Cleaning up and clearing out: Implementation

One of the things I am studying for school is implementation science. It exists because no matter how clear it is that something is a good idea and should work, changing patterns and habits is hard.

You may want thing to get things tidy and even temporarily accomplish it in a burst of cleaning. Keeping it that way may require deeper changes.

While this was not exactly a clutter issue, we were having an issue with one of my sister's small socks. They would get caught in clothes. Even though I would shake out the clothes and feel through them, somehow there would still be an odd number of socks. Then, at some point a missing sock would fall out of clothing that had been searched earlier, perhaps when it was being put on.

It occurred to me that there are hosiery bags that could resolve this. We got one, but using it wasn't a habit at first; loose socks were still getting caught in clothes.

The step of going from "wearing" to "laundry" was the weak link. It needed to be a matter of putting the socks in the bag right after taking them off, then tossing the bag into the laundry when there were a few pairs.  

It is very satisfying finding the bag now and knowing that any socks that went into the wash stayed together.

I'd say it was silly, but that ended up being the livelisest part of the discussion at the activity. Many households have had sock issues and there are some strong feelings about them!

In some cases, those issues were exacerbated by people who should be capable of putting their own socks away but not doing so. That is a different problem requiring a different solution, but it may need to be combined with an organizational solution.

You have to find things that work for you. There may be perfectly reasonable ideas that only work for other people, and that's okay.

Packing lunch is practical, but using plastic sandwich bags that then get tossed every time does not feel very responsible.

Let's try reusable containers. Well, it worked for one sister, but it does not fit well into the other one's laptop bag. Maybe she needs a different container.

Remember, keeping things that spark joy is different from minimalism. Depending on your tastes, that could result in having a lot of things that might resemble clutter under certain systems.

A shower caddy might work for some memorabilia.

 What if you have Christmas ornaments that you want to display all year? There are options for that.

These are just some thoughts for issues we have run into with these particular people in this particular house. There are lots of differences.

I use the library for books now, but it is generally advised that children should have their own books. Even as adults there are books that we want to refer to sometimes or re-read periodically. 

Trying to get rid of everything isn't the answer. There are different wants and needs, and different solutions that will work with different individuals.  

Back when it seemed like everyone was talking about Marie Kondo, I remember one women realizing that she had a lot of hats and she liked them, but she didn't wear them that often. She changed how she kept her hats so they were easier to spot (a visual reminder) and easier to grab (convenience) and she started wearing her hats more. 

Do what you can to keep your joy in reach.