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Denver has been in quite a few “top 10″ lists lately — we’re one of the top ten most livable cities in America, one of the top ten most family-friendly cities, one of the top ten cities for job growth — and now I find out that we are also one of the top ten coffee-drinking cities in the country. (See Mark Harden’s May 28th blog in the Denver Business Journal for more information.) On average, people in Denver spend about $354 per year on designer coffee — and that’s just the coffee we drink in coffee shops — or the coffee we buy in coffee shops and take to work with us. It’s not counting the additional money we spend on coffee that we brew at home or on other caffeine sources that we may make use of…yes, there are those of us who supplement our coffee addiction with a little recreational Red Bull, Amp, or even plain old chocolate. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! But that’s a lot of late nights and early mornings, my friend…what do you do with all those waking hours when you should be sleeping? In this economy, of course, all too many of us are spending those hours working second jobs and second shifts…and parents, of course, easily fill those hours and more. The rest of us, though, have another use for those hours and for that jittery coffee-energy (if coffee makes you jittery — some of us find it very calming and soothing). Once you’ve caught up on that pile of books next to your bed, you’ve knitted until your fingers are sore, and you’ve written letters to all those old friends you’ve been planning to catch up with, there’s another great way to handle coffee insomnia: closet organizing!
I know you’re rolling your eyes, but it doesn’t have to be that bad. Use my guaranteed no-sorting-necessary method. My basic closet-organizing principle is this: like things go together. All stray clothing items go into a laundry basket. All papers get stacked. All books go on shelves or at least in a box all together. All files go in a filing cabinet or a box. I don’t take time to alphabetize or impose any organizational system on books, files, and papers. I just put them all together in one place. Then, when I am looking for them later, I know where they have to be. If I’m looking for a file, it must be in that box I put all the files in. If I’m looking for a shirt, it’s either hanging in the closet or it’s in the laundry basket. That narrows my options down enough that I can find anything, even if the books and files are in no particular order.
Once the closet is organized according to my like-meets-like principle, I usually find that I have a vast amount of space left over. That means I can go through the house and take clutter off any surface I find, and stow it in the closet. As I stow, I continue to follow my basic principles. Like things go together. The one difference is that when I take papers off the coffee table or my desk, I do sort a little (I know, sort is a four-letter-word, but occasionally it must be done — there might be bills that need to be paid or children’s school forms that need to be signed and sent back). I find that a good closet-organizing will result in most of the surfaces in my living room and kitchen becoming decluttered. That means I am one step closer to a clean house. And THAT means I am one step closer to being ready to have guests over on Memorial Day.
If I can do it, you can too — happy Memorial Day weekend, Denver.
Tags: addiction, caffeine, caffeine addiction, closet organizing, coffee, decluttering, Denver Business Journal, insomnia, Mark Harden, organizing, top ten