But instead I'm going to do a little brag blog.
I've been reading this book [The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up]..... I'd heard about it for a while, and wondered about it's "Magic".
So I put it on my list from the library, and started reading it last week.
It starts off slow... totally. A lot of, 'this is what I did when I was little', 'I'm a type A personality', 'I learned about this by doing this'.
But then it gets into a few different ideas on how to go about tidying your home.
Which I only somewhat care about. My mother always tried to keep our home tidy, and our 'stuffs' in our bedrooms, or hidden away in closets. And while I don't always keep my house this way, I am generally about 5 minutes away from feeling 100% fine with people coming over to visit [bedroom doors closed though ;)].
But the truth is, I have a lot of stuff.
Part of this reason is that I'm an art person. So I collect things that are pretty that might be able to be used in an art piece some day down the line.
Another part is because I hate being wasteful. I don't want to throw away a skirt with a hole in it if I can figure out a way to make it into a great shirt. Get me? I'm a collector.
The other part is that I'm a bit of a sentimentalist. I maybe have never worn this shirt, or grown out of it, or it has pit staines, but I can't throw it away because so-and-so gave it to me. Or it reminds me of my time in Europe, etc.
But she gave some good helpful hints. And talked a lot about joy. About how much joy the things around you bring. And as hippy-dippy as it sounded, I kind of really like approaching things this way.
So Sunday, I took about an hour and a half and went through all my clothes [this is what to start with first, since it holds the least amount of sentimentalities]. I purged 24 pieces out of my hanging stuff.... and then kept going. All the way through my socks and underwear. I held each piece, thought about if I loved it or not, and if it was useful or not, and how much joy it gave me. If it gave me joy, then I found a place in my drawers or closet for it. If not, I stacked it to give away, sell, good will.
Total I have purged 86 pieces out of my life... well, more or less out of my life... out of my desire to keep.
And my drawers have more room to close. And I can fit all my stuff in one closet instead of overflowing into the guest room closet. And weirdly enough, it actually gives me joy to have a somewhat empty bra/panty drawer.
Next up is books. Which I don't have a lot of anyway, and have recently purged [when moving last, we had like 3 boxes of books to give away]. So I'm confident that will go well.
She says a full house 'tidying' takes about 6 months.
I have a basement full of stuff, so I'm sure I'll need those 6 months to get through things and really tidy up.
And who knows if this will be one of those things I start and don't finish... but it feels pretty good for a start, so we'll see how far along I get!
-mrp-
2 comments:
Good work! I have not read the book but have heard a lot about it here and there. The joy question is helpful and I've also asked myself, would I buy this in a store today? Usually the answer is no and it is good to admit that my style/standards have changed. Where are you going to sell? I have a pile accumulating to try to send to Thred Up, but not sure I have enough good brands to make much money.
Thanks :).There's The Toggery in town, I think some of the clothes might be able to be sold there. Other than that, I don't really care what happens to the rest, so I'll probably just GW them [or maybe I'll look into non-profits in the area that might be in need?]. I've never done the Thred Up. Do you know anyone that's done it before?
Post a Comment