Your Oasis

What we hate most about clutter is usually how it looks.  Right now I'm not concerned about how it looks to neighbors unless they burst into tears when dropping over for coffee.   I just mean how it looks to us.  Our over-stuff can be distracting and nagging us when we're supposed to be ordering ornamental chard by mail.  Or getting some sleep.

When the whole of my stuff in my room is just to much to "fix" right now, I've come up with something that helps.  My tiny oasis. 

Since I'm a drop-it, I come back to the house and drop my sun glasses and keys on the chest of drawers.  But now I pick them back up and put them in the set of clear plastic pockets on the back of the door. 

I need my oasis, and the top of that chest of drawers is it right now.  I need it to be orderly and pretty because my eyes go right there when I enter or even glance into this room.  There's a little lamp there, and my beautiful green frosted glass box from my best decorating boss.  There are two little flowering plants, and my clock and water glass.  Of course, one sand dollar from my wonderful years at the beach. Best of all, a get-well drawing my pal Tom made and gave me at the first hospital last year.  Last but not least, a perfectly unobtrusive small set of 3 tiny notepads.

What keeps the surface honest (almost always) is that the top drawer of the chest absorbs all the little bottles and tubes from the medical world, and more grooming stuff, and the renegade sox, so I don't have to look at them. 

In my old apartment in the hills, a coffee table and two chairs were my oasis - no pills, no lotions, no abandoned cola bottles.  Just a peaceful surface and a place to get comfortable.

If you're about to go into a big, dramatic clear-out, toss-out, dump-out for whatever reason, PLEASE make your oasis first.  Piles of boxes and bags may grow in other rooms or other corners, but you'll need your calm corner to withdraw and regroup after all that carrying and all that deciding.

This oasis is doubly important if you work at home.  I can't give you a sure fire remedy to keep the rest of the household out of it, but keep insisting, bribe them if you must.   Keeping it uncluttered is for you even if you have to evict some lunch they left behind.

What's your favorite oasis?  Or where do you want one?

More on this soon.