Search:

Amber’s Home and Office Organizing Blog index

Space Experiment

Leave No Space Open 

Have you ever placed something on a shelf, countertop or surface to prevent yourself from using that space as a dumping ground? It often works well, when we “trick” ourselves out of dumping. So recently I tried this same concept on my husband. In our bathroom, we have open shelving built in next to the sink. I use the shelves to place decorative baskets, folded bath towels, and extra toilet paper. It doesn’t help that the very bottom shelf is the same height as the sink. My husband’s shaving cream, hair gel, and shaver often creeps over right onto the shelf. There’s plenty of room in the medicine cabinet above the sink for these things, but it’s easier to set his things down instead of opening the cabinet and placing them inside. Thinking he needed more space, I even went as far as clearing off a whole shelf inside the medicine cabinet for his things. 

So here’s what I did. I spread out the towels and bath mats to take up two shelves instead of it’s usual one shelf. So there was no space left on the shelf parallel to the sink for these things. What happened? It stayed clear. All of his things miraculously made it back into the medicine cabinet each and every day. Of course, after awhile, I restacked the towels and consolidated them all back onto one shelf as they normally are. What happened next? The shaving cream, hair gel, and shaver reappeared. I smiled to myself and laughed aloud. The experiment worked!  

The lesson we all can learn is to fill space or eliminate space where we tend to dump things. It’s a simple trick we can play on ourselves. Have you ever done this? Let us know how. 

*Screen Name:
Question or comment:
This is a private message or question
	* denotes required field