Getting Started - “If you build it they will come…”
Hello there! I’d like to share the mantra I use when organizing a space - “If you build it, they will come.”
If you were a child of the 80’s like myself or earlier, then you are probably familiar with the movie Field of Dreams starring Kevin Costner. I loved that movie because I played softball and loved all things related to baseball back then, especially Field of Dreams and later, A League of Their Own. In Field of Dreams Kevin Costner’s character is visited by Shoeless Joe Jackson’s ghost who whispers to Kevin, “If you build it, they will come.” By ‘it’, Shoeless was referring to a baseball field in Kevin Costner’s corn field and ‘they’ refers to Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Chicago Black Sox. **Spoiler Alert!** Kevin builds ‘it’ and ‘they’ do come! Talk about living the dream - a bunch of baseball player ghosts playing baseball in your corn field! Ha! I digress…You’re probably wondering what this has to do with Organizing a space? For me, it has everything to do with organizing and making spaces work myself and my clients. This is the mantra I use when approaching a space - “If you build it, they will come…”
I’ll use the example of designing my 6 year old’s room (we don’t have a playroom). She loves playing legos, reading, and playing with her dollhouse so I wanted areas in her room where she could do that easily. So I ‘built’ these three areas in her room that work for her and her 6 year old capabilities. She is the ‘they’ in the “If you build it, they will come” mantra. And she uses all the spaces in her room!
My Field of Dreams approach is otherwise known as reverse engineering. Where one identifies a goal for a space and then works backwards from that in order to achieve said goal.
Continuing with the example of my daughter’s room,
Overall goal: create a functional, organized, and aesthetically pleasing room that our daughter can play in independently.
How I got there → when speaking with Kora, she identified what was most important to her when it came to her room and expressed that legos, reading, and her dollhouse were most important (and stuffies too). So I needed to create three different zones in her room where she could do those activities.
I was starting with a blank slate since we just moved into our new home and her room was empty (as pictured above). Because we just purchased our home, I had a limited budget on what I wanted to spend for furniture or organizing product, so I used what we already had as much as I could. We already had the IKEA Kallax shelving unit which worked great for her books, her IKEA dollhouse, a lego table I made for our daughter, and IKEA Eket Cubes. Once I figured out where her bed was going, I could start planning where her play zones would go and how I could use the furniture and storage products we had to create the play zones.
Lego Zone - “If I build a Lego Zone, she will play legos.” Photos 2 + 3: I wanted to create a space where Kora could display her lego creations, and access legos easily when building. I used the Eket Cubes to create a display and storage area, and used the Container Store Lego Storage drawers to contain her legos for future builds. These are all areas she can reach easily.
Reading Zone - “If I build a Reading Zone, she will read her books.” Photo 4: we are a big fan of reading in our home and have a lot of books. In order for her to read, she needs to be able to reach her books, so I placed books on the top cubes of the Kallax.
Dollhouse Zone - “If I build a Dollhouse Zone, she will play with her dollhouse.” Photo 4: Kora requested that her dollhouse be placed at a height where she could sit on her stool and play with it, so I had her sit on her stool and figured out what height her dollhouse would be place based on that. Her dollhouse dolls and accessories are stored in the white rope coiled baskets in the bottom cubes of the Kallax.
How can you use this?
Take a space that isn’t working for you and ask yourself, “How do I want this to work for me? What do I want it to look like? If I build “blank”, then “what” will happen?”
Next identify the pain points of the space - too much clutter, not enough storage, not easily accessible, too difficult to maintain? Then think of the steps you’ll need to take to eliminate the pain points: decluttering? bigger bins/baskets? smaller bins/baskets? shelving? Once you’ve eliminated the pain points, you can then think of how you want the space to function and what you want it to look like. If you get stuck while working in a space, go back to the mantra “if you build it, they will come” (your overall goal) to help guide you.
If you are still feeling overwhelmed and would like help from a professional organizer, Tailored Organizing would LOVE to help you create the space of your dreams that functions and looks the way you want! We’re here for you, click on the button below to GET STARTED!
Happy Organizing!
XO, Jen