This rather innocuous looking corner is my kitchen’s Sweet Spot. I’m employing a touch of reverse psychology here, calling it my Sweet Spot, as what I would naturally call it is ‘the place that is always a mess’, ‘where we dump stuff’ ‘a drain to look at’, ‘tiring’, ‘stressful’….you get the picture.
Here it is on Saturday.
It was a lovely sunny morning, the kids were out in the garden with Robert who was working on putting up the fence in the front garden. I was heading out to the garden as well and as I was about to pass this area it dawned on me that, after having been in this house for only eight short weeks, my kitchen had already developed its Sweet Spot (aka Messy Hell)
I have had an area like this in every house I’ve lived in and I’m sure you have your own versions. It could be the kitchen table, the window sill just inside the front door, down by the side of your bed, your dresser, your car, etc…..
What I don’t think we realise is how depressing areas like this can be. They scream of chaos and I think it’s really hard to relax, unwind or even be productive in a place that is in chaos.
That’s not to say that an area won’t ever get messy. I’m testing many recipes at the moment but I factor in a cleaning up time nowadays so once the recipe is finished I can move on to something else in peace and not be reminded of it it when I’m exhausted and want to go to bed. More often than not I do go to bed, leaving the mess, and the whole thing is still there in the morning. I refuse to start my days like this any more. And on a more petty level I also refuse to have one tiny corner of my home make me feel this rubbish and discouraged.
So now it’s my Sweet Spot. I’ve reclaimed it, re-named it and shall treat it with care and attention. I won’t ignore it or dump on it. I’ve read around the subject of forming habits and it can take anything from 21 days to 250 with the average being 66. This says to me that it is different for everyone and I think you have got to really WANT to form a new habit if you’ve any chance of allowing it to stick.
I’m a busy mum of twins, with writing deadlines to meet, friends and family I want to hang out with, new hobbies I want to explore, old hobbies I want to rediscover, no cleaner (although I’m certainly not against having one), a house I can’t wait to get my claws in to and the garden of my dreams that has great potential. So, like you, I’m busy. This means that it’s best for me to take these tasks in bite sized chunks and deal with them over time. That way I’m not overwhelmed, Robert can join in by keeping it tidy too, and I don’t get that rather crippling sense of failure when I take on too much and don’t quite achieve the goal I set for myself.
It’s one corner. It’s manageable.
It’s not decorated they way it will be one day but it would be really easy to use that as an excuse. Say we don’t get around to tiling for another year or so, am I going to live with a chaotic corner for that long? No way!
It needs to work for me and my family right now, in its current decorative state.
So here’s to Sweet Spots and the conquering thereof.
Do you have one? Does it break your heart a little when it stays the same day after day or longer? Do you find them stressful? Do they drain you of energy?
Tell me about them. I think they are nasty buggers and I think they need to be eradicated. So let’s do it together.
I love you and thank you so much for reading today.
Cherry x
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Oh I love you for this. I think you and I have the perfectionist Martha gene in common. I love the chaos pic. Will find my futility room post and show you via twitter to make you laugh. R x
Mine are the kitchen table and the bottom of the stairs. The stairs is semi solved with one of those stair baskets but then I have to remember to take it up with me and empty it out! The kitchen table always seems to have a small pile of things waiting for one of us to do something with. I did get ruthless a while back and put a lot of the pile in the recycling having decided that if it had remained on the table for more than a couple of weeks it really wasn’t needed.
I love the light that comes into your kitchen, it seems restful, is it?
I thought I had conquered this as I got older. I have now developed the skill of tidying up as I go along but although there are no obvious “spots” I realise that I have developed other “blind spots” like accumulating a” flies cemetry” on the window sills of the conservatory that get very hot in summer and are hard to reach because of miscelaneous furniture and grandchildrens toy boxes. They also become a dumping ground for unwanted or tasteless ornaments that I haven’t got the heart to get rid of. Now I will. I have decided.
You definitely are spot on with this! They do make me tired, even little areas. It’s not until I clean them away that I realize how draining they can be. My kitchen sink window sill is not very big but seems to be a magnet. It actually makes me cranky when things accumulate. Is http://www.juliemorgenstern.com/ known in the UK? I like her point of observation that we all tend to create zones around our houses and instead of fighting them, should turn them into a positive. Like your kitchen counter. It’s just lovely.
Oh Cherry, when you lay down a challenge! Well, I have reclaimed my kitchen, shed, worked on the basement, cleaned the house….YEA! Thank you so much for giving me the kick-you-know-where to get so much done today! Enjoy your kitchen, I know I’m enjoying mine!
Oh my goodness… how this has resonated with me! This year I’ve tried to say to myself “Put is away NOWWWW” instead of just ‘putting it here for the moment…!!!’ I still have to conquer the dining table – although I try really hard not to ‘dump’ stuff on it, I still do it… mainly because I leave things there which are ‘current’ and need sorting. But yes, I do agree it’s so draining isn’t it…!!!!!!! I AM getting better though…! (I love your pretty ‘corner’ with the flowers there – just gorgeous!)
Any level surface in this house is subject to becoming a “catchall.” I leave the dining room table set all the time so it doesn’t become a place where odd things are stacked. I’m still working on my desk.:-)
You have created a very welcoming place in your kitchen – welcoming and restful.
