tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88066386917966306222024-03-19T04:11:53.819-07:00Snore StormKaceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08892876625120188529noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8806638691796630622.post-23024453323147455752015-05-28T07:48:00.000-07:002015-05-28T07:48:34.865-07:00Values and House Dreams<div class="p1">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have imagined the house and yard that I want for a very long time. When I was 12, my best friend loved fashion and wedding magazines, and she would spend hours poring over the pictures to plan her dream wedding. I preferred to read books about architecture and landscaping, watching This Old House and The Victory Garden on PBS with my parents on the weekends (back in the days of single TV homes and no internet or cable, unimaginable to many people now). I learned about woodworking and gardening, how to transplant trees and replace old plumbing, and that plants and animals require different care as the seasons change. I grew up in a rural area, where we were far more connected to nature. We had the beach right down the street, where people fished, shrimped, put out crab traps. Our grandfather went hunting every year, bringing home venison that lasted for months. Most of the other kids participated in 4H, the local agricultural club, by raising a pig, lamb, or rabbits for show awards at the rodeo and eventual slaughter and meals for the family. The life cycle from which so many urban dwellers are severed was actively playing out all around us, and it felt vital and necessary.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But I didn’t just want a slice of nature like the rural community around me, I wanted it to be beautiful. I wanted the open, brightly lit rooms that I saw in Martha Stewart Living magazines to be in my future house. I wanted the neatly landscaped gardens that were toured on The Victory Garden, the gracefully aging hosts traveling the world for the love of plants. I spent a lot of time thinking about it, when I wasn’t imagining myself living in Hobbiton. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I may have somewhat lost sight of that early passion as I grew into adulthood, because I got caught in the business of being adult. But those old memories came back to me yesterday, when I asked myself one question: <i>“What are my values?”</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As we started house hunting recently, we thought at first that our priorities were all about space. We wanted the biggest house that we could afford, and we wanted it to be in great shape. Yesterday, as we were considering putting in an offer on a house in a newer development down the street, we circled back around to a discussion of how we actually <i>want</i> to live versus the kind of life certain houses<i> require</i>. Because beyond all the practical things that a house determines, like how many people can comfortably live there or how much stuff we can store, I realized that the design and layout of a house and its yard to some degree determine the kind of life you can live.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let's look at the life in a new development home:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We will have an HOA already deciding how our yard needs to look, where we can park, whether we can have animals in the backyard (no chicken coop), even if we can hang up a damn clothesline! I imagine some woman trying to look upper class saying, "we want to be environmentally <i>friendly</i>." <i>Friendly</i> means buying organic dryer sheets, a meaningless label on an unnecessary product, not eliminating the need for</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> one of the most energy demanding appliances in the home. We're not<i> peasants</i>.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We will have no trees, or they will be either very small or slow growing oaks. Usually both. There are lots of beautiful trees that don’t require 20 years to look nice, y’all! They even bloom sometimes and offer actual privacy from your neighbors that are only 10-20 feet away.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our neighbors would be very close to us, whether we like them or not. Especially in our price range, the lots in new development neighborhoods tend to be small.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And the competition is fierce to get these homes! Every house we’ve looked at has multiple offers, with individuals elbowing their way to the top for overvalued prices on builder grade materials, houses with no personality, and backyards suffering from far too much sun exposure. No trees, no landscaping! Why even buy a house if you never go outside?</span></li>
