I’ve learned in retirement that home improvement doesn’t always have to involve plaster dust, power tools rented from the hardware store, and a pallet of materials on your driveway. While such might be needed to elicit a grunt of approval from Tim Allen (1), your home is awaiting gentler ways to make it better. For sure, there’s a place for the dust and big tools. I moved out of our house for a year to let our builder/designer turn our nice house into a showcase (2). But in the 18 years we’ve lived in this remodel, room for improvement has revealed itself in very many ways. In a beautiful place like mine, it’s easy to look past the few flaws. And with both my wife and I consumed with our careers, who has time to pay attention, let alone act on it? But come retirement, what’s a compulsive organizer/doer to do? While I’ve had other projects to work on, I thank God for giving me this home to improve. In 4 years, I think I have. With this brief essay, I want to share what I’ve learned, in a step-by-step fashion.
Step one. Get rid of your crap! Face it, since the Eisenhower administration, if you’re like us, you’ve been accumulating “special” stuff: nice pictures, certificates from key accomplishments, tschotzkes reminding you of trips and other special times, plus big stuff like appliances you never use or clothes you never wear. If it’s not something your kids would care to have or that you can restore to your own life, like in a display, get rid of it! In AA, they provide a “trash to treasures” guide, showing ways your flotsam and jetsam might become useful to someone else (3). Since many of the destinations are national, it’s worth consulting even if you don’t live around here. Marie Kondo has made a career dispensing advice about this stuff (4) and M Magnison has written a helpful slim volume on the subject (the one we used) (5).
Decluttering is not a one-time push. Every boomer should be thinking of it essentially all the time. Every piece of useless crap you get out to Goodwill is a victory.
Meanwhile, what about the stuff you’ve already got? Organize it! There must be stuff you always reach for when you need it and wish it were somewhere else. Well, put it somewhere else! If it needs a shelf or a hook to rest on, these are abundant on Amazon and easy to install. I can’t tell you how many hooks and shelves we’ve put up to put our stuff at arms reach or at least easier to retrieve (6). Hooks and shelves today go up with glue-backed stuff, so you can leave your electric drill and screwdriver in the garage.
I’m sure that some of that crap is pretty special, eliciting great memories. Well, what good is it doing you in that storage closet? Why not put it up on your walls so you can see it all the time and share it with your guests? Frames are cheap and available on Amazon and michaels.com.
The hooks you buy to hang your rediscovered treasures have other uses. Utensils, shopping bags, backpacks and any other thing with a string does better on a wall than sitting on the floor of a closet or stuck in a box where you won’t even use it.
You, too, can have a very, very nice house, even if you don’t have two cats in the yard (7).
References
- LuminaryArts. The Top Ten Home Improvement Grunts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEAoQckYfmk
- Ike B. on Harbal. WordPress 9/21/20. https://theviewfromharbal.com/2020/09/21/on-harbal/
- Washtenaw County Trash to Treasure Guide. Water Resources Washtenaw County Michigan. https://www.washtenaw.org/281/Turning-Trash-into-Treasure
- KonMari. The Official Website of Marie Kondo. https://konmari.com/
- Magnusson M. The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter. New York: Scribner, 2018. https://www.amazon.com/Gentle-Art-Swedish-Death-Cleaning/dp/1501173243
- Ike B. hooked!. WordPress 1/11/24. https://theviewfromharbal.com/2024/01/11/hooked-2
- Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young – Our House (Official Video). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aunVlekXjkE
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