It Didn't Change My Life, But It Does Spark Joy

I confess, I haven't been writing lately. I've got a book over half done, but it doesn't "spark joy" at the moment.

So, what have I been doing? Well, I spent weeks "Kondo'ing" my house.

My Kondo'd T-shirts

Are you familiar with Kondo'ing? The verb arose after Marie Kondo's book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up became a big NY Times bestseller. Well, it didn't change my life, but my house is definitely neater, we got rid of a TON of crap, and the book definitely makes you think about things in your life that "spark joy."

I got the book more than a year ago, but was overwhelmed when I started reading because she suggests tidying your whole house in one go. (What??) I couldn't understand how that could possibly be done. But when I picked up the book again in December, I found one tiny mention of the process generally taking about 6 months. (Oh! Okay, now I get it.)

Since I don't have a 9-5 job, and I'm taking a break from my writing, I actually managed to get through the entire house in about 7 weeks. (Although we haven't touched the garage yet...) That includes everything from clothes, to paperwork, to food/kitchen stuff, to photos.

I didn't follow all her rules to the letter, but I roughly followed biggies which are basically:

1. Only keep things that spark joy: This rule really helped me get rid of a lot of things that I was keeping primarily out of guilt (e.g. old gifts, or clothes I'd bought cuz they were a great deal, but then never wore, etc.). However, I find this rule impossible to follow for everything. I mean, spatulas, spare batteries, and cough medicine don't spark joy for me, but you need to have that s**t handy.

2. Go through everything in the order laid out in the book: She has a specific order for tackling your copious amounts of stuff. (Start with your clothes; the last item is photos.) This was helpful since I made a big list and went through, Kondoing each type of item one by one. So satisfying and addicting! I hardly wanted to do anything the last 2 months other than stay home and throw stuff out!

I wish I'd taken photos of everything we got rid of. There were many huge garbage bags, tons of recycling, and two massive piles of stuff that we donated.

Kondo also suggests having everything where you can see it. For example, in the pic above of my t-shirts, I now have them "standing" on end so I can see everything when I open the drawer. Her reasoning behind this is that then you end up surrounded by things that bring you joy. I found this to really work great - I can see all my clothes in one glance, no more digging to the bottom of the drawer to find a certain shirt, my clothes aren't as wrinkly anymore, and I love the rainbow effect when I open the drawer. Since I did my clothes first, it's been almost 2 months now that they've been tidied, and I've had no problem maintaining things this way.

I even Kondo'd Rita's toys. As you can see, she wanted to "help." (I recommend doing this while the dog is NOT present. I had to throw out the way-too-beat-up ones when she wasn't looking!)

Rita attempts to help Kondo her toys

One other bonus was that the tidying made me get to some projects I'd had stuffed in drawers for ages. Like... I'd been keeping cute dog cards I received over the years, thinking "some day" I'd do something with them. Well, I finally went and bought this cute photo hanger and put up some of my faves.

I also have a selection of B&W cards that I love, so I can switch them out with the color ones every once in a while for a change.

I must say, there's some nutty stuff in the book (this gal is REALLY serious about her tidying, as you can imagine) but, overall I found it very helpful.

If you're looking to tidy up your house, I'd definitely recommend checking out the book. Even if you don't follow every single bit of her advice, it's easy to make her recommendations work for you. And you might spark some joy!

Speaking of Joy...
Our blogging buddy, Flea (aka "The Good Flea), from the Jones Natural Chews blog has cancer. Which sucks. But she's facing it with her usual humor and strength. She's also selling leather bracelets via Etsy to raise money to help with the bills. There are various words you can get. I got mine - it says JOY on it.

Perfect, right? I have it sitting on my desk so it can bring me joy even when I'm not wearing it.

Please send good thoughts and prayers to our friend Flea!

Thanks to BlogPaws for hosting Wordless Wednesday! Thank you for letting me be wordy! You can check out all the blogs in the hop here.