You are reading Part 2 of the 7-part series on How to Skilfully Declutter Your Home Once and for All. If you are new to this series, then you may find it helpful to start from Part 1.
Professionally, I’m an Experience Designer. In other words, I design apps and websites. It’s something I’ve been doing for nearly two decades.
Experience Design aims to create positive feelings through designs. A good Experience Design makes you say ‘Oh, I love this!’ when you use a digital product.
Such satisfying designs are, in most cases, created based on a deep understanding of the consumers of such apps. It requires the designer to fully understand the goals, problems, and needs of the target users and come up with suitable designs.
Once these designs are created, I test them extensively. Like a scientist, I run lots of experiments and rapidly learn from the results. These experiments enable me and others I work with to evaluate strengths and weaknesses of the designs before we start implementing them. We reclaim time. Salvage money. Conserve efforts.
Not only do I enjoy running small experiments professionally, but I also tend to use them in my personal life too! One such experiment I’ve been conducting over the past two years is about organising areas of my home based on my needs. Let’s name it, shall we?
Need-Centric Organisation
Put simply, the need-centric space comprises only essential things that are based on your needs.
Now you may argue: “My home contains only the things I want.”
But, a want and a need are not the same.
To wear smart clothes for work is a need. In contrast, here’s a want: a $1000 Versace suit made by blind nuns.
If an area contains any extra stuff then it is not the product of Need-Centric Organisation. Any items you buy on impulse — and without sufficient consideration of your needs — fall under this category.
Another such example is unwanted gifts; those gifts that may have sentimental value attached to them but which don’t serve your fundamental needs.
So if your habitat contains items that are either based on your wants or rarely used, then it doesn’t follow the ethos of Need-Centric Organisation.
Need-Centric Organisation requires you to consider your goals. For example, you may say you want to become efficient in the morning as you get ready for work. You can extrapolate your needs based on such goals. You may decide to create your wardrobe based on a simple colour pallet. This would then enable you to pair up any two pieces of clothes with your eyes closed.
You become efficient. The goal achieved!
Once you establish your needs, Need-Centric Organisation requires you to explore as many options as possible that would meet these needs and then to pick the most suitable option.
Once all such optimum items are acquired, the idea is to organise your space with only those items. You get rid of everything else which doesn’t serve your needs. You keep only the essentials. We’ll look at these aspects in a bit more detail in subsequent articles.
Minimalist Mindset
The majority of stuff is unnecessary.
This is a typical outlook of a minimalist. It’s also at the heart of Need-Centric Organisation. This attitude of less is more enables you to pick the essentials from the trivial many.
If you want to take full advantage of the philosophy outlined in this article, then it’s in your best interest to adopt this mindset. Conversely, not following this mindset won’t take you far. You’ll find your home in a cluttered state again pretty soon.
While we’re on this topic, there’s a pretty good book that I’d like to recommend: Essentialism by Greg McKeown. It details this notion of minimalism with a much broader scope. The book has impacted my life significantly!
What’s in It for You?
Below are the three primary reasons why Need-Centric Organisation is something that’s worth trying:
Sustained order: Once you’ve set-up your home based on Need-Centric Organisation, you’ll see that it will dramatically reduce the requirement for periodical cleaning. It’ll keep the clutter out of the way and will help you maintain order in your home for probably the most extended duration you’ll have ever seen.
Delightful spaces: The second key indicator of a successful Need-Centric Organisation is your increased satisfaction levels. You’ll feel much happier to live in a home that only contains items that serve you best.
A new perspective: As you’ll see in the subsequent articles within this series, Need-Centric Organisation requires you to go through a process. This process itself will, in most cases, change the way you perceive potential objects for your home.
Consequently, you’ll see a change in your shopping behaviour. You’ll shop much more carefully. Most of you will also likely experience a noticeable reduction in the amount of time you spend buying things, coupled with a reduction in the volume of stuff you actually buy.
These are just a few examples of the sweet fruits that a Need-Centric Organisation can reap for you.
But not all people want to follow these principles, do they? There must be a bunch of people you know who deliberately ignore these commandments. Well, for them there are some consequences.
Ignorance Is NOT Bliss
Disregarding (or only partly following) the principles of Need-Centric Organisation will likely result in constant clutter. No matter how many times you carry out those spring-cleaning sessions, you’ll find the reappearance of rubbish.
You’ll end up with unwanted and rarely used items which will hog up your spaces, breeding more clutter.
Go On, Remove 3 Objects
As we’ve established, Need-Centric Organisation is a cornerstone for creating a sustainable order within your house. But, how do we fully account for our needs? Is there a better way?
Yes!
In the next article, you’ll discover how to draw out your needs systematically. Whether you’re a busy person or someone with more time, there’ll be tools for you. Moreover, you’ll learn why eliciting needs this way is one of the best methods for you to create and maintain a clutter-free home! You’ll also begin to see how this process will liberate you from periodical cleaning sessions.
Meanwhile, how about doing a small exercise? Spend five minutes looking around your home. Identify three things that you’ve rarely used because they’re not serving your needs.
Then, see if you can get rid of them. Today.