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Then we look just a bit farther out, and we find older construction homes in need of updating, but they have a variety of beautiful, mature trees and large backyards. They have actual porches! There’s no light pollution or incredibly close neighbors. There are farms next door, cows in neighboring pastures, historic town squares, and traditional Texas BBQ down the street. That feels like home to me.</span><br /><div class="p2">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most importantly, there’s nobody who gives a shit about whether I build a chicken coop, fill the front yard with vegetables, hang my clothes up on a line, or install gutters with a water reclamation system or solar panels. I could landscape with local drought-resistant wildflowers and plants, separate beds with recycled glass or stone, eventually lose the lawn and live without a mower. We would just have to drive a little bit further.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I sat on our back porch last night and listened to the city. In the neighborhood we’re living in currently, sirens are constantly going by, neighbors barbecue 3 or 4 nights a week, and children play unattended without anyone even thinking about calling the cops to report it (all children are “free range” children). Noise is constant. This kind of community won't last. Gentrification is coming, but it’s not yet there. We see it encroaching, less well off families losing their homes to foreclosure in the face of a rising tide of property taxes and living costs. Soon the neighborhood will consist of the older people who are barely hanging on, and young professionals buying overpriced, remodeled homes that will likely have the same fatal foundation problems our rental does. I thought about all of that, and listened.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And then I thought, <i>if we bought just a bit further out in the country, all I would hear right now is the wind in the fields.</i></span></div>
Kaceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08892876625120188529noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8806638691796630622.post-56072368293893754682015-05-27T07:16:00.000-07:002015-05-27T08:06:52.528-07:00Stopping to Pet the Bunnies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tidying came to a full stop last week due to an unexpected houseguest and impromptu trip to visit my hometown. It was good to get down to the coast, thankfully during a break in the insane weather that we've had here in Texas the last couple of weeks, but I'll be glad to get back into the swing of things this week! In between catch up cleaning and house hunting, I'm planning to begin tackling that long list of <i>komono </i>that Kondo recommends next.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the meantime, it was really cool to get down to see my mother's mini-farm! She's an enterprising woman, and spends her free time building up the backyard. This last year she added a greenhouse and rabbit hutch to the goats, chickens, fruit trees, and raised garden beds she already had in place.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was stalked around the yard by Simba, a neighbor's kitten that defected to our property when he realized it was way more interesting to hang with the other animals.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mom has a litter of kits (baby bunnies for those who don't feel like Googling), which are not too keen on being held, but I persisted anyway!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The hens taking a tour of the yard, scratching up bugs as they go.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All the goats wanted to have their pictures taken! They love being petted and walked up to greet me. The kids also wanted to try eating my fingers and clothes, but lost interest when I wouldn't go along with that idea.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fruit trees! Mom just planted these a couple years ago, but they're doing great. Lots of peaches and nectaplums to fight over with the squirrels. Squirrels are cute, but they can be wasteful pests when you have fruit trees. They like to take random bites out of the fruit, so it's ruined before it even ripens, but don't eat the whole thing. Thanks a lot, fluffy jerks!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I love seeing what's going on with my mom's latest agricultural pursuits because it's inspiring for the dreams I have in owning my future home. We're shopping around now for a great property, and I fully plan to put in as many raised beds as possible and have a couple of chickens. They're so easy to take care of, and the eggs are unbeatable! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fun fact, because I've blown a few city born individual's minds with this, </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">roosters are not required for chickens to lay eggs</i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. The eggs you buy at the store are unfertilized; eggs are essentially chicken periods that they lay about everyday, depending on environment and feed, regardless of whether fertilization occurs. This is good news, because roosters are often territorial assholes, and they make way too much noise. Chickens were bred over human history to provide easy, reliable sustenance for us, so all you need is a little feed, some water, and shelter from their many predators and you're golden! Golden yolk puns come to mind, but </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I resist</i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Topped everything off with a bucket of locally farmed crawfish that were </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a-m-a-z-i-n-g</i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. Probably the last I'll get this year, so I savored them!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'll be back soon with more KonMari style tidying!</span></div>
