Just off our studio/bedroom is a storage room that has lately devolved into a treacherous wasteland of trashbags, empty boxes, broken toys, and shattered dreams. Its usefulness as a place to put stuff has been utterly undone by our wanton refusal to embrace the fundamentals of organization, and so we are no longer willing to open the door, terrified of what we might find. I will not post a photo of the train wreck. To show the mess would cheapen the horror—kind of like showing what the Blair Witch actually looked like. The point was how it made us feel, which was awful.

And so, last Friday, we decided the time come to summon our deepest reserves of fortitude and take back the storage room.

Here we are at the halfway point. The great heaps of boxes have been removed, the shelving has been cleared, and we have made good progress toward getting the paper and envelopes organized.

Let’s take a closer look. Perhaps you cannot recognize it as such, but this is a thing of beauty. Paper sorted by type and size. Envelopes rationally displayed for quick identification and easy access. It is a shining glimpse into what our lives could be.

And look! Boxes of books. With labels on the side so that we can know at a glance the contents of each! It is an epiphany. No more endless rooting about to find the elusive title. Robbi’s beaming smile is as genuine as they come.

And behold! Our many types of tubes, thoughtfully arrayed in plain sight. Right after this photo was taken, we wept gently at the simple elegance of it all.

After we finished with the storage room, we tackled the kids’ dresser drawers, our studio proper, the living room, and a few of the kitchen drawers.

It was an exhausting enterprise, but one that also energized. The trick, of course, is remaining vigilant. A system is only as strong as the will to maintain it.

If I had to guess, I imagine we’ll be repeating this exercise in a year or two. Or perhaps a month or two. Though I wouldn’t be shocked if we were back at it next weekend.