A clutter-free home

Professional organizers are everywhere. They'll help you sort and streamline, as well as organize what you choose to keep. I hear that it is doubly helpful to have a professional organizer who is also a designer, because they can add that extra polish to the experience. Chances are, neither an organizer nor a designer will replace a regular cleaning service, but used in conjunction you might find a good balance.

Speaking of cleaning... My dad would always hire a company to come in and deep-clean his rental between tenants, but was always dissatisfied with their work and would go through and do more. I'm honestly not impressed with the cleaning services I have encountered, and feel better with my own work. Finding time to clean is a necessity for me: I find the task of cleaning relaxing. It is especially wonderful to clean with a few other people, too. Over the years I have developed habits of cleaning that make the overall task of keeping a home clean painless. I just wish I had similar habits and checks in place to deal with clutter.

This weekend Tt and I did a lot of work to make our place feel more orderly. We made a list and stuck to it: felt satisfied as we checked things off the list. We added a few fun things, too, like calling friends (me) and getting drunk (him). We completely emptied out a walk-in-closet, deep-cleaned the kitchen, and a bunch of other little things. A few steps closer to our goal of a clutter-free home. It feels good.

 

I've been reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo. @Baraka_Guru might find it an interesting read, just for the strong Buddhist undertones. The takeaway: if something does not bring you joy, thank it for its service, and let it go. Kondo applies this to a variety of things, the foremost being clutter. There are steps to follow laid out in the book. Kondo insists that it is important to organize by category, instead of by room (and she is absolutely right on this score). Therefore, one should start first with their clothing, then their books, papers, komono (miscellaneous stuff), and finally, the sentimental items. Kondo attests that this order is essential because it is easy for us to rid ourselves of clothing, since clothing is easily replaceable. I did a clothing purge today following her advice, and I've got a large Rubbermaid tub ready to head out the door after pulling everything out of my closet, laying it on my bed, and looking at it closely. Some decisions were very quick. Reading her book helped me realize that using it "sometime" is probably never.

While I was at it, I skipped ahead and got into eliminating some of the komono related to the medicine cabinet, as I have this three-drawer set that I've been using to store health and beauty stuff that I never use.

To accomplish that task, I dumped everything from under the bathroom sink, from part of the medicine cabinet that hadn't been cleaned yet, and our bathroom drawers on to the floor. I was astounded by how much stuff was expired (even after two moves in which I did purge a fair bit), and how much stuff was in the wrong place and needed to go somewhere else.

Now it is time to put everything away and put the apartment back into its usual state (reasonably clean).

 

We decluttered a lot in preparation for our move. Yet here I am, unpacking boxes and finding things to throw away. Mainly in the boxes that Tt packed last-minute in his frantic moving haze. Things like bottles of hand sanitizer that are 90% empty. There was a point in our packing when I had everything put away in boxes except things I intended to jettison if incompletely used. Because he was the last one in the house, and not exactly thinking clearly, he crammed these little treasures in existing boxes (some of which had been carefully packed, inventoried, and sealed up by myself) and added them to our shipping container.

He looks at this stuff now and wonders why he packed trash. At least he's not insisting we cling to them now.

Our new home feels clutter free so far. Finding places for everything has been fun. We have very little furniture for this space and no intention of filling it. I would like some bookshelves, but that's not going to happen for a few years, thanks to safety concerns regarding our persistent little climber.

 

I am surprised right now--all of my t-shirts easily fit into a small three-drawer cart.

The only mishap today is discovering that some shoes, shoved in a box, have started to grow mold. Unfortunately, these include some shoes I wear frequently in the summer, as well as my husband's nice leather dress shoes.

 

Oh, that is so terrible about the moldy shoes!

 

It's part of living in the PacNW. All that moisture isn't just in the form of rain.

 

For the record, I put this book on hold at the library.

I'm position 561 of 561 on 58 copies.

 

I got tired of waiting, so I found an electronic copy.

It really is worth reading, though. I had a magic moment with my socks yesterday. Kondo has a very specific way to put away one's socks--rolled neatly, then stowed in a shoe box to hold all the rolls tightly (think maki sushi made with socks). When I first read the passage on socks, I thought, man, that sounds so tedious. Yet when I actually did it with the socks I love, I couldn't help but feel warm-hearted about the entire thing, and I grasped Kondo's point completely: caring for the things that bring you joy is never a chore.

 

I could probably get an electronic copy sooner, but I tend to prefer print copies of non-fiction.

 

It's a fairly short book, so I personally didn't find it necessary to read in a paper copy. I read it over the course of a couple of days while at the gym.

Later on in the book, Kondo reveals that she was a miko for several years, which really seemed like no surprise at that point. She engages in a steady practice of anthropomorphizing things, through which one can establish a relationship of joy and care with their possessions, which really is just an outgrowth of Shinto belief in the kami. She also writes about developing one's own personal shrine, which needn't be a religious thing, but should rather focus on the objects that give you power and make you happy. So far, my personal shrine consists of a chibi Hatake Kakashi figure, since he's the sensei I want to be (without the emo backstory).

In writing about developing a relationship with one's possessions, she discusses having conversations with inanimate objects, as she insists that things will tell you where they want to go in your home, and it isn't always about ease of use or access. Considering that things have a home they go to helped me get through my daily tidying yesterday with great ease.

 

Our hold list must be lengthy, as the library website has a banner announcing, "While you wait for the Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, consider these other books..." I was using the library's computer and wasn't logged in, so I went to check my position. I'm #47 and there are 15 copies. It'll be summer before I get the physical copy.

 

I'm now 533 of 628. I'm glad I got on this bandwagon when I did. (The library has 60 more copies on order.)