Finding Joy... Clutter and Closure

It started the first day of first grade. I remember coming home and showing my parents the worksheets I had done at school. Then I threw them in the trash can. My dad immediately said, "No, no, you can't throw those away. You need to keep them for review." ...and so it started. I became an organized packrat, filing away everything for further review, keeping things in case I'd need or want them again...

I think lots of runners get the taper crazies. That restlessness you get when you're sitting around waiting for your big race and cutting down the mileage. I never really got restless until I cut the miles for Napa; then, I think I got more anxious then restless. In any case, I got a touch of the taper crazies...and then it kinda stuck because I didn't BQ and decided to train all over again.

In the weeks preceding Napa I found some "other interests" - I stumbled across Darla DeMorrow's website at HeartWork Organizing. I think I was looking for some kind of inner peace. One thing led to another and I was on this website and then I heard about this book "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing" by Marie Kondo. I bought it on a whim, then read it cover to cover.

WHAT I GOT OUT OF IT...
It's all the clutter in our lives that hold us down. We hang onto our past so much it's hard to make room for the future. Sometimes we're drowning in so much stuff, physically and literally, that it feels like a daily struggle just to our heads above water. It's hard to find peace when we're surrounded by chaos.

Kondo's book pointed out that once you physically declutter, you can see what's really important and you have time to do the things you WANT to do because you're not constantly wasting your time picking up and maintaining what's not important. Her book is different that the traditional here's-how-to-keep-your-house-clean types of books because she wants you to do a drastic clean up ONCE and be done. Don't organize and store but get RID of all that doesn't matter. There's a lot of emotional baggage in a lot of physical things. When you declutter you clear your mind too and along with clearance comes peace.

The reality is, I don't have time to do a massive all at once house cleaning. However, I had another restless 8 weeks after Napa training for the Derby Marathon and I still felt crazy... and so I decluttered. I wanted the tidiness that Kondo talked about.

So here's my progress... I got rid of 10 years of dance competition costumes. Thousands of dollars of costumes (no joke). My older daughter stopped dancing two years ago and has no intention of doing it again. My younger daughter still dances but no longer competes. I still have the photos and the programs. Hanging, I had over a whole closet of costumes that my kids would never wear again. At this point in my life it's too much trouble to try and resell them (each costume was about $100). I donated them all back to my former studio. Hopefully someone can reuse a competition costume. Dance competition chapter closed.

 

 

I got rid of everything I had left over from my kids' Girl Scout days. I used to be a troop leader. My older daughter was in scouting from kindergarten to 6th grade. All the kids lost interest and didn't have time after 6th grade so we disbanded. Being the leader, I was left with all the troop supplies. You accumulate a lot of supplies in 7 years. Tons and tons of craft items. Handbooks. Extra insignia. I love crafts too so I had quite the extra stash of stuff myself. Everything that I had no current use for, I decided to donate. I posted a message on our Girl Scout Service Unit's group message board (since I never got taken off the leader list) and I had 4 responses in 10 minutes. The woman that answered first (in 2 minutes!) got it all. I ended up filling the entire back of my SUV with 3 large boxes and 4 grocery bags of stuff. It was good to see it go. Girl Scout chapter closed.

Kondo actually lists an order of how to get rid of things. Personal clothing is first. This I had no problem with. I've really never been a clothing person anyway. I did learn that if you folded and stacked your clothes vertically in your drawers stuff wouldn't get "lost" at the bottom of the clothing stack and you could see everything all at once. Lovely idea... and truth was, all the stuff that was lost at the bottom was stuff I never wore. Bye bye...

 

Last on Kondo's list is memorabilia. This is where I'm at now. The point to decluttering though is that you are left with what is really important. You discover what you really love to do. Me, I'm catching up on my scrapbooking these days. I actually got all my Spring Break photos scapbooked last week!

Next up will be working on some UFOs (Unfinished Objects) - to finish or trash will be the question. Kondo's advice is to ask yourself "Does this bring joy?"

Get rid of the things that don't bring joy. Off to find more joy!