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283: 3 Storage Tips for Out‑of‑Sight, Out-of-Mind Brains · JOY LOVING HOME - SAHM, Productivity, Home Organization, Declutter, ADHD Mom, ADHD SAHM, ADHD Brain

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  Today, I am interested in giving some tips to those of you that are trying to
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  figure out how to store things when you have an out-of-sight,
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  out-of-mind type of brain.
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  For those of us that are fish brains or ADHD brains or whatever you,
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  however you would like to describe yourself.
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  There is a part of our clutter situation that has to do with the fear of if
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  I store all this stuff away where I can make everything look great,
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  I will forget that most of it exists and so I'm just going to give three quick
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  tips on how to think about storage when you have that type of brain. So let's dig into it.
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  Okay, this is for those of you who like to have a little extra backstock of
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  things because you just hate running out.
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  If you like to buy things when they're on sale, whether you need them or not,
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  because you know you're going to use them and you need to stretch that dollar,
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  which I totally respect.
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  Or if you are the kind of person like me who,
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  will go through and try and get themselves organized and find out you have gobs
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  of duplicate items that you didn't even realize you had because you keep rebuying
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  because you can't find what you had and then all of a sudden here you have with
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  this extra inventory and you're like,
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  how am I going to store it now so this doesn't happen again and I actually remember where it is.
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  So three tips to share with you and hopefully any one or a combination of will
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  help you know where things are when you need them and not forget that they exist.
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  So tip number one, jumping right in, tip number one, whenever possible.
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  It is 100% the best to store the extra items exactly where the main thing is
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  that you're actively using it.
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  So if you have a pantry and you have a place where the noodles are stored and
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  you have an overflow of 50 boxes of noodles, all 50 boxes are also stored where
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  you store the noodles that you walk over and grab every time.
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  I understand that in every scenario, this is not always possible.
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  I'm just saying the best way to not forget about them is to store them where
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  the main thing that's in use is being used.
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  Because, side note that is still related, our brains function best when we keep
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  things at their point of use.
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  So part of what frustrates clients when I see them is not being able to keep
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  up with some system or not remembering to put things back and then stuff is laying everywhere.
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  And part of that is because monkey brain style type A organizers have told us
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  that there are right places to store things. And we try to store them where
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  the right place is, get that I'm using air quotes with the word right here.
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  And then they don't necessarily make sense to our brains. And so it's so much
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  of an extra process to get it back into the right place that we just don't put it away at all.
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  So when you finally give that up, you start to actually keep things at their
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  point of use, which is fabulous.
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  Then the second thing is to try and also store the excess things at that same point of use.
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  This, again, is an ideal that is not going to work 100% of the time.
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  So let's talk about tips two and three when that comes to it.
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  All right, so tip number two is that you will create a universal storage area,
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  that you shop before you shop.
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  This ideal would be created from people who have a storage room or a basement
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  or a spare room or a spare closet.
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  You have the gift of space and instead of storing the extra bathroom stuff in
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  the bathroom and extra kitchen stuff in the kitchen and extra craft stuff in
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  a craft room and the extra linens in the linens and you literally have,
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  call it your storefront, whatever, you keep everything in there,
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  ideally organized sort of by a category that I just described.
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  And every time you run out of stuff, your gut isn't to go to the store or to
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  start picking up your app to order it online.
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  Your gut becomes, and you will develop this over time, to go shop what you have
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  already in those places.
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  And if you get yourself into that rhythm, you don't have to think about where things are.
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  You don't have to go digging. You don't have to remember, oh,
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  I store the extra batteries here and the extra candles here and the extra.
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  Towels here and the extra toilet paper there and the extra shampoo here and
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  the extra food products here.
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  You have a universal storage area and all the excess is there.
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  It's a one-stop shop. Shop before you shop. All right.
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  That is a plan B. Great option.
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  This one is particularly useful if you are trying to get into the zen of minimizing
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  what you live with every single day.
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  You're backing away from using your home as a storage area, and you're leaning
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  into the minimalism of, let me have just exactly what I need today.
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  Right here, and I have a way to store the excess so that I can really enjoy
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  what it's like to just not be completely inundated with stuff around me all the time.
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  That is really lovely if you have that storage space to use.
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  It's really a great low-risk challenge that you can give to yourself where you're
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  like, hey, let me have just one of each thing that I actually use where I use it,
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  and let me let all this other stuff live over here because you may discover
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  that you really can enjoy that threshold of not having so much excess around,
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  without the panic that you're being forced to get rid of everything.
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  And then as the storage room gets too full or you realize you're never running
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  to the storage room for that extra thing, you can then start giving that away.
