Hi there! If you are active on Pinterest or other blogs, you may have heard of Marie Kondo’s book: ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up’. I recently borrowed a copy from our public library (after waiting on-hold for over six months!), and read it over a weekend to see just how life changing it would be for me!
It’s a lovely book to read, and I really enjoyed her stories and reading about the Konmari method. But I don’t think it’s really for me right now. I’m not saying I don’t need to do some decluttering, it’s just that I don’t know if it suits my current life season and situation. Here are some of my thoughts about it:
- According to the book, step one is to start by decluttering your clothes – gathering them all into one place and doing it in one go. My step one needs to be decluttering the obvious – for example, yesterday I discarded three boxes of old ‘art projects’ that had been sitting in my laundry for… a long while. I think that I need to start by simply getting rid of things that have moved on from ‘useful’ into ‘no longer needed’ or even ‘garbage’.
- Okay, back to the clothing. I am simply too scared to even start thinking about this, because the criteria for keeping or discarding clothing (and every object, in fact!), is: ‘Does it spark joy?’ I am worried that when I ask this question of my wardrobe, I’ll have about six things left to wear! I think it makes sense to go through and keep the things that really do make you feel and look great, but I am worried that my ‘joyless’ clothing is the functional stuff that actually makes up most of my mum-wardrobe. At least I can be more intentional about what I buy to make sure that it is both functional and joy-giving.
- Kondo writes that as you discard objects, you’ll find that your house has a point where things just ‘click’. I am afraid that the thing that clicks most in my house is Lego bricks, and they are taking over. Every day I clear them off the kitchen table, the couch, the floor, my bed, the kids’ beds, my work desk, the kitchen bench. At least I know that it sparks joy for some people in my household.
- There are lots and lots of projects going on in this house. I know we don’t need to keep all the papers, but my husband and I both volunteer on various boards and teams and we accumulate papers and notes from those meetings. It’s not that they are out of control (most of the time), but they do need to be stored somehow (or do they… hmm.)
- Not everything that is useful sparks joy. I don’t know about you, but there are very few cleaning products that spark joy for me. And the pile of old towels in the linen cupboard that are useful for cleaning up spills don’t usually fill me with joy. I am thankful for them, yes. But not all that joyful.
I think one of the things that scares me most is hearing that people are getting rid of one-half to three-quarters of their belongings. I know I am not ready for that level of commitment. I’ve no worries with getting rid of things that I don’t need or no longer like, but it’s going to be a while (and a lot of weekends clearing out the garage) before I reach the level of ‘true believer’.
My big takeaway from the book is the aspect of being thankful for what we have and the role it plays in helping us to create a home and life we love. And that decluttering for me is going to be a journey, not a once-off process of removing items from my home. And that my fabric and book collections really do spark joy, so it seems I get to keep them! 🙂
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