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!