I have recently been inspired by the Lean movement of continual improvement. More specifically 2 Second Lean and Paul Akers. His books, which are free, are brilliant quick reads, especially if you listen to the audiobooks while doing other things (driving, exercising, housework). Although they are mostly in the context of manufacturing, they contain some great gems of wisdom and habit changing concepts. He talks about continually improving by eliminating wastes and making lots of daily changes by fixing what bugs you. I love fixing what bugs me! It’s a fun little game in problem solving I challenge myself with, that is very rewarding. It does take time though.
My current project is prompted by the elusive book eating monster that has been let loose in my home over the last few months, devouring all the books that I “need right now”.
The back story… My husband and I come from hoarder families. Not the reality tv show extreme type, just the “have way too much stuff and way too much space to enable all that stuff to be stored” type. After 30ish years of singlehood each, we had both acquired a significant entourage of belongings of our own and when we joined forces back in 2014 our entourages also joined forces, filling our garage, spare room and all the cupboards, drawers and piles of boxes in our 2 bedroom home. Since then we have been trying to declutter, sort through and get rid of our stuff. The arrival of our son in 2016 brought a renewed effort, as we knew there would be an inevitable influx of cute little stuff invading our home. With all the reorganizing, there was also a great migration of objects both to charity or to other habitats within our home, which brings me back to the books.
The books were all stored in different places and so I wouldn’t know where to look to find the ones I wanted. Even when I thought I had looked everywhere they could possibly be, months later I would find new collections hibernating in odd places, like in a box in the bottom of a pile, in the depths of my husbands wardrobe. So my genius solution: put all the books in one place. Obvious, I know! They did all used to be in one place, but over time and with changing rooms around they all drifted to their current random locations. Now for the best part, the before and after photos.
Photo by Joyce McCown on Unsplash
