Palais Professional Organizer

Posts Tagged ‘story-telling’

Creating meaning

This post from Apartment Therapy on how to keep love letters inspired me to show you guys what I do for momentos and memorabilia (see below). It is really important to protect what you love and at the same time to not overload your space.

I think this balance all comes down to meaning. How to create it and how to recognize it.

Ask yourself if an item means something to you. Then you’ll know whether to keep that item. If it doesn’t have meaning for you then is it a gift? I guess that is a philosophical question I don’t have an answer to…I also can’t answer how you create meaning in your space. But you can. If you ask these questions of yourself.

Your home tells your story

Ultimately we are concerned with our spaces because they tell the story of our lives. When someone walks into our space why are we concerned about how it looks? I believe it is because we know it reflects a lot about us…it tells the story of who we are. We put up pictures of where we have been, who we have been there with and who we love.  I think our homes are also aspirational – or they can be. They can show where we are steering our future.

What speaks least speaks loudest

Often what is missing tells as much as what is present. Our homes and offices give many clues to our nature. They reveal meaning as much as they lend meaning. So blank walls tell as much of a story as overflowing files.

Becoming a good storyteller

Creating and expressing meaning in our lives and our homes takes awareness and invention. Like any good storyteller you can begin by asking good questions to bring definition to your home and therefore its character.

With each item you bring in ask:

1. Does this add to my life?
2. Do I love it?
3. Does it help me create the life I want as I move into the future?
4. Is it completing my vision?
5. Is it useful to me?
6. Does it enrich my experience of life?
7. Does it inspire me?

Our stories begin to take shape when we answer these questions.

Even items that once only had banal use such as a stapler are now infused with meaning and creativity. You can even get a stapler in the shape of …almost anything…!

Love what you bring into your story.

I say this to point out that you don’t have to have anything in your space that you don’t love or that doesn’t really reflect your personality.

Creating a storybook

What you keep and how is part of your story. Here’s an idea for a storybook which will prevent clutter and help you keep your story straight. You can put love letters in, or just memorabilia of any kind.

Aaron brothers has this sketchbook that works perfectly as a storybook or you can order it online (for a lot less). I paste notes or cards into it with rubber cement as I get them. If a neighbor leaves a funny note, it goes in, birthday cards I love go in, special event tickets, stubs etc. You get the story.

Simple stories are best

I don’t make it fancy. Everything just gets thrown in haphazardly and sometimes I jot a note down.

Canson sketch book

Dr. Who (Photo by TV Screener.com)

I’m addicted to this season of Dr. Who.  This BBC series which famously ran from 1963-1989, started back up in 2005 and is just plain old good story-telling. Dr. Who is kindof a mess and I like it. I don’t really want to analyze it too much for fear I’ll ruin its allure. Not for you but for me!  I’ll just say that things don’t always turn out perfectly,  but they turn out the way they should. Nothing seems in order and yet all is well.

"Can you let me play?" My client and I found this note on her desk...what is you answer?

The importance of play.

In is TED talk, Dr. Stuart Brown, author of Play and founder of the National Institute for Play, speaks about the psychological importance of play. He cites many studies showing the benefits of play on memory, vitality, stress-reduction and more. Much more.

I don’t doubt his findings.  One of the most creative and productive people I know often starts his day with 20 minutes of Red Dead Redemption or Guitar Hero. Both are in his office. That is the extent of my current research but luckily, Dr. Brown has done quite a lot more.

We are all working harder than ever these days. It is necessary, no doubt about it. However, the other side of that work equation is play. Maybe we need to also play a little harder to balance out all of that hard work. I have long been encouraging my organizing clients to reward themselves when they spend time clearing out drawers, planning their week or whatever it is they don’t particularly want to do but must. Rewards can make the “chores” a bit more fun or at least increase the likelihood they’ll get done.

However, what Stuart Brown is suggesting is so much more powerful! He is saying to infuse everything we do with play. Let the work (including the organizing!) we do be as playful as possible. Infuse it with body motion, use objects, fantasy, story-telling and whatever kind of transformational kind of play we can think of. Let’s rework work.

The best part is he has so much science backing his findings. Reworking work into play, well, it works.

How have you made work more playful? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Also published on Examiner.com