The case for empty space

Am I the only one who finds half-filled closets relaxing?

Something I’ve observed over the years is that my stuff will expand to fill the space available. I suspect I’m not alone in this.

If we were to treat our spaces like the containers they are and respect their limits at all times, this wouldn’t necessarily be a problem. (Shoutout to Dana White’s Container Concept)

However, we don’t do this. We fill our closets, drawers, and bins to their limit.

And then we add something new and our whole system breaks down because the new thing has nowhere to go. So begins a pile, or else we buy some organizing doo-dad to Tetris in more stuff.

This honestly stresses me out. What if you need to add something black? Source: The Home Edit

I’ve spent a decent amount of time in other people’s pantries over the past couple years and it’s interesting to me how people store vastly different amounts of dry goods. Sometimes it’s barely enough to fill a drawer. Other times it’s huge closetfuls (lest we forget Khloe Kardashian’s tower of cookies).

There is no “correct” quantity, but it made me reflect on my own bursting-at-the-seams pantry. There’s no reason that it needs to be so uncomfortably full, with bags piled on top of once-beautifully decanted jars (will decanting ever make sense to me?).

It would be so much more chill if I opened the pantry and it had just what I needed in easy view. Yet instead, I currently have 5 different kinds of pancake mix.

Insight: Your space shouldn’t determine how much stuff you have; your needs should.*

To resolve this, I’ve been dutifully using up our dry goods and freeing up pantry space. Let the stores store my food. No need to hoard like the apocalypse looms.

Beyond the pantry, I’ve been looking at my kitchen cabinets in a new light and slimming down any excess. My goal is to have empty space in my kitchen cabinets wherever I can. (I remind myself frequently of homes I’ve seen in Europe and Asia with 1/10th the space of my house, and people there manage just fine.)

It’s weirdly relaxing to me to have a half-full drawer. It tells me that even if I add something new, the system won’t break down; there’s room for the unexpected. Planning ahead for surprises is my love language.

Yes, I’m a sucker and bought those drawer divider thingies. I’m only human.

I helped organize a reader’s pantry recently, and even without empty space as an explicit goal, we achieved it. Her pantry went from so-crammed-things-got-lost-for-years, to blissfully spacious:

Before

After some elbow grease alongside lovely reader @girlalex, who adds the late-breaking update that her cats have been hanging out in the lower pantry now that it has so much space.

In seeking inspiration, I remembered a friend’s enviably spacious closet. She does a seasonal rotation so there are two versions of her dreamily capacious closet. (The empty space continues out of frame to the left.)

Winter mode on the left, summer mode on the right.

My husband and I share a tiny closet so I will never achieve this level of chill, but I do pat myself on the back whenever I declutter and end up with an empty hanger or two. Small victories count!

Now You

How do you find space at home, even tiny amounts? Does anyone else aspire to underutilize their kitchen cabinets?

* I know I have readers who live in a very small space or in rural areas where a stockroom is a necessity. In these scenarios, your optimal solution likely looks different from mine. The goal isn’t to emulate my solution; it’s to figure out what your needs truly are.

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