Making small adjustments to remove friction

I am a woman on a mission. I am completely in the zone of looking for what I can revamp to make my life as calm as possible.

My nervous system has been overloaded in recent months, and I’m trying to calm it down, and any way that I can make things go more easily is an act of self-nurture.

With the kids all home, trying to register dd for a new school (there are more steps involved for a foster child), and working way too hard on getting respite care approved from three different social services jurisdictions, along with hearing tests, dental appointments and for the first time, sleepaway camp arrangements for ds14 and possibly ds9, and the usual weekly therapeutic appointments for three of the kids – it’s not exactly a no-demand period of time right now. BUT I’m not at appointments and meetings almost every single morning, and that makes it feel less demanding.

I’m using this quieter period to be as proactive as I can to improve how things run in my home, so that when things inevitably get more intense, the systems will be support me as much as possible. Hence, my reorganization of several closets in our home, and getting the kids on track for cleaning up after themselves.

So here’s my latest change – I was so energized that I couldn’t go to sleep until I finished!

I reorganized my spices.

Yes, seriously.

I began with rearranging my spices, and that created a domino effect that led to changing a number of things in the kitchen so it all flows better.

Here’s the situation with my spices: I buy them in bulk, decant them into identical large containers and put them on a shelf. All of the containers fit neatly on two deep shelves in my pantry.

But I have to pull them in and out to find what I want; since they’re all the same size I can’t see what’s behind one without moving the one in front. That means every single time I cook something, I’m picking up and putting down several containers before I find what I want. It’s minor, but it’s a waste of time and it’s annoying.

I thought, if I could glance at the top of the spices and take out just the one I want, that would save me time and effort, a number of times a day, and remove this ongoing low-grade friction. Where they are currently stored, that’s not an option.

I decided that the drawer where my dairy dishes were stored would be perfect for spices; it’s the right size and very close to where I prepare food. I emptied out the dairy dishes and moved them to the shallower drawer just above it, which had my challah boards and covers in it. Since Shabbos items don’t need to be in a high priority zone, I moved those items into a drawer in the pantry cabinet (which of course had to be emptied and a new place found for those items), and voila, a drawer was available for spices.

This drawer was perfect for all of the seasonings I used most regularly; it’s a pleasure to have them right at hand and immediately see what I need.

The ones I used less often didn’t need as central a location, so I moved them back to the same pantry cabinet where they originally were. But this time I stored them in a deep drawer rather than a shelf, so I could glance at the label on top to see what was inside, just like the other spice drawer.

I stored them below my new ‘Shabbos’ drawer that now contains the challah board and covers, and dip dishes. To fit everything in this drawer, I rehomed two challah covers and a set of glass serving dishes.

In the drawer below the large containers of spices and baking ingredients, are numerous smaller jars of spices and spice blends that I’ve made. These were previously in the higher, more accessible drawer, but the rule of organizing is, what you use most should be stored to be most convenient, and what you use less, should be stored in a less central location. And I use these spices less frequently.

The process of organizing my spices was like playing Rumikub, when you have two final tiles that you’re determined to put down, and rearrange the entire board to do so. I ended up making so many changes that the next morning, my husband was flummoxed because almost no drawer or cabinet he opened had the expected items inside. Notwithstanding that initial discomfort, he agrees that everything is more efficient now.

Even though I put thought into where I stored everything when we redid the kitchen last spring, I was delighted to find ways to make it work even better.

Every change I make is reclaiming some of my life energy, and something as small as making my spices easier to access makes me happy.

Everyone has areas where things aren’t running as well as they could. It’s worth thinking about where the bottlenecks are, because clearing those bottlenecks frees up the flow and reduces the friction you experience. Where can you make a change to eliminate frustration, or wasted time and energy? Every little bit makes a difference.

Avivah