My Struggle With Surfaces
Photo by Anna Shvets: https://www.pexels.com/photo/cardboard-box-and-brown-paper-bag-on-wooden-table-11286081/
Confession time: I’m awful at tidying my living and working spaces. I’m not a naturally organized person—if anyone’s Type B, it’s me—and I tend to let things pile up…literally.
If I need to put something down but don’t immediately have a proper place to put it, I often place it on the closest flat surface, be that the kitchen counter, the coffee table, a desk, or even my bed. When I then forget to move that thing from where I set it to where it really needs to be (if I even have a place to move it to later), it stays put and starts collecting dust. Or, all too often, I put something on top of it and lose track of it.
This has been an issue since I was a kid. I didn’t study at my desk much because it was usually covered with junk. I would put decorative objects on the top of my dresser, but soon there’d be too many and I’d have to decide which things should stay and which should go (perhaps they’d sing that famous ’80s single by the Clash while I was out of the room).
My untidiness used to drive my mom crazy. I’ve heard some people say having a messy living space is the result of having a busy mind. But while that might be the case, it’s not really a good excuse to maintain poor personal space hygiene. I increasingly hold to the belief that physical self-discipline can exercise the mind just as much as deep thinking.
Some would say I just need to have “a place for everything, and everything in its place.” That argument has merit. But I’d argue there’s something deeper going on: my problem with cluttering up surfaces doesn’t come just from needing a place to put stuff. It comes from having too much stuff, no proper idea of what to do with it or where to store it, and no regular decluttering habit that keeps unnecessary items out of my home.
As an American who has spent much of his life collecting and not letting go of freebies, marketing swag, souvenirs, tchotchkes (I’ve always wanted to use that word in a sentence!), art supplies, books, and random papers of varied importance, it’s surprisingly easy for me to find my living space over-cluttered.
Unfortunately, I’m not in the habit of putting things on shelves, in file folders, or in File 13. This is something that needs to change if I’m to continue in my current journey towards becoming a More Responsible Adult™.
I’ve also thought in the past that one of the best ways to overcome my struggle with surfaces is to get rid of the excess surfaces in my home. I almost always have too many options for flat spaces to set things—sometimes even (gasp!) the floor.
So perhaps this problem has a mixed, shaken-not-stirred solution: define places for important things to live, actively choose to banish things that collect unnecessary dust, reduce the number of flat places where I can set things down, defend my home and mind against the unnecessary acquisition of excess possessions, and learn to emotionally/spiritually appreciate the beauty of clean surroundings.
I’m already working on putting random items in boxes for sorting and making sure surfaces like my bed and kitchen counter remain clutter-free. And I intend to enlist some friendly help in the process of escorting my shiny magpie nests out of my house.
It turns out, this problem isn’t just surface level (ha). Like many of my personal struggles, there’s an iceberg to discover underneath. And it appears I’ve just scratched the top layer (hopefully it’ll buff out).
This is yet another work in progress, but hopefully soon I’ll be able to say that everything I have and everywhere I put those things has a purpose. And maybe then I won’t have as much of a surface problem.
(An addendum I couldn’t resist adding: my “struggle with surfaces” somewhat cheekily also involves using a MacBook Pro to write this post, not a Microsoft Surface laptop or tablet—though I did use Microsoft Word to compose it.)