Cozy Camp: Identifying Hot Spots

Yesterday, we kicked off Cozy Camp on our social media channels with a chat about coziness and one of the most important parts of establishing coziness: creating order. One of the biggest deterrents to order is clutter, and today we’re talking about how to identify “Hot Spots,” or those places where clutter gathers.

In case you missed my chat yesterday, understanding that coziness is more than just “pretty decorating” is pivotal to understanding how orderliness falls under coziness. I argue that it’s near impossible to feel relaxed and content in a space where you’re confronted by disarray and a growing list of all that must be done. You can have the most beautifully decorated home, but if it’s disordered, it becomes very difficult to feel cozy within the space.

In our home, our big problem areas tend to be our kitchen/sunroom/front entrance (all one giant room) and our family room, which makes sense: These are the places we gather the most. And it’s problematic for the spaces in which we most desire coziness to be the most chaotic.

The biggest offender was our kitchen/sunroom/front entrance. This space is troublesome on the order front because it’s the very first room you enter in our cottage, and it’s the hardest working room in the house. When this room is out of sorts, it’s the least-cozy greeting imaginable.

To try to bring the space back into order, the first step was identifying the biggest “hot spot,” our kitchen table.

Not only did it serve as our homework station and dinner gathering spot, but it was also where we dumped everything when we came into the house. Backpacks, purses, tools, garden stuff, pet gear, hats, and shoes usually kicked off in the vicinity.

It didn’t inspire much coziness, and truthfully, I felt like I was constantly spinning my wheels picking everything back up.

I started to take stock of what kinds of things piled up and realized the only way to beat the clutter was to find a permanent home for the things that commonly piled up.

Because we are short on closets in an old, small house, I had to strategically find pieces of furniture that would serve as clutter destroyers. A big galvanized bucket to collect shoes discarded at the front door. A vintage coat rack for hats and purses. A tall, narrow cabinet with each drawer serving a different function (backpacks up top, medicine drawer, tool drawer (in addition to Rob’s 25 tool boxes hahaha), and two drawers of vintage linens. A basket on top for keys and sunglasses. And another shorter cabinet for garden and pet supplies.

Now, when we gather in this space each afternoon for homework, art projects, and eventually dinner, we aren’t swimming in chaos around us because the things that enter the house with us have found their appropriate storage spot.

Is the system perfect? No. Honestly, mail and school papers still tend to pile up on the edge of the counter. It’s a kind of clutter that I just really haven’t been able to resolve. But I’m always thinking through the problem. Some day, a solution will come to me.

Your homework this afternoon is to locate the most disordered room in your home. Then, identify its “hot spot.” As you look over the hot spot’s contents, determine what sorts of items tend to gather the most. Then, resolve to start the process of figuring out where those items can find their forever home. See if you have any pieces of furniture, baskets, etc. on hand that can be used to immediately address the problem. If not, add that to your thrifting, Facebook Marketplace or general shopping lists. Once your hot spot has been addressed, sit back and watch just how much cozier that place will feel without all of the added contents.