A Place for Everything

Benjamin Franklin is said to have said "A place for everything and everything in its place" but so is Samuel Smiles and Isabella Beeton, among other references in early stories according to The Phrase Finder.

Limited furniture, massive storage...that's the Shaker way!

With that in mind, there are many ideas available for organizing minds to make order of the various pieces of life. Pinterest shows a WIDE array of solutions some more decorative than functional. The problem with creative ideas is that a person needs to have a plan in place for storage solutions before the furniture is in place. Many of the files, drawers, and cabinets pictured in the polished, well-organized magazine would be hard to put to use once a household is in full swing.

You know who were the conquerors of clutter?  The Shakers!  I dream of building from the ground up and right from the beginning have floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall, drawers and cabinets like the image below. I have a couple rooms with that concept now, but to have a whole house and studio with everything put away behind labeled doors and drawers. Pretty brass cardholders would be a lovely and yet subtle way to identify contents in a series of  cabinets. Wow!  The motherload of happiness!

An original Shaker wall of cabintry.

Sharon, at Morning's Minion blog, describes a visit to South Union Village, a Shaker museum, where furniture and construction could be examined. She says the Shakers were among the first to have 'fitted kitchen cabinetry'. The simplicity is exquisite. The Shakers were the masters of decluttering!

Bells of Sarna

A stroke of luck was the re-discovery of the Bells of Sarna I was given by my mother-in-law. A wedding gift to her, the bells have a distinctive, cheery sound. Now when I go through the garage door, the bells announce entry...and, that something else has been stored properly in my ongoing adventure of Sort & Sift, Huff & Puff!

It's an interesting story, the Bells of Sarna. Briefly, Sajjan Singh Sarna came to America in 1929 and, being a creative salesman, discovered Americans like handcrafted treasures from exotic places like his homeland of India. In 1938 he had a dream about a cow bell ringing and floating in the air. This led to buying lots of handcrafted items including bells to sell and then creating a brand for his treasures: The Bells of Sarna. He named each bell and attached a story tag about the bell’s purpose and history in India. It didn't matter if the bells were new or antique, or what they were made of, the elephant, cow, and whatever other kinds of bells he had of every size and shape sold quickly.

So now, I have some Bells of Sarna with a family story behind them. I like that they were wedding bells. I also like that they are handcrafted and remind me that all these bins and segregated items of artistic nature are the stepping stones to creating handcrafted items of my own to sell. It makes me feel like I'm part of something much bigger than myself and my own pursuits.

Geez, now I need a new garage door. Those Bells of Sarna make me realize how beat up that door has gotten in the last 20 years!  Yikes!

Back Wall Table and Shelves

Remember how those back wall shelves looked like? (See picture to the left.) There was stuff piled up on the shelves, but in front too. In fact, there was a delicate balancing act happening. Now there is some order and I can actually put bins of paint on the table at the first level. There's still some small items in front, namely some rose petal jelly I forgot I made, but I can now get to the book press where I am pressing bleeding heart flowers for a greeting card project. (That's the black hand-cranked object in the lower left-hand side of the picture.) I pressed them last May before all the hubbub began, so those flower are ready to make into cards! 

Multi-drawer Units Almost Filled

Get a look at all the minutes little bits and pieces I've organized and put into drawers! I feel like a squirrel hiding nuts!

There are still a few empty compartments but I'm sure those will get filled soon enough!

An Open Path!

OK, there is an open path from the front to the back of the garage which makes everything look much more hopeful. Here is the garage at the beginning and the garage with the new path. THAT's how much sorting and sifting has happened!

A lot of stuff is now in bins on the black shelving units; some of it belonged in the shed; some of the clutter was actually materials that went to the landfill. There was a wrenching feeling to throw things out because I could envision use of the stuff for recycling art but, honestly, when am I going to have time to make recycled art?

You will see that as I find things that go into labeled bins, I place them on the bin's lid so that when I circle back I can open the lids and tuck stuff inside. Eventually, all the shelves will look like the one at the top.