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Kaceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08892876625120188529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8806638691796630622.post-3668093576747364372015-05-17T09:23:00.000-07:002015-05-27T07:50:55.521-07:00KonMari Method Third Step - Papers!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've mentioned before how much time I've spent considering this process of sorting and discarding belongings, and during that time I thought a lot about how great it would feel to get rid of all of the stuff that I felt was kind of a spiritual burden. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After many years of struggling with depression, I had been caught in the same basic cycle:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Get depressed and fall behind on the house work.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">See the clutter piling up and feel more depressed.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally have a day when I feel mentally well enough to clean and make progress for a few hours or a few days.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Feel overwhelmed by the task and fall behind again.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This was only compounded if there were other challenges, like stress at work or large changes in my personal life and the anxiety that comes with that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The cool thing about the KonMari method so far is that it is so structured that I can't go wrong. I didn't feel overwhelmed because Kondo is essentially as neurotic as I need her to be in guiding the process, detailing exactly how I should go about it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And the first two categories are fun to go through! It feels great to say goodbye to clothes I've never worn, but felt a weird obligation to. It feels good to let those books go, essentially dreams I've never embraced, and move on to new focus.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But then we get to the 3rd category: <b>Papers</b>. Which don't include sentimental writings, like letters or personal journals, but bills, warranties, contracts, statements, etc.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Y'all, there is <i>nothing</i> fun or exciting in my experience about sorting through papers. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is drudgery, plain and simple. Papers are something I try to sort through about once a year anyway; throwing out old bills and random printouts, and trying to file necessary records. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But as I found out during the process this week, there was a lot more to be parted with!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Truthfully, I started the process </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">on Monday evening last week</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> by collecting all the papers in the living room and grabbing a box to sort the discards into, but quickly ran out of steam. Thanks to my mom for texting me Saturday morning while I was sitting on the couch staring at those boxes, asking, "What are you cleaning today?" That got me off my ass and back to work!</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Papers to sort.</span> </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Papers done sorted!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had so much to get rid of! Everything from pay stubs from <i>6 years ago</i> to pay stubs that belonged to ex's. Bills that had been paid years ago. Statements for credit cards and accounts that don't exist anymore. Privacy policies and warranties for devices I no longer own. Random print outs of articles that I intended to... Paste in a memory book? I have no idea.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I created two smaller piles: Papers to deal with right away, and papers to keep.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Always fun to find bills you missed because you didn't already have a system this simple!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Along the way, I began to think that this is the drudgery of adulthood that most of us would rather avoid, and so we allow the papers to accumulate into drifts that obscure the responsibilities we're ignoring. Then you find an old toll bill you missed that has $15 worth of late fees, and realize your car's registration expired two months ago, and think, <i>yeah, I could be doing better</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This system is so simple, it will definitely be better! Kondo recommends getting rid of basically everything because in her perspective, "...they will never inspire joy, no matter how carefully you keep them." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">According to Kondo, the only thing we need to keep are papers that are:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Currently in use.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Needed for a limited period of time.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Must be kept indefinitely.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That leaves out a lot of papers that most of us hold onto for no reason, especially since the majority of these papers are redundant. We can obtain copies easily on the internet. This last week I was so frustrated with the number of papers I had piled up that I went through my accounts turning off paper statements. I've had personal bank accounts and credit cards for over a decade now, and I have not once needed those statements. Not one time. I've never needed the warranty paperwork for a device. The only time I've needed pay stubs was for rental or loan application purposes, and then you only need the two most recent stubs. It was time to stop hanging on to that stuff. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I figure that if it wouldn't matter to the IRS, then it doesn't matter to me!