Living Within Your Space
Clutter isn’t about the size of your house. It’s about stuff habits — like spending habits — which chronically get you into space debt.
NBA star Antoine Walker earned over 100 million dollars in his career. Yet two years later, he declared bankruptcy. He had spent it all. He failed to follow the truism of personal finance, “live within your means.” No matter how much you earn, you have to spend less than you earn to avoid falling into debt.
Now consider the analogy when it comes to physical space. If you acquire faster than you discard, you’ll necessarily fall into clutter, no matter the size of your home.
I live in a small two-bedroom apartment in the city and it feels tight. But I also have visited five-bedroom suburban homes which feel way more cluttered. The living room has storage boxes in the corner. The dining room table has become a holding space for papers. Rather than the space being a container for people, with the stuff tucked away, the space becomes a container for the stuff, with the people squeezing in around it. That’s living in space debt. The problem isn’t about how much space there is, it’s about the stuff habits (like spending habits) , which create an imbalance between stuff coming in (space expenses) and stuff going out (paying it off).
Staying out of space debt is especially challenging when you have little kids. Kids need new clothes and appreciate different toys every few months. Toddler artwork and school papers pile in daily. Toys are cheap in terms of money, but expensive in terms of space. They turn play space into storage space.
One cost of space debt is failing to benefit from the stuff that you own. Food goes stale in the back of the pantry. Toys don’t get rediscovered until your kid has aged out of them. You buy a new thing because it’s easier than finding the one you already own. Another cost of debt (both financial and space) is not having the slack to acquire something that you’d actually enjoy without falling deeper in debt.
Living within your space is not about minimalism. Minimalism is to space what asceticism is to money. The goal is to spend as little as possible. That’s not what I’m talking about. Living within your space is about maintaining a balance that is sustainable and enjoyable over time.
For me, living within my space means
- Everything has a place and there’s space for me to put it there. (No jamming it in an overstuffed drawer.)
- When new stuff comes in (mail, a gift, new clothes, etc.), I know where it should go (and there’s space for me to put it there)
- Prime real estate — the shelves and drawers that are easiest to reach — are used exclusively for stuff I use often. Inconvenient storage space (too high up, too low down, in the basement) is only for stuff I use rarely.
- When stuff becomes less useful (out of season, outgrown), I store it and free up the prime real estate.
- Even if I’m not on top of putting everything away, the walking space stays clear and most of the furniture and countertops are available for their intended purposes. (The couch is available for sitting, not covered in laundry.)
It’s not such a high bar, but it’s an ongoing challenge, at least for my household. I appreciate the privilege of having plenty, and struggle with the responsibility of making good use of what I keep and passing along the rest.
Do you live within your space? What does living within your space mean to you?
