This handy-dandy apple slicer came into our home at Christmas. My daughter loves it since she loves apples, but she has braces, so she has to eat them sliced.
When the apple slicer came out of the dishwasher, my husband asked where it should go. The place where I’d look for it first was my utensil drawer.
But the utensil drawer really needs to be decluttered.
But I didn’t feel like decluttering right then.
But without decluttering, that apple slicer was never going to fit.
In My Personal Olden Days, I would have groaned audibly, slumped my shoulders, and placed the Apple Slicer We Knew We Wanted on my kitchen counter where it would have joined, or started, a Clutter Pile.
Thankfully, I know better now. I know that while the Ideal Thing would be to stop whatever I was doing and declutter that drawer, if the Ideal Thing isn’t going to happen, waiting until it can happen is actually the Worst Thing I Can Do.
So I One-In-One-Outted that apple slicer.
One-In-One-Out is the key to maintaining decluttering progress. Even though my drawer needed to be decluttered again, I didn’t add clutter to my home because I didn’t make it any worse. The drawer closes and I can (eventually) find what I need in there.
If I shoved that apple slicer in with all the other stuff, the drawer wouldn’t close. That drawer is a container and its size determines how much stuff can go in it.
I didn’t have an apple slicer to replace, but that’s not what matters. One-In-One-Out is about space for space. All I have to do is remove enough stuff that there’s space available for the apple slicer.
Space for Space. When I looked at the drawer that way, I didn’t feel the usual “Ugh, I don’t have time to deeealllll with all this right now!” feeling.
I just looked for Easy Stuff to remove. Within 2 minutes, I’d found all this:
A random spice lid from a long-gone spice. A meat thermometer cover I’ve never used. A knife I hate intensely dislike. The scoop from a package of drink mix we’ve long since replaced (by one that has its own scoop).
And more. Except for the canning lid, everything went in the trash.
Yay for finally understanding that I can’t keep everything, I can’t add new stuff to drawers when there isn’t any room for it, and most of all, yay for grasping that all this isn’t as complicated as I once thought.
Love little updates like this Dana! I too thought “one in one out” only applied to replacement items – 1 T-shirt for 1 T-shirt for example. To reframe it as “space for space” makes SO MUCH SENSE but would never have occurred to me. Thank you!!!
Hi – Can you put a link on your website to your Amazon list? Thanks !
This is awesome! Had someone visit for Christmas and brought an apple slicer over to make something and, “oh merry Christmas, it is for you”, left it for us. We rarely slice apples and a knife works for us. I will let it go today. Thank you for this article!
You are my hero. Thank you for your blog, books, and general authenticity.
This is such a great reminder. I get so overwhelmed when I wait for the Ideal Circumstances to do the Ideal Thing. Maybe space for space can help me interrupt that cycle.
It’s also worth saying that, if the items that you need to keep are overflowing that ‘containing drawer’, it’s okay to use a DIFFERENT, LARGER drawer and pull a switch-a-roo on how you’ve been using them. For example. If I have 12 mugs, but only 10 can fit on a shelf, I could put the DISHES on that shelf, and use the larger dish shelf for the mugs instead. Don’t let old habits get in your way.
That’s a good idea.
I like that. I wish they had the ability to like a comment on here.
Looks like I already commented before my last comment, and didn’t realize that when I put my last comment.
Thanks for Space for Space..
This was a very helpful tip for me. Thank you for your honesty and reality. This is helping to reframe my thinking and I really relate to how normally the apple slicer would end up in a clutter pile!
If you haven’t gotten Dana’s newest book you are missing out. When it came in the mail I started reading it and could not put it down until I finished it the next day. Even though I have been a member of “Take your house back” for the last year I still learned new things and understood old tips better by her examples.
This is SO timely here in post-xmas 2022. Thank you Dana, for all the good you do in the world.
I am currently working on turning my office/sewing room of doom into an office/sewing/guest room. I am leaning hard into the container concept, and accepting that I will have to GET RID OF STUFF to make room for what I want. I know… right?
My daughter loves the apple slicer so I put a hook on my cabinet near where we keep the apples, and that’s where we keep it.
YEEES, this is one of my 2023 intentions, 1 in 2 or more out (I’m in serious declutter mode). The kids and hubby have both been informed and this is going to make 2023 amazing
I thought that after reading all your books I knew all your concepts but this ‘space for space’ idea is new to my conciousness. I kind of knew it subconciously but I like that I know it conciously now. (Yeah, I’m one of those people who reads decluttering and organising books for fun.) Your two decluttering questions really help me when I get stuck while decluttering.
I could see reading a decluttering book for fun. I’d like to read a decluttering book by her.
Ah, the verb, to “one-in-one-out”…as in, I one-in-one outed the apple slicer!!! Add that to the continuous list of fabulous terms that Dana as invented over the years!! Perfect!
I used to buck against this rule as a child, and now that I finally understand it as an adult, I have begun to practice it and put it into place. My kitchen is starting to feel like a joyful place to cook and be in, as I have begun to declutter things I don’t need or use.