Containers and How to Fill Them

Chapter 25

This post is a chapter of the book It Ain’t Gonna Lick Itself: Housekeeping In Spite Of It All by Hanne Blank Boyd.

Click here for the full table of contents.

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I am not a huge fan of physical containers as a means of creating order in a living space. Often they just turn into yet more places you dump your crap, and in most cases, these crapholes subsequently metamorphose into memory holes, dimly remembered and rarely revisited until one day we peek inside of one, think oh God, I don’t have time to deal with this, and shove it back into the closet for as long as we can get away with it..

I tell you what, though, I love a metaphorical container. Love, love love. A metaphorical container, in this case, is any space in your day that has boundaries but no immediate associated task. Any time you’re waiting for something to happen is a potential metaphorical container. The time it takes for your pasta water to boil. The time it takes for that load of towels you just put in the dryer to dry. The six minutes you’d normally spend irritably looking at your phone while your kid goes back to their room to get the stuff they “forgot” even though they know it’s almost time to leave for soccer.

Filling these “containers” that exist in the course of an average day is one of the best ways I know to make it less painful to find time to do the essential bits of household work. These are not the times when you decide to reorganize the pantry. These aren’t even the times when you decide to sweep the floor, usually. Typically, they’re the times where you can do a few small tasks in passing. Nothing major, nothing too stressful. Just the little stuff you can do in a minute or two, or five. It doesn’t seem like a big deal. It’s not a major event. You’re just doing something useful until your kid emerges with both soccer uniform, water bottle, and shoes.

Photo by fateme hasanloo on Unsplash

There are a few things I do every morning to fill the “container” of making my morning pot of tea. Once I’ve put the kettle on to boil I’ve got a few minutes to move all the objects on the kitchen island to one end of the island, clean the open side, and then swap sides and clean the other end. Then I grab the dogs’ water bowl, wash it out, refill it, and and replace it in its spot, much to the delight of Bissel the cat, who always has to be the first one to the fresh water. Once that’s done, I check to see if there’s any recycling that needs to go out to the big bin in the garage and if so, I take it there.

Usually the kettle’s boiling at that point. I pour the water over the leaves and set a timer for 6 minutes, which is the right length of time for my tea to steep. In the next 6 minutes, a variety of things happen.