Organizing and time management/productivity consultants did not become mainstream until the early 21st century. The root cause of this is from the relatively new human challenge of managing abundance. Historically, most people lived with scarcity. If you own one scratchy towel, it does not take a professional organizer to help you figure out how to store your linens.

But many people today are dealing with a combination of material over-abundance. And any time we are confronted with too much — trying to find one object in a cupboard crammed with too many things -- it eats up our bandwidth and causes delays, frustration, and confusion.

This is certainly an ongoing struggle for me, because I have the instinct to save things “just in case.” And that’s a very useful instinct if your problem is scarcity. However, I’m dealing with too much stuff. If I saved everything that crossed my path that I thought might be useful someday, we’d have no room for people in this house. Since I am artificially organized rather than naturally organized, I have to consciously make decisions about how much of any given item is enough.

If your problem is material scarcity, then asking if something might be useful is a good strategy. If your struggle is with material abundance, don’t ask yourself whether something is useful or potentially useful to you or someone else (it is all too easy to justify keeping something because you think someone else in your family might want it someday; they probably don’t).

Instead, you need to ask yourself how much is enough when it comes to your things. (Elsewhere, I share some ideas on defining how much is enough when it comes to time and tasks.) For those of us dealing with too-muchness, this is a two part question:

• Part one: Which of these items do I both like and use? (Pinsky 2012, p 25) Many people save things they neither like nor use, but keep them because the items seem “perfectly good” or might “come in handy.” Those phrases are red flags if you are trying to declutter. So the question here is: which ones do I both like and use?

• Part two: How much space am I going to let these items take up in my home?

For this thought experiment, let’s talk about a humble class of items that just about everyone uses: food storage containers to store leftovers in the refrigerator. Part of the challenge is that we have an economy dependent on people buying things — lots and lots of things. Check out this dazzling array of options for storing your leftovers.

And by the way I’m deliberately ignoring containers for things in pantries, and we’re not even going to talk about food storage wraps here, but — wraps, OMG: beeswax wraps, aluminum foil, wax paper, or film? And how about cheese paper? I am already feeling slightly overwhelmed, listing this consumer abundance! Let us turn back!

We’re on food storage items to store leftovers in the refrigerator, and that is abundance enough for this post.

Our point of comparison is the not-so-distant past, when dedicated food storage containers were not common: what did great-grandma use to store leftovers in the ice box? Probably she put a plate on top of a bowl. Or perhaps she re-used some glass pickle jars.

How about you? Do you like, and use, all the food storage containers for leftovers that you have? Where do you keep them? Again, this string of decisions is not one that most people in human history would have faced (”What are leftovers?”).

I am actually kind of fascinated by what people use to store leftovers, and how much space they dedicate to it, because that varies so much. How much is enough, is a highly subjective question.

My mother-in-law, who grew up during the Great Depression, had a kitchen where I had to brace myself before opening a cupboard. When you opened her cupboard, an avalanche of plastic containers and lids would pour down upon your head. Her kitchen was spotlessly clean, but every cupboard was brimming with cans and boxes of food, and storage containers for food - far more than she could eat living alone, but it was important for her to feel prepared for guests or famine, whichever came first.

I remember another relative who lived alone who kept no more than three or four cleaned-out margarine and yogurt tubs on a cupboard shelf.

I don’t have societal cures here for an economy built on consumption and all the advertising and social pressure that goes with that. And we have certainly come a long way from setting a plate over a bowl in the ice box.

As an individual, however, you can simplify your own life by making conscious decisions about your things. These decisions may also be linked to your values. A person who values frugality and reducing consumption might prefer to save and re-use yogurt containers. A person who values limiting the use of plastics might choose other materials for food storage. A person who wants to save space and reduce dish washing might choose tempered glass to reheat things in. (But if my kids are reading this, never transfer a glass container directly from the fridge to a hot oven. Just sayin.’).

So, how much is enough for your life situation?

• What kinds of these items do you both like, and use?

• How much space will you dedicate to storing these items, in your home?

I am embarrassed to tell you how many years I spent sorting through a jumble of containers and lids that took up most of a cupboard. When I understood that I needed to decide how much was enough rather than what might come in handy someday, I answered these questions:

• What kinds of food storage containers did I both like, and use? (I kept a set of stackable glass containers.)

• How much space would I dedicate to storing them? (I use two dish pans in a cupboard. One stores the glass containers. The other stores the lids.)

Decide how much is enough.

References

Pinsky, Susan. Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD, 2nd Edition-Revised and Updated: Tips and Tools to Help You Take Charge of Your Life and Get Organized. Revised, Updated edition, Fair Winds Press, 2012.

Notes

The “like and use” question comes from the book Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD (2nd edition) by Susan Pinsky. She recommends that if you do not both like and use something, it is time to let it go. Pinsky’s techniques for working with ADHD clients were so useful, she began using them with all of her clients. If organizing household items is not intuitive for you, this is a great reference, with lots of helpful pictures.