Clearing Clutter

Not what our house usually looks like!

We've had a ritual in our house for the past two years. To understand the ritual, you need to understand the house. It was built in the 1840s and is essentially built like three boxes piled on top of each other. Each box is divided into two rooms: a basement and a boiler room; a front room and a back room on the main floor; and a front bedroom and back bedroom upstairs. A kitchen and a bathroom were added later.

A central chimney and fireplace provides a dividing point on the main floor. The fireplace was non-functional when we bought the house, which was heated primarily by oil. We unplugged the chimney and had a wood-burning stove put in, thinking primarily of it as a cozy place to gather in the evenings. Then, we found out that in our part of the world, oil is expensive and wood is not particularly so. We made a decision to heat our home as much as possible with wood.

Which brings me to the ritual: The front room is large enough technically to be two rooms, but we currently have a dearth of furniture. So every fall -- around October -- we move our sofa, coffee table, and a cushy armchair to a space around the wood-burning stove so we can stay warm. When spring comes -- mid to late April -- we push everything back against the east-facing windows that line the room so we can take full advantage of the fresh air and fragrant flower scents flowing in from the outdoors.

It's a nice seasonal ritual with one great big disadvantage. It leaves our front room, which is our main living space, in a state of perpetual clutter. Books and papers are piled on top of a table near the windows that's too heavy to move easily so it generally stays in one place. It's often too cold to eat so close to the windows in the winter so the table ends up becoming a repository for newspapers, discarded mail, printouts of things I bring home from work, and often packets and boxes of seeds. We prefer to eat outdoors as much as possible when the weather's nice and are too busy with spring planting to do much indoor cleaning so the papers pile continues to grow through the spring and summer. Once every few months or so, a cat jumps into the heap and scatters everything on the floor.

The table is one source of clutter. Built-in bookshelves, a wrap-around fireplace mantle, window ledges, and radiator tops are others. When we're huddled around the fire, books and paper piles gather around us. Firewood slivers, snow and dirt constantly flow in. It creates a source of stress that, uncertain how to react otherwise, we try to dismiss with shrugs and jokes. Truth be told, it drives both of us crazy and we wish we could create a solution.

Now, an odd resolution seems to be materializing. Both sets of parents made decisions in the past six months to move into smaller, empty-nest style homes. The end result is that they're downsizing and we're acquiring more sofas, love seats, armchairs, tables, and bookcases than we ever dreamed we'd own. Both of our parents have pretty good taste in furniture and much of what they're giving us holds great sentimental value for us as well as them. So we're ecstatic -- and a little frightened. Will this acquisition of furniture become our answer to a cluttered life? Or will it fill our house to the brim with too much stuff, and make the clutter chaos that we face even worse?

I have always been someone who appreciates simplicity in home and lifestyle design. I lead a busy life -- which some, including my husband, characterize as a cluttered life -- and because of that, I have always liked keeping my home life simple. Traditionally, I have kept furniture purchases to a minimum, and tried not to acquire too many clothes or accessories such as shoes. I have a lot of kitchen appliances because I like to cook and because many of these items were given to us as wedding gifts, but I own little in the way of cameras, televisions, entertainment systems, and other electronics.

My stark housekeeping habits often contrast markedly with friends whose homes are filled to the brim with "stuff": garage sale specials, thrift store purchases, clothes and books and greeting cards and souvenirs acquired over decades that never could be gotten rid of. I might be a little odd, but it is for this reason that I fear acquiring too much stuff.

I have come to realize, though, that a lack of "stuff" can create problems instead of solving them. As a result, one welcome solution that I anticipate the arrival of new "old" furniture will bring is a chance to clear up our home life clutter. Just the very thought of having two sofas makes me smile. We won't have to move our furniture back and forth in accordance with the seasons. We'll have a winter space and a summer space all in one house, and hopefully an organizational formula to create some method in the madness.