Happy Tuesday Everyone! Today I am excited to introduce the series Try This At Home.
In October, I shared that Gretchen Rubin’s Happier podcast is my favorite podcast. Each week she includes a segment of suggesting something to try at home that can assist in making life both easier and happier. Her suggestions range and over time I have begun to incorporate many into my own life. After much thought, I felt this would be a perfect series to include and was fortunate enough to have my husband agree to try many of the suggestions along with me. My reviews will be honest and I will certainly discuss if certain tips are not successful.
As January is often the month of organization, the tip I chose to begin with and focus upon over the past month has been Take One Thing With You.
Take one thing with you is a concept to consider each time you leave a room. Within each room of the house, there is likely an item that belongs somewhere else. There may be mail on the kitchen counter that needs to go to the office or the recycle bin. It’s also not uncommon to have a glass on the nightstand that needs to be returned to the kitchen. This simple tip helps with creating more order in the house rather than leaving things to a point where you are overwhelmed with clutter or find yourself doing a massive clean up.
At first I felt that I already focused upon this task. However, I quickly realized that there were times I left a room to go to another without anything in my hands. It was easy to find something to take with me and I quickly developed the routine of looking at what was around me that needed to.
The most interesting room for me was in my closet. Although I have the habit of grouping my empty hangers together, it was not an uncommon ritual to find myself needing those hangers in the laundry room as I was taking items out of the dryer. A new routine became grabbing the hangers as I left the closet. After all, I need to walk by the laundry room as I go down the stairs.
As I asked James to try this task, I found he often would grab something as he went downstairs and state “taking something with me.” As I write this he acknowledged he didn’t remember taking his shoes off by the couch and took them upstairs.
Research is showing that clutter does lead to depression and small steps can begin to alleviate daily clutter. I found this a great tip that I continue to utilize on a daily basis. Although there are still things that don’t automatically get to where they belong, they do get closer and create less clutter.
If you are interested in tips to try at home before next week’s post, you can catch up on past Happier podcasts via Gretchen’s page or find it on Itunes.
I encourage you to try the Take One Thing With You tip. Do you think this is something you will try at home?
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