Hmmm…the console table in the hall, on top of the fridge in the kitchen, the shelf in the play room…so many sweet spots in this house. Oh, not forgetting the Mega Sweet Spot which is the under-stairs cupboard of doom where everything gets chucked when we don’t know what to do with it. Every few months I give this cupboard a massive clear out and I feel SO much better afterwards.
Our entire office is a ‘Sweet Spot’ right now and has been for a while as it’s had a full size storm trooper outfit living in it in a big old TV box for the last 6 months (don’t ask!) which has finally returned to it’s owner this weekend and the relief I felt when we dropped it off was huge! My husband looked at me like I was mad when I said I felt like a weight had been lifted by getting rid of it, so it’s good to know someone understands what I mean! As for the rest of the house, yes, beside the bed is a particular bug bear, as is one of our kitchen worksurfaces, and from time to time, the dining room table and bed in the spare room. You’re right – it is draining and I feel so much better when it’s tidy and so today, with your pictures as inspiration, I am going to fix at least one of those spaces.
Thank-you and have a lovely week – i’m off to get the washing on the line before the sunshine disappears again.
Take care, Bex.x
In our last house, keys etc. were always being dumped on the kitchen counter just inside the door. I got a wooden platter and left it there, where I told my husband that all such things must be dumped! It worked for a while, but we ended up with lots of small, random miscellaneous stuff there (magnets, tiny balls of blu-tac, picture hooks, kirby grips and buttons etc. etc.), and it annoyed me so much that I emptied the platter and reclaimed it, as well as the space on the kitchen counter!
I decided that instead of pandering to the mess we would try not to make it in the first place …. bit of a pain though. I do think it’s worth stepping back and thinking about possible short-term storage solutions though – in my new kitchen I have a pretty lined basket, and every couple of weeks I make myself sort it all out. It’s working for now.
Yes, we have one in every room too. Hallway – bench & windowsill covered in bags, coats, keys, sunglasses etc. Bedroom – top of chest of drawers covered in contents of husband’s pockets, hairbrushes, receipts, wallets, keys etc. Kitchen – one bit of work top is ALWAYS covered in post, magazines, address book, pens, phone books etc (this one really depresses me!). My list could go on and on to be honest, now that I think about it!
I’m afraid to say I have 3 sweet spots. The first is in the kitchen like yours. It’s usually full of post that I haven’t got sorted or childrens paintings and odd bits and bobs I can’t decide what to do with. Then this stuff eventually gets moved to the far side of the dinning room table. I usually have a nice candle and some flowers on here but it does nothing for tha appearance of the room with a load of junk on the table too. Then this stuff gets moved up to the bedroom floor can you believe before I decide it needs tackling.
I’m hoping that I’ll deal with it daily. But it never seems to happen. Good luck with yours xx
Oh dear lord, I know exactly what you mean. I live with my parents so I have to fit all of my ‘stuff’ into my bedroom. I’m a 23 year old girl, I have a hell of a lot of ‘stuff’! I find that no matter how many times I sort my room out and throw/ebay/donate this ‘stuff’, there is still a million and one things there, lurking, annoying me, being in my way. I look at most of it and think ‘I don’t even NEED half of this’. My solution is to take over the spare room. Stick it in there and shut the door. Said solution raises my dads blood pressure no end but I think you have to take the rough with the smooth in life and if it means my bedroom is clean and cosy then sorry dad, but I’m afraid thats how it will be!! x
Oh I have several of those around the house. There is one on top of a chest of drawers in my bedroom. It’s right by the bedroom door and is usually where I dump whatever I am holding when the Little Man demands attention. The table in our living room is the same – currently covered in craft stuff, pots of pens, diary, books, magazines, cotton reels on a stand, button tin, this morning’s post and the cat. I always feel immensely satisfied when they are tidied up but it never lasts for long. Old habits die hard!
You have no idea how nice it is to know I’m not the only scruffbag with a ‘sweet spot’
They are depressing, it’s true and no matter what I do it always reappears (usually somewhere else!)
x
My kitchen table…it’s there as soon as you come in through the hall. Everything and their families are deposited on it, hour by hour through the day…the messiness builds. I tidy up and can’t find a place RiGHT NOW…..it goes on the table. The my darling girls get in from school with two lunch boxes, two book bags and two loads of paintings…….yep straight on the table…….then we have to eat. We have a huge dining table and the four of us squeeze around the end to enjoy our dinner. Like you I have decided to wage a war on it. Each night exhausted I try and clear it with the vision that tomorrow it will look exactly the same. You have given me hope today. Thank you! I now know its not just me being a rubbish untidy mummy…..it happens to all of us…..my time to change starts now! .x.x.x.
Yes! I have one in every room too and I couldn’t agree with you more about the energy draining-ness (!) of it Cherry. I am getting better at working on it because, like you, I can’t stand to wake up to mess anymore. Think the key is getting the rest of the house to do their bit last thing at night instead of leaving me to collect cups, plates, socks, etc from all corners of the house!
Forget every house…. I think I have one (minimum) in every room!!! You are right… they are depressing so thanks for the inspiration to get it sorted!! Perhaps I will do one each week, seems manageable to me
It’s a beautiful spot xxx