[2022-08-05] Tidying up
For the past four months, I've been organizing my home, little by little. In April, my ambitions were modest, as I was still recovering from radiation therapy. I kept my goals deliberately small: cleaning and organizing one shelf in my kitchen, adding one recipe to my recipe file, completing my immunization record and printing it to take to my doctor's appointment.
As the weeks went by and I became stronger, I attempted more complex projects: creating a chores list with recurring reminders in my calendar, organizing and cleaning a closet in my basement, discarding old linens. To date, I've decluttered, tidied and cleaned about two-thirds of my house.
The time has never been better for me to organize my home. In the last year, my son moved out, which freed up space; I retired, which freed up time; and I finished treatment for two cancers, which freed up energy. With more space, time and energy, I have been well placed to figure out what I have, what I need, and how best to manage what I've decided to keep.
A few years ago, I started reading Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. I didn't get far in the book. I just couldn't wrap my mind around the possibility that tidying could transform my life.
But since starting my own journey toward less stuff and better management of what remains, I have experienced first-hand that very magic of which Marie wrote. A few weeks ago, I started watching Tidying Up with Marie Kondo on Netflix. I was captivated by her simplicity, humility and calmness. Unlike other programs that focus on fancy storage solutions, Marie concentrates on decluttering and ridding oneself of possessions that no longer spark joy or serve one's needs. The storage solution—which can be as simple as a shoe box—is infinitely less important than the process of discarding what's no longer needed and tidying up what is.
Today, I tackled the clothes in my closet. I found it easy to let go of at least half the items I used to wear to the office since I won't need many such items in the future. I kept two pantsuits (one winter, one summer) and my favourite pants, jackets, blouses and sweaters. I probably still have more items than I will ever need for those rare occasions when formal dress is required, but I think I lived up to Marie's guidance: "The best way to choose what to keep and what to throw away is to take each item in one’s hand and ask: 'Does this spark joy?' If it does, keep it. If not, dispose of it."
As I went through each article of clothing—trying it on if needed to be sure it fit (neither too small nor too big)—I assigned it to one of three categories: keep, maybe and donate. Once I had gone through everything in my closet, I could look at the items in the keep category—everything I had returned to the closet—I could better assess my maybe pile. Having found joy with five dress pants, I wasn't likely to need four more that were nice but not joy-inducing, so to the donate pile they went. It was actually quite easy to dispense with the items that had been on the bubble once I could see what I had already decided to keep. My daughter was also helpful in nudging me towards keeping fewer things, not more. "If it isn't serving you, Mom, it's just stuff," she said.
That reminded me of Marie's statement: "The space in which we live should be for the person we are becoming now, not for the person we were in the past." Many of the items I have chosen to give away fit Career Jen but are no longer needed by Retired Jen. I'm happier in shorts and a t-shirt or jeans and a yoga jacket than I ever was in dress pants and a blazer.
I now have two laundry baskets full of clothes and a tonne of empty hangers, enough to last me the rest of my lifetime.
Tonight, I downloaded The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up from the Ottawa Public Library. I love this quote:
When you come across something that you cannot part with, think carefully about its true purpose in your life. You’ll be surprised at how many of the things you possess have already fulfilled their role. By acknowledging their contribution and letting them go with gratitude, you will be able to truly put the things you own, and your life, in order. In the end, all that will remain are the things that you really treasure. To truly cherish the things that are important to you, you must first discard those that have outlived their purpose.
I expect my experience with the book to be very different from what it was the first time I picked it up. And I'll likely eliminate even more things in the months ahead. In the meantime, I'm finding a place for everything I've chosen to keep and putting everything in its place.
