Putting Things Away "So You Can Use Them". Lessons in Storage.

by MUJI 無印良品

Our lives abound with things. Taking a questionnaire survey about the organization and storage of things, and actually visiting customers' homes, we've come to understand that a lot of people are worried about ways in which to organize the ever-increasing amount of things that they have.

Throwing things away

Reasons for not being able to organize things fall into two groups. One is that there are too many things for the space they inhabit. There's a limit to the amount of things that a person is able to manage. The more the amount of things in a house increases, the more difficult it becomes to put them in some semblance of order. (See "The Courage to Throw Things Out" in our previous Collective Ideas on the Shape of Homes column here)

So, what should we do so that things don't start piling up in our homes? The most basic solution of all to this is to throw things out.

When you buy something and bring it home with you, if you don't either consume it or take the same amount of things that you brought in out the next morning, then it's a given that things will increase. Books and magazines, CDs, clothes… buying mundane things, it means that we have to throw out the equivalent amount of things that the number of things in our homes has increased by.

Another solution to the problem is simply not to bring things into our homes.

In the results for "About Storage", the third of the second stage Shape of Homes questionnaire, one of the opinions we received said, "Make a list of things that you want (write down concrete design, manufacturer etc) and ensure that you are able to buy these things without hesitation when you find them out on sale etc". That is, not "not buying", but taking stock of things and only buying things that you really really want, or things that you need. The more you have taken careful stock of things and then bought them, the more attached you become to them, and you try to use them with care, which means that they last longer; as a result, this means that it is harder for things to pile up.

Deciding on a fixed position

The second reason for not being able to organize things is that each thing does not have its own fixed position.

"Organizing things" means storing things away in such a way that they are easily accessible when you want to use them. Organizing things such that they are lined up neatly and are pleasing to the eye is also important, but it could be said that the essence of organizing things lies in being aware of "functionality" when storing things away, so that there is no needless movement involved when you want to use them.

For example, let's think of how we usually move around in our own homes. First, prepare a floor plan of your house, and then draw lines to show your own movements in completing each activity you undertake. When you clean the house each day, where do you start to clean, and in what order do you move around the house to clean it? When you do the laundry, from hanging the laundry out to dry to putting things away, in what way do you move and where?

Let's now join the movements undertaken for each activity with lines. If we arrange things that are necessary for each situation or activity along these "flow lines", then when we want to use them, we can do so easily.

It is also necessary when deciding on a fixed place for things to go to label things so that you know where things are stored or where they should be stored at a glance. At one house we visited, books and shirts were arranged according to color in a way that was easy to understand.

And we need to allow for a bit of leeway in terms of storage space. When we try to store something away, it is often the case that it doesn't fit in its designated place, and so we "temporarily" place it somewhere else. But this is the root of confusion. If you leave something in a place to which it is not suited once, then in no time at all, you have an accumulation of a variety of things there.

"Being able to take things out quickly" and "putting things away straight away". These are simple things, but if we keep them in mind when we are storing things, then things will naturally be organized.

There seems to be a hint to how to organize things efficiently in the idea of "putting things away so that you can use them". It could be said that a person's way of living shows itself in their way of "holding things",. Taking steps to ensure that you are able to use an appropriate amount of things for a long period of time, at the same time having things well arranged. That's the kind of life I want to lead.