Knowing What You Need

“I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Earlier in the week, at her request, Caia’s closet was cleared of about 60% of what was shoved in it. When it was all said and done, I was left with even more stuff to trash, donate, rehome or sell, (two full laundry baskets, to be exact) plus a very large box of stuff that belonged more in the playroom than her closet. But. The playroom wasn’t ready for more stuff. It desperately needed less stuff. As the reality of this project has gotten underway, the order of things in a space as large as our entire house has proven to be all shaken and stirred. Oh, the things you can’t fully anticipate when you start something like this… !

So this weekend was spent working on our “playroom”. It’s a misnomer in a way, as the room is dedicated to our family’s library and music space as well as the children’s playthings. (Playroom denotes train tables and wall murals and exclusive kid space in my mind, but this is not what ours is like at all.) We have a wall unit that houses our books with cabinets built in that house the children’s toys. The bottom half of the unit is dedicated to the children; the top half is split between adult interests. We have a lot of books. In this room, we also have a large toy box and a large doll house. We have a guitar, Congas and an Ivory Coast Djembe. We also have a few random larger play items that don’t fit in the cabinet or toy box.

The challenge was that we decided to move all the dress up costumes into the playroom. It meant cleaning out the toy box to repurpose it for the clothing, which meant getting rid of large portions of what was in the toy box. (See how this works? Clean one thing out, only to find that it leads to three more projects!) We also went through all the children’s books and reorganized them, prioritized and culled through lots of toys, and reconfigured the room a little. In all, we had three large bags of toys to purge, a full trash can of random stuff, and a couple of larger, “space hog” items that rarely enjoy use. All of it goes.

The other items that were pulled from the playroom were craft-related. One of our large closets will be dedicated to craft supplies, coloring books, and board games. These are all common activities in our household, so it makes sense that we dedicate space for them. I’m excited by the idea of this closet, but if you were to catch a glimpse of what it looks like right now, you’d understand when I say that I’m not looking forward to the cleaning of it. 

It’s hard to believe that we’re getting rid of so much and not missing any of it. It brings into sharp focus what’s really important: People, free time, connections, creativity, good food, art, health, rest…

So little of that has anything to do with money or with stuff. If it does, and I have a confession to make - I bought some new Calphalon cooking utensils this week so I won’t scratch up our new Calphalon pots and pans - it’s more about supporting a pre-existing interest than about having something for the sake of having it. I walked into the store where I bought the cooking utensils and thought, wow, there was a day when I would have wanted to buy all kinds of things here, but now all I want is the thing I need. Knowing what you need, though, takes a bit of time. We had to go through a phase in our lives where we collected lots of things that we might, maybe, someday have a use for…? before we knew what we actually used and needed on a regular basis. That’s the simplicity on the other side of complexity that is such valuable knowledge. 

sign image by Cozy Cottage, Loveland, Colorado