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The old way.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My old filing system was just as complicated and unhelpful as most people's. It was subdivided into a couple dozen categories, when I only really needed two: Tax records and everything else. I recycled the folders along with the majority of the papers in them.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It won't take me long to find my important files in the future!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What I was left with was a small, manageable stack of tax documents, only one manual (my complicated washing machine), one copy of each major bill for the purpose of having the account number easily on hand, a copy of our lease, a copy of our insurance provider agreements, and some miscellaneous records (my dog's vet records, medical records, voter's registration, etc.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even with the complex filing system I used in the past, when I felt mentally well enough to keep up with it, it still required a significant amount of time to sort through everything. It takes about five minutes to survey everything I have left now. I can get rid of that giant, ugly file box and find a smaller, attractive one now!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_I6oQR-h2bDITm_kBc-u2alwnfTjVhx2UjqBHqtxFIUuLYqW28m5yIaf0f0JyCh6K4YASokr6ngaBLLZgIFjRdU5TLW8BqummXPTdHPjizUPX1SkHadIEDKKIclGLYFjgz1OC_VVoaqYp/s1600/IMG_3031.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_I6oQR-h2bDITm_kBc-u2alwnfTjVhx2UjqBHqtxFIUuLYqW28m5yIaf0f0JyCh6K4YASokr6ngaBLLZgIFjRdU5TLW8BqummXPTdHPjizUPX1SkHadIEDKKIclGLYFjgz1OC_VVoaqYp/s640/IMG_3031.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was sitting on a cushion </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">on the floor</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">while I sorted, and I honestly can't tell you when my dog, Kaiser, pushed his way onto the pillow. At some point I realized, <i>wait</i>, I'm sitting on the <i>hard floor</i> and there's a little dog where I once was! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once I finished storing the papers I need to keep, I went through the pile of papers I needed to address. This included everything from bills, to activating accounts, to storing coupon codes instead of holding onto the paper rewards that are helpfully mailed from my Loft account. Once I was done, I was left with only three papers that couldn't be taken care of right away. Much better than the huge drift I had before!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When the mailman arrived yesterday, I tried out my new method: Check the mail right away, recycle the junk, and take care of the necessary</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> stuff. There's a bowl by the front door where we can leave important documents that need to be taken are of as soon as possible, and there are only three papers there. Nothing compared to the dozens of envelopes I found stacked on our kitchen table before getting started!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvhbkgNxnngQL45SxpF85jn6ehszBZihvEyaWgQe700-HxkfQkrH3QWBoZJuht-Cq7GlYgiW_j7jAF-O0sr1NBqcb5tDNr04WRho-VxSmB3GcOeINDcfHBcMbaCiJKid2XGaLS-8uCuBcv/s1600/Image-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvhbkgNxnngQL45SxpF85jn6ehszBZihvEyaWgQe700-HxkfQkrH3QWBoZJuht-Cq7GlYgiW_j7jAF-O0sr1NBqcb5tDNr04WRho-VxSmB3GcOeINDcfHBcMbaCiJKid2XGaLS-8uCuBcv/s640/Image-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even though it was tough to get started, I felt rewarded in the end by my sorting. Papers are boring and burdensome, which is why I'm relieved to feel the ability to just get rid of them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next category I have to go through is what the Japanese call <i>Komono</i>, or essentially miscellaneous items. These are things that tend to pile up, accumulating randomly about the house, whether they are necessary or no. Kondo has a set order they need to be sorted in, of course, which is why I love her:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. CDs, DVDs</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. Electrical equipment and appliances</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7. Household equipment (stationary and writing materials, sewing kits, etc.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8. Household supplies (expendables like medicine, detergents, tissues, etc.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9. Kitchen goods/food supplies (spatulas, pots, blenders, etc.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10. Other (spare change, figurines, etc.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm most excited about going through the kitchen stuff, so I'm trying to use that to hype up the other categories. My goal is to see how many I can get through in the next week. It's cleaning time at my house!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">See you all next time!</span></div>
Kaceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08892876625120188529noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8806638691796630622.post-49093013527659702032015-05-10T06:59:00.002-07:002015-05-27T08:04:01.424-07:00KonMari Method Second Step - Books!<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://snorestorm.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-journey-to-declutter-begins.html" target="_blank">When last we met</a>, I was gazing with some trepidation at my bookshelf and already thinking about which books I wanted to keep. Yesterday morning, after just a couple of hours of procrastination (hey, I had to finish my coffee, <i>right?</i>), I got down to it!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kondo mentions in her book the difficulty many customers feel in eliminating books from their collection, and I definitely anticipated this. Books are portals into other perspectives and worlds, and when you’re faced with choosing between them, it can be tough!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One thing that I considered first off is how many books I have compared with how many books I’ve actually read in the past several years. Here’s a confession: After I received my BA in English in 2008, I basically stopped reading for a few years. Where I was reading 1-2 books a week before my degree, I went down to 1-2 books a year! This was for several reasons to which I could devote an entire post, and probably will, but suffice it to say that I have already slimmed down my collection quite a bit over the past few moves I’ve undertaken because I recognized how many books I would never read again. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Also, books are <i>heavy</i>. My moving helpers (family and friends) probably love me more the less I have.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But there was still plenty of room left for improvement!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi975zaT0S4KkSkCiSz4_cwA6NJadllfKDWvp7wJI9sVUu5Q1b81ikZY5K4DDrk_7cRgDHM-HiWrj5fuVRaQGUiNBa1f7foWPfrQ_RiaYkHYa3CxDIwDD3PME454G23pH4qh50mhcHVPsl8/s1600/IMG_2893.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A super messy bookshelf, with books that won't fit piled on the floor." border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi975zaT0S4KkSkCiSz4_cwA6NJadllfKDWvp7wJI9sVUu5Q1b81ikZY5K4DDrk_7cRgDHM-HiWrj5fuVRaQGUiNBa1f7foWPfrQ_RiaYkHYa3CxDIwDD3PME454G23pH4qh50mhcHVPsl8/s640/IMG_2893.JPG" title="" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You may also notice in the image above</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> that my bookshelf was sporting a leftward lean, and after removing the books it became clear why! My old Ikea Billy bookcase is kind of falling apart — The back panel that the design relies on to hold the frame steady had been pushed out by the double row of books I had forced onto the shelves. A perfect illustration of the damage having too much stuff can do! I’ll be investing in a solid wood bookcase after my next move, but for now this one will have to do.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once again, the first thing I needed to do was to gather all of the books in one place, and for this part I highly recommend having a dust rag handy. Individuals who haven’t moved often may not even notice how much dust has collected on their books, but I even found some cobwebs hanging out behind a few of them! Keep an old t-shirt or dust rag handy — Surely you recycled a few of your old t-shirts from the first tidying category for cleaning purposes, right?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The second thing I had to do was separate my books from my boyfriend’s books — Kondo goes into detail about not harassing your roommates and family about all of their belongings, and makes it very clear that you’re not allowed to throw things away on their behalf. Some of us who live with packrats might be tempted to ask, “...are you <i>totally</i> sure about that, Kondo?” Instead, let us lead by example!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_uXZc13mDdXWQXgBUgmCHgzMFmbj2Q1a-U5VZ6OqBRWorm8ugT3dgrvLxxFg56AbbeZzWty9yBagbkf1vPEo7LEQV-u3SJ7psML20mUBaCIy_ZC6vr_oQfafVrU0HO0fLYxK2kUBQhZRP/s1600/IMG_2922.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="My dachshund sitting in front of a growing pile of books on the floor" border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_uXZc13mDdXWQXgBUgmCHgzMFmbj2Q1a-U5VZ6OqBRWorm8ugT3dgrvLxxFg56AbbeZzWty9yBagbkf1vPEo7LEQV-u3SJ7psML20mUBaCIy_ZC6vr_oQfafVrU0HO0fLYxK2kUBQhZRP/s640/IMG_2922.JPG" title="" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mom's furry helper!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My dog was convinced he needed to sit right next to me and help, which he probably regretted when I accidentally knocked him in the head with a book I was tossing while he hid in my periphery. Poor baby! Even that didn't dissuade him from being a bit of a nuisance underfoot. He's dedicated to his cause. And his cause is mostly pestering me for attention.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjshcYy3WWnlp3qr-yLoSXmF3kP-SCkewf7iH58hkuEtSTaqKcAP_RQBDsc6sFV7w6UMGenJhkyzAXRk8VlTgyU2fruJb3hQJUJFMJDOACU6YpNfOB15wGyAnJhKL-Acm17GZT37JzHwFqA/s1600/IMG_2923.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A floor full of piles of books" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjshcYy3WWnlp3qr-yLoSXmF3kP-SCkewf7iH58hkuEtSTaqKcAP_RQBDsc6sFV7w6UMGenJhkyzAXRk8VlTgyU2fruJb3hQJUJFMJDOACU6YpNfOB15wGyAnJhKL-Acm17GZT37JzHwFqA/s640/IMG_2923.JPG" title="" width="556" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thankfully, not the largest collection of books and magazines I've sorted in my life so far.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now that I had all of my books in one place, it was time to start sorting!</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kondo makes it clear that discarding books is all about <b>the</b> <b>thrill of joy you feel from touching the book</b>, and <b>no reading is allowed</b>. This makes perfect sense to me — How many times have you been packing to move and then lost an hour or two after accidentally becoming engrossed in a great story?