Ditch the “Should ” and Watch Your Home Become Organized

When you’re putting things away at home, how often do you find yourself leaving things laying around because you don’t have time or energy to put them where they should go? Is the place where they should go near the place where you actually use them? Do you resist putting things away because the place it should go is inconvenient?

First of all, you’re not lazy. Humans like convenience: it’s how we’re wired! If you only have so much energy to spend, why spend it on something that makes no sense? Instead of criticizing yourself for being lazy, go to the root of the problem. Start putting things away near the place where you use them. When it’s less work and more reward to put things away, you’ll find yourself doing it more often.

You might have to readjust your idea of what it means for something to be “put away.” If something doesn’t make sense where you’ve been storing it, then move it to a different space. It’s not more noble somehow to keep storing things in locations that don’t work for you. After all, it’s your home. You can organize it however you want. The real “right way” to organize is whichever way feels best to you and helps you be motivated to put things where they go. I store my face wash in the shower, because that’s where I use it. Maybe it would be more technically correct to store it by the sink or in the cabinet, but I don’t use it there. I don’t store my shampoo by the sink, either, because I don’t use it there. Store things where it makes the most sense for you.

A little bit of reorganizing can save you so much in clutter. If you take a little time to find a new home, a better one, for the things you avoid putting away, it becomes easier to justify the energy! You’ll find yourself putting them away more often. And fewer things laying around leads to less clutter. And then, like magic, you have more space in your home. Or at least, less stuff cluttering up the counters, beds, and floors!