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  That's almost an entirely another podcast, but we're just gonna roll with the
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  essence of how that picture, how that would work in your life.
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  Okay, tip number three.
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  We are going to avoid overwhelming the function of something,
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  and I'm going to give you a concrete example in a second, so bear with me,
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  by having the least amount of useful inventory that will allow a space to function.
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  And then we will have a restock area or a rotate area as needed.
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  Okay, picturing this specifically, I did this with a client,
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  in-person client yesterday, which is why it's top of mind and wanted to do the podcast related.
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  It is, so this particular family, and I see this all the time,
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  had a wealth of arts and craft supplies for their children, which is lovely.
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  Courage, imagination, arts are great. Nothing against that idea.
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  They had an art cart, and on the art cart, they wanted to provide markers and
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  crowns and stickers and coloring books and.
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  This kind of marker and that kind of crown and the extra sticker books and this
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  kind of coloring book and that kind of coloring book and these pages and the
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  little kit that you can run here and the paint kit and that kit and you get the point.
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  It got to the point where the art cart in the effort to have everything there
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  that they have available to the child,
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  all in one place was so overwhelming and stuffed that the kids wouldn't actually
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  utilize the cart the way the dream for it to be utilized was.
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  And as we started going through, our goal was, we were redoing the play area,
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  our goal was to have less storage items because when you store things,
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  most of the time they go there to be forgotten about.
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  So they had two very tall, I did not count, but let's say 10 drawer cabinets,
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  all filled with art supplies.
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  And as we opened to pull everything out to re-evaluate the art situation,
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  The mom kept going, oh, oh, I didn't realize I had this many of these.
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  Oh, oh, I didn't realize I had all this in here.
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  Oh, I completely forgot that that exists. I forgot that existed.
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  I forgot. I, oh, clearly I put this in here a long time ago.
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  That storage we have to be really, really careful with because storage is a
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  place where things go to be forgotten about.
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  And so I made the suggestion. We got rid of both of those. She donated them.
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  Two 10-drawer carts, they're gone. We have one area left over because I'm okay
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  with having some storage, but we need to minimize it because we'll just fill
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  it if it's there. I swear we are creatures who will grow to the size of our environment.
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  And so she is emptying the cart, this is part of her homework before I see her again next,
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  and she is going to put the bare minimum of things on the cart and testing it
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  out until I get there next Monday to see if the kids are interested in it again.
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  So three kids, do not put more than three buckets of,
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  and I'm saying they're more like cups, of coloring style utensils,
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  whether one little cup's markers and one little cup's crayons and one little
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  cup's a different kind of marker, whatever.
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  And maybe six pads of coloring books or workbooks or maze puzzles or whatever
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  the case may be, no more than six.
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  And then to keep in little zipper patches at the bottom, a handful of stickers
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  and some blank paper if they just want to create at will.
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  And then just see what happens. And to ruthlessly store through the other stuff,
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  donate to the art teacher at the school, these things that you're like,
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  in a million years, my kids are never going to get through all this stuff.
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  I told her, quite frankly, she could shop through most of this playroom and
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  wrap it for this year's Christmas. And these kids are not going to know that
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  it ever existed to not know that it wasn't a new Christmas gift.
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  But again, sorry, another side ramble.
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  But I really think by minimizing the amount that you even allow to be stored,
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  minimizing the amount that will function where that cart will be at point of
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  use and letting the space breathe so the kids are actually inspired to use it.
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  And then if one of the coloring books gets very used up or
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  they start noticing they never ever pick it up again and they rotate it out
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  with one of the 40 others that are in the storage cabinet, suddenly things seem
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  fresh and new and the interest livens up again and it's a great option.
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  To just keep everything fresh by restocking or rotating through what is truly a very minimal art cart.
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  A promise less is more in that type of situation. It inspires more imagination,
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  it inspires more interest, and it inspires more engagement when there's less overwhelm.
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  And I'm using that example with a kid's craft cart, but guys,
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  it works for your hobbies, It works for any really inventory you have in your home.
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  You will use more of what there is less overwhelm for.
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  Your brain doesn't like 50 million decisions. Your brain likes a very small
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  smattering of decisions to make. And then you can rotate to create excitement
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  again. This would work in your clothes. This would work in your kitchen.
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  Yeah, last episode was really long. So we're going to keep this one right here. This is plenty long.
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  I hope one of those three storage tips will be super useful and you can engage
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  with one of them right away. All right. Until next time.
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  Don't forget that I have my membership group rolling. You go to joylovinghome.com,
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  find the membership tab.
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  You can comment on any of the podcasts over on the blog there on the website.
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  And you can always reach out and email me joy at joylovinghome.com.
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  All right, guys. Until next time. Continue. to choose joy.