Midlife Hobby Reset: Make Space for the Hobbies That Matter Now

How are all those hobbies coming along? There was knitting in your twenties, beer-brewing in your thirties, puzzles during the pandemic and a stretch of years in between when triathlons were your thing. Midlife is a great time for a hobby renaissance. Many of us have a little more time to spend on ourselves with kids leaving the nest. Midlife is also a good time for a hobby reset. The hobbies you’re still into deserve more space and attention. And maybe there are a few that you haven’t picked up in quite some time.

This blog is for the hobbyist. Maybe you’ve had scores over your lifetime or maybe you haven’t had time for any in forever. Either way, I’m going to lay out a process for a hobby reset (spoiler, it involves decluttering!) When you’re done, you’ll have space for the Hobbies That Matter, which will inspire you to dig in!

The Hobby Edit

The first step of your hobby reset involves pulling out all of your hobby paraphernalia. You probably have stuff lurking in closets, cabinets, baskets, bins and drawers all over your home. Once you’ve pulled it all out (or at least made a list of all your hobbies) take some time to think about what is still relevant to you in this current season of life.

There are a few factors that play into which hobbies are the most relevant and how many should continue to take up valuable real estate in your home.

1. How much time do you currently have to spend on hobbies? Maybe you’re retired or retiring soon and will have more free time. Or maybe you plan on working for the forseeable future. Assess the available time you predect you’ll have to devote to hobbies.
2. What are your space constraints? Does your home feel cluttered because you have a lot of hobbies that you aren’t engaging with? Does the thought of digging out what you need to engage with your hobby keep you from actually doing it? You may have multiple interests but your space only allows for a couple, tops.

Are you being honest with yourself about the probability of actually working on each of your hobbies? In my experience many folks love the idea of their hobbies but when it comes to actually doing anything they never follow through for whatever reason. Distinguishing between potential hobbies and real hobbies will help you edit down to the Hobbies that Matter.

The Level 2 Edit

Once you have pared down to a reasonable number of hobbies based on time, space and efficacy it’s time to look at each hobby and make sure you’re only keeping what you really need and use. If you’ve had a hobby for a long time you probably have some books on the subject. My dad is into wood working and as we were decluttering and preparing him for a move we went through stacks of woodworking books (and periodicals!) He acknowledged that with the exception of a couple of choice volumes he actually got a lot of his inspiration and how-to advice online. So we ended up decluttering most of the books and all of the periodicals.

Take a hard, honest look at what you have to support your hobby. Do you/will you use all of it or is some of it outdated? If you’re a knitter, yarn or patterns don’t lose their relevancy, but maybe some of your books have? Or you got some shiny new knitting needles that immediately relegated your old ones to the bottom of your knitting bag? Or maybe you got some yarn on sale years ago that you keep passing over when you start a new project? 

Your hobbies probably don’t need to take up as much space as they are currently if you shed the excess supplies that are no longer of material importance. Once you’ve done that it will be more pleasurable to engage with your hobbies because you will have the space to do so.

Making Space for the Hobbies That Matter

Now it’s time for the fun part of your hobby reset. I’m talking about creating an inviting space to store your hobbies. A space that makes it fun to pull them out and dig in. It’s less important what the space is (A closet? A cabinet? A studio? A workshop?) and more important that you are intentional about claiming the space exclusively for  your hobbies. This probably means you have some additional decluttering to do in the designated space.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. Maybe one of your hobbies is baking and cake-decorating. You may need to declutter some space in your kitchen to ensure that everything you need for cake-decorating fits comfortably. If it does, it won’t be a pain to pull out what you need and it will also be easy to put away when you’re done.

If you have a studio that houses several hobbies you could organize your space so that the hobby you’re currently into occupies the best real estate. Then as your interests ebb and flow you can rotate which hobby resides in the ‘hot spot.’
The bottom line is that hobbies can create clutter but if you do a hobby reset you’ll get clear on the ones that are important and then set that hobby up for current and future success. You can have lots of hobbies and be clutter free – they are not mutually exclusive! The key is to be intentional with your decisions, your time and your space. When you are, you’ll be setting yourself up for a midlife hobby renaissance!