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In today’s episode, Danyel and I talk about:
- tackling the dumping ground room after the visible spaces are so much better than they were
- getting stuff out of your house (imperfect stuff, whether to donate or trash or put in a Buy Nothing group)
- how to figure out a system to keep a project easily accessible to work on, but keep it from driving your spouse insane
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--Nony
Hello! I loved listening to this conversation! We’ve moved so often we don’t really have a “dumping ground” room, but I completely connected with the “project” problem. I have a LOT of hobbies, and most of them require stuff (knitting, sewing, gardening, etc.). Keeping that clutter down to something tolerable to my (much neater) husband is an ongoing project in my marriage.
I can second your recommendation to have a specific “container” (space) for projects. That’s helped me and my husband to co-exist relatively peacefully over the years. I have a knitting basket, two sewing boxes (organized craft-type boxes with patterns, fabric, notions, etc., all contained), a puzzle shelf, etc. If it doesn’t fit, something else has to go! My mom even bought me a case for my sewing machine so it can be stored dust-free with the supplies.
We also have a house rule that anything my husband finds that he doesn’t know what to do with goes on my desk or in the trash. If I accidentally left out some random piece of paper that he ended up recycling because it didn’t look important to him, that’s on *me*, not him. That rule was established in about month 2 of our marriage, and we’re coming up on our 14th anniversary!
One other thing that popped into my head when listening to the interview was some chore advice I got through Michaeleen Doucleff’s book “Hunt, Gather, Parent”, which basically encourages parents to invite their children into daily chores, rather than waiting until the kids are asleep, playing outside, etc.
Folding laundry, which Danyel mentioned specifically, really stood out to me, because it was something that I used to want to be “perfect”, rather than letting my kids fold laundry their way and feel pride in tidying communal spaces. We have cloth napkins, kitchen towels, etc., so there are ALWAYS towels, washcloths, etc. to fold!
Inviting my kids into regular household decluttering as also helped – my son, who is now 12, actually declutters his own space regularly, and my 9-year-old “collector of all the things” daughter has even started asking me to sit with her while she works on decluttering easy things like clothes that don’t fit any more. We’re working on knickknacks and toys. 😉
Thank you so much for this podcast/blog/book/everything! Knowing that there are other slobs out there working on coming clean has just been… amazing.