I Got Kondo'd - Steps 1 - 3

** I was working on these posts about decluttering my home before my life went off the rails last week and we lost the beloved leader of our organization. I thought they would be a nice distraction to work on today. They were! A weekend of supreme relaxation, spending time in nature and getting a little caught up on life was just what the doc ordered.

I subscribe to an audiobook service called Scribd which ends up giving me more to read and listen to than I can keep up with. I think I read about a book every 10 days last year!! Audiobooks are great as I can devour them while on the road or on dogwalks. The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo was one of the most interesting listens of 2017 and I couldn't help it.. I got totally inspired to declutter my life.

Her book takes you through five steps of decluttering, from easiest to toughest. You start with your clothes. I thought I wasn't someone with a lot of clothes. I was wrong.

I had a disgusting amount of clothes! I could have lived for 6 weeks without doing laundry!! What sort of apocalypse was I preparing for? Enough! Marie wants you to hold each item (EVERY ITEM IN YOUR HOUSE, FOLKS) and ask yourself: "does this bring me joy?". With clothes, I found the answers were SUPER easy! Turns out I hated a ton of my clothes! Turns out just because something fits, doesn't mean it's a good look for you, the fabric feels nice or the colour makes you happy. Adios dark pink plaid shirt! See ya later blazer that was never and never will be my style! No more, socks with hole!!!! Anywho.. this process, while destroying an entire Saturday, was absolutely worth it.

T-shirt drawer of joy

This drawer used to hold only 6 items of clothing! Look at it now!

I got really efficient with my space, moving into the second, smaller bedroom closet (ugh that sentence drips with privilege...... I am very aware) and learning how to fold so that my dresser could hold more than I ever thought it could! Marie's folding method takes a bit more time because I can't fold shirts in the air in 0.8 seconds anymore, but it makes packing for trips a breeze and constantly reminds me what clothes I have so I don't forget to wear any of these items, carefully retained for the joy they bring me :)

Up next was books. Beyond the 8th grade, I stopped hoarding books like a crazy mini librarian, realizing that they are always available to be borrowed, or from a library. After a few moves, I was down to just four shelves of books in my bookcase. But books were actually everywhere - cookbooks in the junk drawer in the kitchen, books I was "intending" to read "someday" in my night table, books in that random basket of random stuff under the end table in the living room. So I donated 6 boxes of books to Goodwill, and selected a few of my favourite authors for the neighbourhood borrowing box, hoping I'd "spark joy" in someone else when they read Marian Keyes for the first time. I retained only books I thought I'd use again (travel or nature reference), or ones that I've already read at least 2-3x and am not even close to being sick of. As I said, I'm fielding 4 books a month on Scribd, so I have enough electronic books to keep me busy for life, and a great public library for when I finally have to kick the ebook habit ;)

The best books! From a bird reference guide, to Emily Giffin, these all bring me such joy!

 

This used to be stuffed! I wish I was better at before pics. Jeff is going to build a new, smaller bookcase for this space!

'Books' was done, and I was feeling go-ood. I could do this!! Up next. Papers. So, files, receipts, instruction manuals - picture everything paper and figure out what's got to go. Marie recommended ONE file with pertinent warranties and receipts. She's a maniac. But guess what - I did ok! All the paper in my house now lives in my filing cabinet and I used to have trouble getting stuff into and out of it because it was so full. Three recycling bags later and voila.

I was pretty exhausted at this point, it had been at least a full weekend (Sat/Sun) and another weeknight or two (I have lost track at this point), but up next was komono, also known as "miscellany", also known as the bane of my existence. The motivation was certainly there. So prior to, and during our extensive home reno over the holidays, I went to town on komono, phase 4.

Tune in to my second post on this. Even writing it as one post was too overwhelming for me!