The Importance of Small Things

If you are a part of our Facebook Group: Accessories by Antoinette/Adelaide, you likely would have seen the handful of ‘Small Things’ posts I have made.

It all started with a door handle.

The original Small Things post that started it all.

We had a single door cupboard and some years ago, it lost its door handle. I can’t remember how or why the door handle came off – but I know it was handle-less as early as 2016. We had still had the handle, we just needed to get the screws to reattach it. Then, we got the screws, and it was just a case of setting aside the time to fix the door handle.

It never happened.

Life got in the way. School and work commitments took priority. Health complications became overwhelming. We moved house – twice. It soon became easiest to just open and close the cupboard without thinking about fixing the handle. The stray handle and screws remained floating nearby, awaiting the opportunity to be fixed.

This cupboard has been quite troublesome but I've fixed it now!

I looked at it for years and years, saying to myself ‘I really should fix that’, and then walking off to do something else. A lot of the time, it didn’t feel worthwhile to fix, especially since we always seemed to have another move right around the corner. Why fix something that’s liable to be broken or just get in the way?

Finally, in 2024, I fixed the door handle. It was a ten-minute job – if that! And it had me thinking about small things, and how they have a much bigger impact on our lives than we allow ourselves to believe.

As I wrote in my original ‘Small Things’ post, social media has changed the way we see ourselves and the things we achieve. Social media expects grandness – the graduation, the marriage, the big promotion!

However, none of those things occur without small things first. Small things like sitting down to study or take five or ten minutes out of your day to plan the things you want to achieve in a week. Small things are every day tasks that keep the world spinning and the clock ticking. Getting out of bed, putting on a load of washing, or fixing a door handle after years and years of life just getting in the way.

It’s achieving the things that make your life easier and more fulfilling, and overall, better your wellbeing. And without these small things – the big things are unachievable. Big things cannot happen without small and meaningful actions in the meantime, yet they often go unrecognised.

Our most recent Small Things post.

For people who have physical and/or mental health conditions, achieving small things is often a constant chore. It involves constant determination, motivation and additional discipline to conquer the small and mundane tasks expected of us, and there is very little recognition given for those every day struggles.

And so, I periodically write about small things I do. The boring things. Fixing a door handle or a shelf or the bottom of a mannequin that needs to be superglued back on.

I don’t think that anyone should feel like they’re not achieving enough in their day-to-day life, and I definitely don’t want to give the impression that I am constantly finishing huge projects or have a lot going on. Truthfully, my days are filled of small but important ordinary tasks. Fixing items, creating things, making breakfast, a bit of gardening here and there. My day is a drawing or a shower or writing up blog posts.

#SmallThingsAreBigThings

What’s a small thing you’ll do this week? I promise it will be as worthwhile as a big thing, maybe even more!

Kimberley (they/them)

Accessories by Antoinette