</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And really, what's more thrilling than a textbook you've never once used outside of class?</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some books were easy to get rid of. Textbooks, for example, are pointless to keep, because all of that reference material is easily found online and often in better formats. Who needs a Spanish language textbook, when you can download a free app that will be a more accessible and interactive resource?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Classics were also easy to part with, because I can download these for free through <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/" target="_blank">Project Gutenberg</a> onto my Kindle. Except for one old hardback library edition of Jane Eyre, because it smelled AMAZING. I love old book smell.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also got rid of quite a few books I’ve been carrying around for years from place to place, always intending to finish them. Most of them still had the receipts from the store stuck in 1/4 of the way through as bookmarks at the point where I realized I didn’t really want to read them. One of them even had a dollar as a bookmark, which is truly a waste! You can go to a better home now, unfinished stories!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I eliminated several piles of magazines, although I reserved a couple of piles of old house decorating and DIY magazines to see if there were any good tips I'd like to save for the new house. I used to clip out pictures and keep them in a binder, but then I would ultimately throw away the binders after <i>never</i> again looking at them. So instead I'm planning to take photos of any cool ideas and posting them on Pinterest. I'll link to my board once I'm done, in case y'all would like to take a look!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many of the books I kept are craft and hobby books, which have detailed information in an easy to use and collected format — I know I can’t find Maggie Righetti’s indispensable knitting advice on the internet, for instance, even if I haven’t needed it very often in practice. These may be books I let go later, but not for now!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPbG3VVjibR-ZBJt5Y2-uOAT1jHRt64shD2VvfrdKNWYbph2qy1an5aEb6SRqSjV0NyMzn_wlcnrB_ru4eOEQCV3LExi45tnC4U9UJAl_irsBK_z8ybJJn5KgIlRCsrg6H5gk36zvEeUTU/s1600/IMG_2925.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPbG3VVjibR-ZBJt5Y2-uOAT1jHRt64shD2VvfrdKNWYbph2qy1an5aEb6SRqSjV0NyMzn_wlcnrB_ru4eOEQCV3LExi45tnC4U9UJAl_irsBK_z8ybJJn5KgIlRCsrg6H5gk36zvEeUTU/s640/IMG_2925.JPG" title="" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I waited until midnight at a book signing to meet Neil, there's no way I'm parting with this one!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also kept a lot of my graphic novels and literary/sci fi/fantasy fiction books because I know I will reread most of them, having already done so at least once, and also because it makes me happy to have them. I love being able to lend out a great story!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One book that immediately came to mind when Kondo spoke about the joy you feel from a book was this one:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid2yncPDCEXHs0iYCZIziyxZE1b-HgSYopSXIqt0G8u_Ea92R8H6i4mgnUrtaiWud7CG6_dzYWJYMgdRI-IUXJXwb4WG_WWdj9_mq77tscb-ulDKtBOh7PqKMFb9YqYoy21unuBwMzzfr-/s1600/IMG_2926.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Saint George and the Dragon retold by Margaret Hodges" border="0" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid2yncPDCEXHs0iYCZIziyxZE1b-HgSYopSXIqt0G8u_Ea92R8H6i4mgnUrtaiWud7CG6_dzYWJYMgdRI-IUXJXwb4WG_WWdj9_mq77tscb-ulDKtBOh7PqKMFb9YqYoy21unuBwMzzfr-/s640/IMG_2926.JPG" title="" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2GdKAmCuKnXoDoUcSfs2JNpLgnv0id2o8Sv46Jw4ngr-bhNDkMo6q6btirwGrWeOYDFnJm9zNTLJEqQzGgg8Am7cX4JgWTfZQsMR02BWK1W_x8PRywDbVXRJzwrrv3YofcVeXGW3N8pN7/s1600/IMG_2927.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2GdKAmCuKnXoDoUcSfs2JNpLgnv0id2o8Sv46Jw4ngr-bhNDkMo6q6btirwGrWeOYDFnJm9zNTLJEqQzGgg8Am7cX4JgWTfZQsMR02BWK1W_x8PRywDbVXRJzwrrv3YofcVeXGW3N8pN7/s640/IMG_2927.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I remember asking my mother to purchase this book when I was young specifically because I felt a huge amount of joy and wonder at the beautiful illustrations of the knight and faeries that observe his efforts to slay the dragon. It has been almost 2 decades since, but it still reminds me of the wonder of growing up and encountering something that seems magical!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even as I was getting rid of books, one book that has been on my mind recently was missing. During a past move, I must have donated my copy of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, and I have a deeply felt instinct that it is a missing book in my collection. Now I’ll be able to trade some of my used books for a new copy!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdaiXbr65nLzwv3WrhmZiSh87JjWmuTWT0F2Y_VUQAi_qvNmZahH-g2WLIKHB8QBDRCiDnjLLCiOA-_3MwBDi_PQIYyKVydFkHFzzvEUVV3CUL95gyXPqMftUGSUOtVkHZLjol5zR9LsfK/s1600/Image-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="My dachshund sitting in front of boxes and bags full of discard books" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdaiXbr65nLzwv3WrhmZiSh87JjWmuTWT0F2Y_VUQAi_qvNmZahH-g2WLIKHB8QBDRCiDnjLLCiOA-_3MwBDi_PQIYyKVydFkHFzzvEUVV3CUL95gyXPqMftUGSUOtVkHZLjol5zR9LsfK/s640/Image-1.