A Minor Victory & A Decision Made

I had a minor victory last weekend when I was asked if I had a measuring tape. I walked over to one area of storage bins and put my hands on three different sizes...immediately, without shuffling or moving anything. I could just put my hands right on them. When finished, I put the one that was chosen right back where it belongs. According to Eileen Roth in a brief article called Get Organized to Save Time and Money = Enjoy Your Life, “Your future success will be determined more by your being organized than by any other single action you take.”  

I can already tell that by organizing, I'll save money by re-purchasing supplies and equipment I use frequently but cannot locate when I need them.

One casualty however, remember the bird's nest I didn't know what to do with? In the shuffle to sort items off the top of one of the workbenches, the bird's nest was knocked to the ground, ripped apart, and the egg broken. The interior was dehydrated. So, that pretty answered what to do...it ended up in the trash.

In the end I am left to wonder: if a person makes no decision, does time and circumstances make the decisions? That seems to be the case in this instance. It makes me wonder how many people let events around them make choices that could be made personally?  How often to people abdicate the responsibility of deciding?

Busy Weekend in the Garage

This weekend was busy in the garage. I now have paths, and labeled bins, and sadly MORE PILES of stuff! It seems the more I clear, the more I unearth. It was getting discouraging yesterday until I realized I was beginning to find stuff and knew exactly where it was supposed to go!  Amazing! So now, I have reached a point where there are enough places to storage items (remember, lack of storage was one of the big three problems of clutter!), that bits and pieces can be grouped into labeled bins.

This has led to multiples of some supplies, so I can stop spending money in the local stores' craft aisles. THAT will be money in my pocket...kind of like found money!

There's been a fair amount of change found in boxes
and jars and gourds.

Taking a Break from the Garage...

...into one of the studios. The picture looks like chaos, but all of the stuff is valuable and will be put to good use! When the sliding glass doors were taken out and the french doors put in, everything had to shift from one side of the room to the other, with some moving into the hallway. It was all a rush and what to do but empty drawers and the closets and pile stuff up.



This is overwhelming.

Perceiving Time

One thing has happened which I did not expect was the change of time perception. I can do household chores, or read, and time moves by at a pace I expect. However, I can work in the garage sifting and sorting all the items of art projects, gardening needs, and printing materials and time escapes me! Lots and lots of time just passes me by without me knowing. I am always stunned at the hour when I finally sit down for a review...and still it looks like there is so much more to do!

What makes the perception of time so warped? An article by Juliana Breines, How to Make Time Stand Still, explains that a sense of awe can make time stand still. Am I in awe of the stuff in my garage?!  I definitely have been surprised to unearth stuff I forgot I had! It is a little like every time I tackle a new pile, something interesting comes to life...and those instances have been happy times.  But, awe-inspiring? MmmMmmmm, I"m not so sure.

Lack of...

...so which is it for this old garage and studio cleaner/organizer?  Lack of time? Lack of motivation?  Or lack of storage solutions?

I have the motivation, or so I think. I have house guests visiting in October and this needs to be done by then. The first set arrive Oct. 2, and the next set come on Columbus weekend. I need some order before then if only to save face!


Storage solutions?  I went to my local store and bought 6 more bins this week, and am labeling them ahead of time so as I find things, the items go directly into them. I've cleared a shelf or two to make room immediately so bins are not just sitting around.

I am also making use of the 'unsure what to do' box so no time is wasted mulling things over, over, and over....

...which brings me to time. That's the issue it seems. This all takes time and with a job and other household and yard duties, where to find the time. Chopping the after-school hours into pre-designated times will probably be best...allowing 1-2 hour a day to the project and that's all. In the end, time will be spent in small but consistent chunks. Consistency, that's what matters. I wonder if there is research that proves such a point.

