2023-04-23 21:09:43
A book of tips for home organization that will take you half an hour to read
(Originally published in my column in Lasha)
“How to clean the house while you’re drowning” is the original name of the book “I’m fine, the house is fine – a different approach to order and cleaning” (Moden Publishing, translation: Linda Panias-Ohana) written by K.C. Davis, a psychotherapist and Tik Tok star who herself did not succeed Dealing with the laundry tasks for seven months after the birth of her second daughter in the midst of the closings. From this experience, she developed a different approach to dealing with household chores, and she reveals this approach in videos and now also in the book. To reduce her approach to one sentence: You do not exist to serve your living space, your living space exists to serve you. The target audience is people with attention deficit disorder, depression, postpartum depression and anyone who feels threatened by housework (hmm, we won’t mention names). This is the perfect book to read in the spring if you’re not one of those people who enjoy cleaning blinds but somehow feel guilty about that fact, especially around Passover, when the topic can’t get off the headlines as part of the tradition.
Don’t worry, this is a thin book that was specially designed to allow maximum accessibility for readers with neurological differences: the font is large and aligned to the right, the paragraphs are short, the main points are highlighted and the design is spacious, and if that’s not enough, in some chapters you’ll get suggestions for shortcuts and skipping chapters (Davis guarantees that reading on track The shortened one will take about half an hour to an hour).
Ten ideas I took from the book:
1. “Maintenance tasks are value neutral.” There is no connection between who you are and the state of your home. A polished sink is not valuable in itself and it doesn’t make you a better person just like a sink full of dishes doesn’t make you a failure.
2. The goal: a practical living space. When the house is messy it is only a sign that it is lived in. When it is messy in a way that makes life difficult, they said: “This space has finished its role as a practical place”, there is no failure here, but there is a need to reorganize so that you can continue to live comfortably.
3. The “five things” method. When the house is so messy that you don’t know where to start with this task, Davis suggests five actions: collect all the trash in a large bag and place it by the door, collect all the dishes and place them in the sink (do not wash), collect all the scattered clothes in the laundry basket (no to wash), place in one corner all the objects that move around in the space and do not have a designated place and the objects that do have a place – put them in their place. Now that the space is relatively organized, it is easier to deal with the task. KC admits that at this point she always puts off washing the dishes until tomorrow.
4. It’s okay, throw it away. If a bag of clothes that you intended to donate or sell has been sitting in the corner of your bedroom for six months, throw it away. True, it is not ecological, but your current task is to return to function. Or in the words of Davis: “You can’t save the rainforest when you’re depressed.”
5. Order should not look good. If there is a tray on the counter in which all kinds of things that you intended to be placed there are placed in a mess – then it is organized enough. It is not necessary that every organization method will also look good on Instagram.
6. Baskets everywhere. Where to put the baskets? In a place where objects end up anyway. Clothes thrown on the bathroom floor? Put a basket there. Shoes piled up by the door? basket. Unopened letters find themselves on the dining room table? That sounds like a great place for a basket.
7. Cleaning does not have to happen at the same time. You don’t have to master all the tasks in one day to reach the state of a brilliant house. Not everything has to be clean at the same time.
8. Re-examination of beliefs and laws. Laundry must be folded. Why? If the goal is to keep the garment unwrinkled, great, but that’s not a good enough reason to fold toddler underwear or pajamas. There is no “correct” or “mature” way of doing things. There is only the way that works for you.
9. Rest is a privilege, not a reward. Kindness to yourself is not laziness.
10. Good enough is perfect. It is possible and desirable to do the minimum necessary. You don’t settle for less, you adopt habits that will help you live comfortably.
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I searched on Spotify for playlists that are suitable for cleaning, and I found – among other things – lists that consist of entire Taylor Swift albums, which proves that you clean like you live. This is the ultimate cleaning song (in my opinion):
Whoa, we’re half way there
Whoa oh, livin’ on a prayer
Take my hand, we’ll make it, I swear
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#book #tips #home #organization #hour #read