March 2024 - Staying Organized: Hidden vs Displayed Storage

🌸 March 20th is the official start of spring in the northern hemisphere!

Okay, I admit I’m a little early, and maybe talking about the change of seasons could have waited until the April edition, but nothing excites me more than refreshing my space in alignment with the seasons. 

So whether you’re going into autumn or spring, or the rainy/dry season, let’s talk about the seasonal refresh!

Like I said, I love refreshing my space in alignment with the seasons. Especially over the past decade or so, my use of technology has made me feel an increased need to look to nature and my intuition to live more fully. 

When I do my seasonal refresh I feel this “unblocking” of stagnant energy in my home and mind. I believe everything carries energy that affects us in ways we don’t even realize. Physical objects, spaces, people, thoughts, sounds, and so much more all have energy to them. 

The most obvious way we can tell the energy of something is by how it makes us feel. Have you ever walked into a room and instantly felt at peace? Maybe you met someone and instantly felt a connection. This works the other way around too, with places, people, or things, making you feel stressed or on edge.

I think that’s another reason minimalism appeals to me: it has given me the tools to be more intentional about what I let into my life, and so, more control over the energy around me. 

The energy that comes with the changing of the seasons motivates me to step back and reassess how I want my space to be. My spring clean has me going through my space cleaning and decluttering, room by room, storage solution by storage solution.

This is where I get a little esoteric, in a very KonMari way: I hold everything in my hands, not so much to see whether it “sparks joy” but to remove that stagnant energy. I don’t really know how to describe this, but it’s like how you have to drive a car every so often to make sure the battery doesn’t die. In a weird way, it’s like you’re acknowledging that the object exists. 

To feel what I’m talking about, find something in your space that you haven’t moved in a long time, pick it up, maybe even wipe the surface underneath it, and put it back. How does the energy of the object feel now?  

Okay, that was a little detour, let’s get back to the seasonal refresh and the things I’ll be sharing in this month’s newsletter:

• The difference between hidden and displayed storage, and how to use it to your advantage. 

• How to really tap into the energy of your space using feng shui

• Get your own seasonal refresh going

Let’s get into it!

Something by me 

How we store our stuff has an effect on how we experience our space. It might be obvious once I point it out, but that doesn’t mean people don’t struggle with it. All of the places we store things fall into two categories:

1. Hidden (or closed)

2. Displayed (or open) 

Once you start intentionally working with the powers and weaknesses of both these types of storage, you instantly change the feeling of your space. This post goes hand in hand with an earlier post on Active, Passive, and Archive storage, which dives into accessibility of our stuff. 

I hope you have as much fun identifying how you are using hidden and displayed storage as I had writing about it!

READ IT HERE

Something by someone else

You know how I was just talking about the energy of a space? Feng shui is the ancient traditional Chinese practice that “uses energy forces to harmonize individuals with their surrounding environment.” I use feng shui wisdoms in all of my interior and exterior design work, and I want you to learn about its magic too:

Title: Feng Shui Modern by Cliff Tan 

What it’s about: In Feng Shui Modern, Cliff explains the concepts of feng shui and then uses expert tips and practical diagrams to show - room by room - how our own styles, color palettes and furniture can be used to maximize any environment.

Why I like it: I love how Cliff makes feng shui accessible and understandable. I’ve been interested in feng shui since I first came across the concept when I was 16 or so, and the one thing I always found funny was that people made it sound so mysterious, when in reality, it’s really logical.

For example: in “mysterious feng shui” putting your stove and sink directly across from each other causes the fire and water elements to clash resulting in marital problems. In reality, these are two workspaces in a kitchen, so if both are being used at the same time chances are you bump into each other (especially in narrow kitchens), which leads to agitation. It comes down to the same thing, but the second one is easier to understand.

Cliff lifts the veil on this mystery and shows how practical feng shui really is.

My favorite quote: “Creating beautiful space is about methodical awareness of the environment and establishing balance so that the space not only looks nice, but feels right, too.”

Buy it here: https://www.dearmodern.com/the-book

Something by you

Now it’s time for action.

Your challenge this month is to join me in a seasonal refresher:

1. Find someplace in your space where the energy feels off-balance. This can either be an entire room or simply a corner or zone.

2. Identify whether the energy is stagnant or chaotic. Usually stagnant areas are dusty, and chaotic areas are cluttered. This is more to help you become aware of the energy in your space because:

3. Both stagnant and chaotic energy have the same solution: clean and declutter. 

4. Remove everything from the area and do a good deep clean first.

5. Take a moment to declutter what was in the area.

6. Using the guidelines on hidden and displayed storage, put the stuff back with intention.

7. Sit back and enjoy your refreshed space.

I’m so excited because once I’m done removing what no longer serves me in my space, I can intentionally start adding in what does.Spoiler alert: I do so by using the senses to elevate the experience of my space, but that’s for next month because it’s an email just as long as this one!

Refine updates: Behind the scenes

This course on digital decluttering is really starting to take shape! I’ve finished the scripts for the complete course and I’m now filming and editing.

I sent the module on decluttering and managing email to a friend to test it out and they were able to get their inbox from 32k emails to 0 in a couple of sessions over three days! I have to say, that felt pretty validating.

That’s all I’ve got, it’s really been heads down these past couple of weeks. Just like always I will be announcing any and all launches in this newsletter, so no further action is required on your end!