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Tidiness versus function - 17th June 2022
This was the title of a Facebook Live I did in my group last month. I'd asked members for subjects they wanted me to talk about and I chose this one. Why did I choose it? Because I liked the thought that tidiness and function might be on opposing sides and fighting for dominance!
Tidiness OR function, do you have to choose?
Before I answer that I want to tell you about homes I've visited where the look is totally minimalist BUT when a cupboard door is opened, well, you'd struggle to find anything because items have just been jammed in where they fit. The sole object of this stuffed to capacity style storage is of course "tidiness". Is there function in this instance? I would say a resounding "no" to that one. Of course if the owner of this space has the memory of an elephant, then they might remember where everything is, but extracting it from the muddle will be messy and time consuming!
Think also of those times you've tidied up in a hurry because someone's expected at your house. Stuff is just shoved out of the way anywhere! That is definitely tidiness over function but hopefully in this instance it's not a permanent situation.
I'm racking my brains now to think of a situation where function has the upper hand and tidiness loses out. I would think this is less often. Unless the only way you can get your filing system to work is by having all those papers on the floor, perhaps?
Yes, it IS possible to have tidiness AND function simultaneously!
What a relief!
Quite some years ago I came up with the term 'Logical Storage' to define my own approach to storage. It works because when you use this system you are pretty much guaranteed to be able to store things AND find them. Thus you have both tidiness (things are stored) and function (stored things are accessible).
How exciting is that?
The best part about this system is that it's not difficult to learn. It just requires you to think a bit differently, especially if right now you put tidiness above function. In this system function comes first but tidiness is always applied. In fact you probably already use it without realising it. You know your milk is in your fridge, don't you?
I ran a workshop on Zoom a while back to teach the principles of Logical Storage and it went down very well. People said they had a whole different outlook afterwards on how to organise their stuff. If you'd like to learn how to use Logical Storage you can access a recorded version of the workshop for just £10. When you download it you will also have some mini exercises to try out so your brain gets the chance to try out some new skills. Of course if you have any questions about the workshop you can get in touch with me. If you want to know more about the recording then drop me an email and we can go from there.
Keywords: methods, organise, storage, sorting
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