How Organizing Became the New Clutter (My Mexican Mother Never Owned a Single Bin)

Get The Old Mexican Way, every old way written down: https://oldmexicanway.com My mother never bought a single bin. No canisters, no dividers, no caddy, no label maker. And her house in Guadalajara was the most orderly on our street, with six children and a husband who was not a tidy man. She had containers, every Mexican mother did. She just never paid for one. Here are ten things the organizing aisle sells you, and the free thing or the old rule she used instead. THE TEN 1️⃣ The salsa jar (instead of the $60-90 canister set): one jar per thing, the bag's label folded inside. Hot food goes in glass, never plastic. 2️⃣ Masking tape and a pencil (instead of the label maker): write the month you filled it, not the name. 3️⃣ The blue cookie tin (instead of the sewing organizer). No Mexican child ever found cookies in it. 4️⃣ The shoebox on its side (instead of the can rack): first in, first out, and it rotates itself. 5️⃣ A cardboard box cut down low (instead of the pull-out bins): nothing behind anything. The lazy susan is fine in a corner. 6️⃣ The lid law (instead of a new container set): no lid, no container. A dozen, maybe fifteen. Lids stand on edge. 7️⃣ The bucket under the sink (instead of the under-sink rack): the floor is where the leak finds it. Cloro and vinegar never on the same side. 8️⃣ The nail and the hook (instead of the over-the-door organizer): an address, not a product. 9️⃣ One everything drawer with a job: flashlight, tape, scissors, string, matches, pencil. Visitors walked out on the first of the month. 🔟 The front door. Three questions before anything came in: What is your job? Where do you live? What happens to you when you are done? You do not buy a home for a thing that has no home. The honest word: I own one bin, with a sealing lid, for the winter wool, because moths walk into cardboard. A bin with a job is a tool. A bin bought so you do not have to decide is clutter with a lid on it. And if the piles carry grief or real distress, be kind to yourself, start with one shelf, and talk to your doctor. Who profits: the canisters, the label maker and its refill tape, the racks, the trays, the new container set, and the bigger bin when the bins fill up. Nobody makes a dollar from a woman with a salsa jar, a shoebox and a roll of masking tape. Tonight, do one: every container on the table, lids matched, and count. What was in YOUR mother's cookie tin? I know it was not cookies. Tell me, and your county. I read every one.