
Dana, your buddy Dawn from Minimal Mom added something usefull to your already good ideas of one in one out, and storing with lids. She shares that the less containers you have stored up the less food you waste leaving them stacked up in the back of the fridge. Think about that for a min!! Yes, if you have say 5 left over containers you must clean out the old left overs before you can store more away. It is brilliant!
Thanks for your tips, they really do help us rethink some of our old habits.
I love all these replies and clever strategies! My issues are also clutter and quilting projects all stashed up in one room to work on. ADHD doesn’t help much. Get frustrayded and ah, fey… close door and walk away!
Help!
I have the same craft room issue. Haven’t quite conquered it yet, although I have tackled it several times. Have you read Dana’s “Decluttering at the Speed of Life”? That is very helpful, as she walks you through the steps over and over again. (I need that, lol!). I’ve just reached the craft room chapter and am planning to tackle that room again as soon as I read it. She is so real and down-to-earth, makes you laugh at yourself even while groaning at the mess. 🙂
If you haven’t got that book, get it. And if you have, read it again. She will help you dig to the bottom of your pile. 😃🤗
Yes, I love those kinds. Someone used their brain in manufacturing them that way.