A living history of the hutch / Best Personal Revelation 2009
You know a hutch when you see one.
It's a pile, a mess, the opposite of an organized life. The opposite of the cover of Real Simple (in fact, if it were a magazine it would be called, Extra Complicated - and would you buy that magazine?). It's stuff, jumbled. And I used to believe I would cease to exist if I didn't have at least one hutch in my living area. No joke. I tied my sense of self to these piles.
My hutches were an embarrassment. Before someone visited I would lift the pile and carry it to an undisclosed location, dumping it off-site. Often, more than one trip was required to clear the area. I never admitted it to anyone except people I lived with. I preferred clutter to neatness - in controlled amounts.
And until this year, I couldn't get my hutches under control. Hutches came in classes. There were simple clothing hutches. I would dig through them to find my sweater - instead of folding it up and putting it in its place. Then there was something called The Mixed Media Hutch. This is the kind of pile in which paperwork, receipts, clothing (both clean and dirty) - grow in a pile that nearly resembles a living organism.
And like organisms, hutch begets hutch. If I didn't clean it up it would grow - so my whole closet would become one sprawling, disorganized hutch.
"Why don't you just clean it up?" Joel would venture, innocently responding to my frustration at not being able to find a mate to a sock. "I can't," was my response, "if I die tomorrow you'll know I was here by my hutches."
Totally irrational and it finally dawned on me I wasn't creative because I was messy. In fact, my creativity was stalled because I often couldn't find the tools I needed to create.
This year, I realized quite suddenly - I'm not my stuff. Hutches don't define who I am.
And as comforting as they are (they are) they limit more than they grow you. They eat up your mental space even after you leave your house. How many times did I think: ok, I need to head home and tackle that? This year, I'm happy to say, I finally tackled not just the hutch itself, but the root cause of the hutch creation. I'm thankful for the mental space - not to mention the physical breathing room - it provides.
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Clutter-fighting resources? I love Unclutterer. Declutter with Leo from Zen Habits. What do you read when you need a reminder to clear clutter?
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Today's #best09 prompt asks what your aha! moment of 2009 was - over the next few days, if you have time to do so, share your bests with us.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Reader Comments (9)
Gwen, I just found your site and like what you are doing here. This is a great realization! Clearing your physical and mental life makes room for stuff that matters. There's freedom in simple.
I read two great books this year by Feng Shui expert Karen Kingston, and one of them is a serious declutter inspiration -- it's called "Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui" and I highly recommend it when you need a little fire under your bottom!
Sara Love her book. Read it for the first time in college and re-read it again every couple of years. It's especially good for deep clearing of clutter. And makes it approachable for beginners. (Which we all are.)
I'm in the middle (er...ok, more like the beginning - sigh!) of de-hutching (love the phrase "hutch" for little bunches of stuff) - and your enthusiasm for the end-result is fuel for me - thanks.
I found out something a few months ago, while de-hutching my bedroom . Some of my "need" for hutches involved a kind of being held - making the room smaller and cozier and Karen-welcoming by making it smaller in a way.
But I found a BETTER way, putting art work up on the walls (instead of in boxes all over - what an insight!) - they snuggle me and inspire me and are so much more fun to see on the wall rather than as I leap over them!
You've so inspired me to get back to it!!
owww, my goodness gracious! this article is hilarious, mostly in the sense that i kept on reading it and became more and more disturbed at how much i relate... currently sitting at a hutch on the kitchen table, a hutch in my bathroom, and a bounty of hutches in on my bedroom floor. I have to de-hutch my life!
I'm sitting here in my hutch, reading this! How funny! This is a timely post.
Comrade!!! :-D
No, seriously. I am surrounded by these "hutches" and they do create mental clutter. I can feel the stress they generate. The mess feels like a security blanket and an irritant at the same time.
Must check out that Unclutterer site for myself (watching episodes of "Clean House" will do the trick too).
I read "Unclutter your Life in One Week" towards the end of this year and am still reeling in awe of the numerous hutches I've created in my new home (we've only been here for 9 months!) 2010 calls for uncluttering those hutches, one by one...like you, my creativity depends on it!!
I am horrible like that. Having a 4 year old and working full-time and going to school full-time doesn't help either, hutches are just easier and more convenient, although probably more stressful and less easy than I am willing to admit. My goal over break is to get rid of things and declutter so that it's far easier to clean once the semester starts back up. Thanks for the resources and letting me know I'm not alone!