I can’t help it, I’m obsessing about decluttering. Obsessing.
Will thinks I’m getting a bit extreme, but I think he’s just saying that because he knows that when I’m done with all of my stuff, I’m going to make him do his, and his materials-I’m-going-to-use-someday-for-some-undetermined-project collection will be substantially reduced.
I’m still working though decluttering as outlined in The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. The author, who calls her method the KonMari method, is my new idol and mentor, though I think I’d be terrified of her judging me if I ever met her in person.
I’m not following the exact order of purging, and I think I’m not doing it fast enough. Ideally, we’d do the whole house in just a couple of days. However, with Mellow and Wildling underfoot, I just don’t have the time or patience. Plus, I can’t declutter while they’re awake, since Wildling claims everything (Mama, what’s this? Can I have it? Oh, this is mine too. And this. And this.).
So far, I’ve done the clothing and books (as mentioned in my last post) and I am 99.9% done with papers. The ugly and very hated filing cabinet that has moved with us across the country and back is now empty and will be set outside for bulk pickup next week. Plus I’ve gone through my yarn stash and fabric stash and culled them. I have three large bags of yarn that I am never going to do anything with (mostly remnants from previous projects, some acrylic that my mother-in-law bought me, some other stuff I liked until I tried to work with it). I haven’t got that out of the house yet though, because in March my local yarn shop will buy it for $1/lb in store credit.
I’ve also purged giftbags/boxes. In our coat closet, the entire shelf was a repository of gift wrapping materials. I counted 45 gift bags. Believe me, we do not get invited nearly enough parties to justify that many gift bags. I save them when we recieve them and re-use them, but that’s at least a ten year supply, and I know we’ll get more (despite the ‘no gifts, please’ that I put on invitations). Now we have twelve gift bags and zero boxes.
One thing I’ve noticed as this progresses – it gets easier. I’m also finding myself going back and grabbing things that shouldn’t have survived the initial purge. For example, I had a very pretty grey dress that my mother bought me four years ago. I only wore it once – I didn’t like the neckline. While getting rid of nine garbage bags full of clothing, somehow I kept that dress. I somehow convinced myself that I would wear it. But keeping it nagged at me. I kept thinking about it and thinking about it and finally I realized that the reason it kept popping up in my head is because I should have discarded it. It doesn’t matter how pretty that dress was, I wasn’t going to wear it, and it did not belong with me. It’s now in the donation pile.
I am loving this process!
Mellow and the Wildling 