Tidying Up

Say it Rah-shay By Jan 08, 2019 No Comments

I am taking a few days off between ending my old job and starting my new one under the guise of getting my house in order and knowing that I will not have scheduled time off for a while because I’ll be low woman on the totem poll. In reality I have been watching a lot TV (my gosh do I love Brooklyn Nine-Nine) and fooling around on social media. It was on social media that I saw tweets about the new Netflix Show “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo.”

Home organization shows fascinate me. I was a huge fan of Clean House with Niecy Nash. The show would feature a hot mess person who was called out by a relative. They are then visited by Niecy and her crew who would help organize, design and rebuild a living space AFTER the clutter was cleared and sold at a garage sale. There would always be some drama, the person would resist parting with some item and there would be tears until a big reveal shows a bangin’ house.

The other show which I like to watch is Hoarders. In this show the person’s clutter is due to keeping everything. There is almost always a dire emergency: the city/township they live in are threatening to evict the person/condemn the house due to it’s condition. This show is more frustrating. The people live in a collection of clutter that most would consider trash: feces covered objects, rodents and dead cats abound. But to the hoarder, each object is of importance.

In my home we have the clutter and while it’s frustrating, because it is not the condemned house version of messiness I tend to overlook it. However, having stuff everywhere IS making me feel like I am not living my best life so I have been started watching Marie Kondo’s Netflix series and have been thinking of revisiting Marie’sThe Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing“> books to learn more about her tidying method, KonMari and how to “Spark Joy.”

The KonMari method is Marie Kondo’s process for organizing. Marie’s philosophy encourages tidying up by category and not location. So instead of cleaning the kitchen, then the dining room, then the living room and so forth, one should gather like objects to declutter.

The key aspect of the approach is identifying which items that “spark joy” in an individual. If an item does not “spark joy” then it can be discarded.

We watched a couple of episodes and have been inspired. We want our home to be joyful but it is not. When we bought our house we envisioned family and friends visiting but the idea of having friends over makes me so anxious that I literally got sick before our last get-together. I think if I can find a balance – tidied house that still feels cozy – I can make the dreams of entertaining come to be.

I have not really set resolutions for 2019 (yes, yes…I set them and love it) but have resolved that 2019 is the year that I clear the clutter, open my home for friend and family and live my best life.

I started with my knitting and today was able to find a few patterns that I had been looking for and some donations for my knit group. It’s slow going and seems impossible but knowing that the reward will be the home and life I have imagined makes this all doable.

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I am mom, daughter, sister, yarn lover, word lover, crazy cat lady and library chick. Find me with book or with hook and a hot cuppa.

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