See Value 2 -- More Thoughts on Previous Post

Each of these situations (lack of time, motivation, and storage solutions) would clearly define what's happened in my garage and studios. Once the summer construction was done, there was all the things to put back and since the spaces are now redefined, where should it all go?  There was so much! At first, get like stuff together then arrange for bins or boxes. I have similar stuff in several places. For example, I now have a pile woodburners and every time I find another one I add it to the pile. The same goes for scissors, fishing lures, paper clamps, bottles of Mod Podge.  I've had to resort bins I've already had sorted because I keep finding MORE of what I've already sorted and put into bins.

The bottles of paint to the left began as one bin, but I kept finding more and more corners of paint bottles so that they could not fit into one bin, so they have been divided into two bins now: one for large bottles and one for small bottles.








Last week, there was a bin of tape and glue, all sorts of both: Elmers, E6000, glue sticks, fabric glue, Modge Podge, painters tape, duct tape, double-sided tape, Magic tape, etc.  You get the point. I kept finding duplicates and triplicates of the same thing as you can see. That bin had to be split as well.

Seeing Value

In reflecting about hoarding and keeping stuff for later use (which is messy), I wonder where is the line between the two?  Hoarding is the unconscious need to keep things for no apparent reason. I have reason to keep what I have!  There's is just so much of it, and so many types of it. All piled up it becomes a mess.

A mess is stuff not put away, right? Caitlyn of Cluttercubed posted on Clutterbrain saying messes are a matter of not putting things away but a matter of:
lack of time,
lack of motivation, and
uncertainty of proper storage.

Progress in Spits and Spurts

There seems to be progress in little pieces right now. Now that some bins are labeled and being filled, the debris is being sifted. Little by little, the pieces of old and unfinished projects are being located in the piles of stuff and are sorted into the bins. What began as complete chaos is only extremely messy now.

Little Stuff

What about the little stuff?  That's what I am working down to as I clear the workbench. There are little piles of things I want to keep and use, but to isolate each into it's own bin, or Ziplock container, is a waste of space. What to do with fishing spinners? of papercutting hangers? of gourd bits and pieces I use to make tiny gourd animals? In the picture to the left (clockwise from the black lid) gourd pieces of gourds, business cards, papercuting hangers, (above cards) jewelry pin backs, erasers, ink pad next to glue sticks, bird nest on top of my on's Aylor Middle School football picture, fishing spinners, paper clamps, and blank seed envelops.

What to do with the bird nest, complete with an egg, I found on the lawn last spring?  I'm not sure what I can do with that, or who I can give it to...but throwing out seems morally wrong somehow.

Two Truths of Search Engines

Search engines have programs called spiders that go out onto the web and bring back website addresses. When a person does a search using a search engine, the only results that can be offered are the addresses the search engine has collected. Also, the only results that be offered are based on how the search engine interpreted the search words a person chose to use. Since all search engines have varying results, a "No results found." notice in response to a search from one search engine does not mean there would no results in other search engines.

Two truths of search engines?

1. Search engines only give what they got.

2. Search engines only give what they think you want.

This applies to my garage! It only gives me what it's got inside it. Unfortunately, when I'm searching for stuff in my garage, it will only present to me what it thinks I'm looking for. Of course, this second bit is kind of my own issue since I can think I'm looking for a blue box with a circle on it and when I finally find it, the box was actually green and had a square image on the lid!

Bins with Labels

The bins are being started.

Stuff is being sorted into bins and labeled with index cards. On the seasonal side of the garage, I am using the colored bins. The labels are helpful because I cannot see into the bin without opening it, even when using the translucent ones. It seems the bin material needs to be absolutely clear to see through it.  I'm not storing junk or trash or any other unnecessary debris a hoarder would keep. Unlike a hoarder, this is stuff I will use from time to time in one artistic endeavor or other: gourd art, the gourd state chapter's annual festival, papercutting art, or home seasonal upkeep and decoration.

Workbench bins.

On the other side of the garage, at the workbench area, the bins are more transparent. The labels are still on the end of the bin, but I can more easily identify what is inside them. Clealry, I am still sorting through detritus so as I find things they are place on top of the corresponding bin. I will put stuff into the bin as I work through the workbench.

