Are You a Stasher?

My client, Jenny* has a pristine, beautiful home. If you walked into her house, you would never think that she'd have any need to work with a professional organizer.

But open a drawer, cupboard, or closet and you will discover Jenny's secret. She is a stasher.

I have a deep understanding and sympathy for stashers because my mom was one too. If she had something she didn't know what to do with, she would stuff it into a cupboard or drawer, thinking she could decide about it later. If it was something she thought could be useful, then she saved it “just in case.”

​It was hard for her to let go of things, so it was just easier for her to stash them away and never give them a second thought…until the drawer was so packed that she couldn’t open it or the contents of the closet came spilling out onto the floor.

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Use my free downloads about LETTING GO to find your pain points and learn how to take action. Questions for Letting Go Keys to Letting Go

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The good news is that if you're a stasher, you’re not tripping over clutter everywhere. Instead, you have isolated pockets to deal with. This means you can get organized one small space at a time.

The best way to tackle these small spaces is to schedule time with yourself — or with yourself and a professional organizer! A typical closet or pantry can be organized in just a few hours.

In the kitchen, tackle one drawer or cabinet at a time and start to enjoy the feeling of lightness when you open that space. You’ll want to keep going and bring that feeling to every space in the kitchen.

For stashers, the hard part about organizing is the mindset and habit changes you’ll need to make in order to keep things organized. Some common habits of stashers are overshopping, oversaving, and underthinking.


OVERSHOPPING
If you’re a stasher who overshops, you probably love browsing in boutiques and treating yourself to something new. There’s no harm in that, unless you’re doing it so much that you’re running out of space in your closets and cupboards. Here’s how to curb it.

Catch yourself when you say, “This is so cute! I don’t know what I’m going to do with it, but I just love it and have to take it home!”

Instead, say, “This is so cute, but unless I can think of a place and a use for it in my home, I’m going to take a picture of it and leave it here in the store.”

Remember, as my fellow Professional Organizer Sandra Polett said, "Every time I buy something, it makes work for me."

Do you really want to bring home more work?


OVERSAVING
Stashers often keep things “just in case.” Just in case what?

Force yourself to go through the scenarios to see if it’s realistically something you’ll use in the next few months to a year. And if it’s something you have multiples of, ask yourself how likely it is that you’ll need that many? For instance, you’ll probably use a nail clipper, but do you need 6 of them?

Just because something is useful, doesn’t mean it’s something you need.


UNDERTHINKING
My mom often ended up stashing things because she just didn’t want to deal with them. She preferred just to put yet another tape measure into the drawer because it was too much bother to look and see how many she already had, make a decision about this tape measure, and then figure out what to do with the extra tape measure.

Jenny stashed things away when she didn’t know what to do with the item, either because she didn’t have a use for it or she didn’t think through where it should logically go.

It takes much less time to make a thoughtful decision about an item than it does to have to tackle a backlog of stashed items.

Stop yourself when you say, “I’ll just put it here for now,” and instead take a moment to think. Ask yourself:

• Do I really need this?
• Where will I use this?
• Where can I put this so I can easily get it when needed?

Once you’ve worked on these mindset challenges and cleared your formerly-stashed spaces, you’ll have the skills to change your stashing ways. It’ll take a bit of time and practice, so just remind yourself how much you love to have tidy spaces filled with just what you need.​

*Name changed to protect the disorganized.