Bugs and Cardboard

Cardboard boxes were going to be some of my storage solutions, but once I visited the Spectrum Health website about cardboard boxes, Always Bee Ready, I changed my mind. Bugs can crawl into the corrugated portion of the cardboard walls and lay eggs. Gross!  Better to use plastic bins.

Active Voice in the Garage

Clearing, sifting and sorting...that's the garage activity this week. In the research classroom, we talk about active voice which is a style of writing researchers do that is direct and to the point. There is little to no elaboration when using active voice.

Examples of active voice would be

I organized items from the seasonal area of the garage into plastic bins.

The same sentence put into passive voice would be

The plastic bins were filled with items from the seasonal area of the garage by me.

Phew!!  What a long way to say the direct message that I put stuff into bins!

Active voice does not use 'you' and rarely uses the word 'that'. Direct and to the point, that is the whole idea behind active voice.

APA vs. MLA formats

Papers are written with different audiences in mind, and therefore use different organizing formats to reflect purposes.

MLA, Modern Language Association, is a format used in the humanities to stress authorship. In the citation, the author's first and last names are shown in full. Also, the bibliography page is called Works Cited.

APA, American Psychological Association, on the other hand, is a format used in the sciences to stress the date a work was created...it is date driven. Researchers use APA because they are building on the most recent information possible. The citation will show the author's last name and first initial of their first name, and date. The bibliography page is call References.

Examples for this blog about clearing out my garage and studios:

APA -- Greenberg, M. (2014, January 16). The Psychology of Scarcity. Psychology Today. Retrieved September 1, 2014 from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-mindful-self-express /201401/the-psychology-scarcity.

MLA -- Greenberg, Melanie. "The Psychology of Scarcity." Psychology Today. 16 Jan. 2014. Web. 1 Sept. 2014. <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-mindful-self-express /201401/the-psychology -scarcity>.

Notice how the date moves from a place of prominence in the APA citation version to after the publisher's name in the MLA version.

In-text Citation of Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing can be cited within the text as a quick guide to the reader about where to find the source of the information on the reference page...a like a mini-citation.  It can be done in two ways: referenced and embedded.

Referenced in-text citation (also called parenthetical citing) is listing the source's author and year right after the paraphrasing, but before the period of the sentence:

Deprivation of resources can lead to obsessing about the resources thought of as scarce (Greenberg, 2014).

The same paraphrasing can be done with an embedded in-text citation by making the author's name part of the sentence structure followed by the year in parenthesis:

According to Greenberg (2014), deprivation of resources can lead to obsessing about the resources thought of as scarce.

Hoarding vs. Keeping

Words can be long reaching in their meanings. To my mind, hoarding implies nonsensical collecting and storing anything with no purpose, whereas keeping would suggest there is a purpose, right?  The difference seems to be whether what is being kept has future value or purpose enough to justify the storage space.

An article in Psychology Today, Your Trash, My Treasure, suggests the act of hoarding and deciding what to keep depends on the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Damage to this area can mess with a person's ability to make judgments about what to keep and what not to keep. That would explain sudden hoarding after a brain injury, but what about other hoarding when there is no brain injury? The publication has a recent article, The Psychology of Scarcity, that says people will hoard what they have been deprived of in their lives.

My garage? There is no mindless hoarding of purposeless stuff. Everything has a definite purpose against future projects. I have no brain damage (well, some would dispute that), I am clearly aware of my plans for various items piled up in different areas. My situation seems to be one of organization and putting things in order for easy access.

I need an organizational plan.

Making Notes for this project

Making notes (as opposed to taking notes, which implies plagiarism) is a system of coding a source to all the corresponding notes made from that source. For example, I find a worthwhile source about organizing a garage so I give it a code of X. The notes made from the X source are numbered X1, X2, X3, and so on. That way I stay organized and avoid plagiarism....the 2 reasons for coding sources to notes.