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mom, now that you're done discarding books, can we go for a walk?</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once I was done, I had quite a few books to take down to Half Price Books to try to sell or donate. It's right next door to Goodwill, so I can make a single trip to drop off my discarded clothes as well. There were some books and magazines that were so beat up, that it was time to recycle them instead.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY5yWCfKA2tMxglyRyDVxBcMGhuT5dYbzcNdzVOBuoaZ3suz82XwGqucm3B5-y0FiqvK3_Bqtw2XFJl84CecITsopIzKo9u3csxVYtbISbLCXH0Igk2wdknBn_MDLTQ6VHunRCzRS3gWAe/s1600/IMG_2929.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="An orderly, clean bookshelf!" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY5yWCfKA2tMxglyRyDVxBcMGhuT5dYbzcNdzVOBuoaZ3suz82XwGqucm3B5-y0FiqvK3_Bqtw2XFJl84CecITsopIzKo9u3csxVYtbISbLCXH0Igk2wdknBn_MDLTQ6VHunRCzRS3gWAe/s640/IMG_2929.JPG" title="" width="356" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So happy and tidy!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then all that was left was placing them on the shelf! Where I had overflowing piles and double rows before, I now have perfectly filled shelves with a single row of books on each one. Even better, I pushed them to the front of the shelf. Before I did this some of the books were buried in shadows, but now they stand on the edge, ready to be held and treasured and reminding us as we pass by that they’re ready whenever we’d like to take a journey! My books seem to feel much happier this way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I spent the vast majority of my weekend discarding and tidying, but I feel so much better about my house already! Although my thighs and back are <i>killing me</i> from all the squatting and bending. Tidying is a good workout! As I am moving about the house now and dealing with the remaining clutter, I keep thinking, "wow, I will be so happy once I've finished this process so I can find <i>everything</i> as easily as I can find my clothes and books!<i>"</i> It is starting to seem like the title "Life-Changing Magic" is no exaggeration for the KonMari method.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next up, we have a category that my closest family will know well: <b>Paper! </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We're all prone to hoarding every single scrap of paper that comes our way, and though I've attempted to fight this battle before, it always comes back. </span><b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will I be able to finally conquer my paper hoarding tendencies? </b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We'll find out right after I run to the store and buy a shredder...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">See you next time!</span></div>
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Kaceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08892876625120188529noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8806638691796630622.post-71712650504263712572015-05-09T07:26:00.000-07:002015-05-27T08:04:29.193-07:00The Journey to Declutter Begins!<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few years ago while reading a blog on minimalism, I stumbled across a book called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up which had been translated into French at the time from the original Japanese. I'm not able to read French, so I couldn't explore it further, but the description the blog author gave of how the book had impacted her life planted a seed in the back of my mind. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since then, I've felt a growing urgency within myself to simplify my life and declutter. Sometimes we make the assumption that people are the way they are because they've chosen to be, that they like that mess. But the reality for me was that I simply didn't know how to change! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fast forward to last week, when I finally purchased the English translation! </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Marie Kondo's KonMari system of tidying can be summed up pretty simply:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1. Discard any items that do not bring you joy.</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> You discard items in specific categories, rather than going room by room as most decluttering gurus recommend (ideas which have failed miserably in my experience). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2. Decide where to store things.</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Only after you've discarded everything that fails to spark joy within you do you begin to organize. You find a place for everything that's left, and then you know exactly where to put it once you're done using it each day. This is designed to eliminate all that extra time we spend in our off hours trying to tidy up the mess before we can clean the surfaces of our home. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I read the book, my instincts were singing, <i>Yes yes yes!</i> This is what I'd been searching for! Besides, I figured, what the hell do I have to lose?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The answer is a whole bunch of junk I don't want!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yesterday, I got started with the first category: <b>Clothes. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first thing Kondo recommends is to gather every article of clothing in one place, so I traipsed upstairs to the bedroom to gather my wardrobe. "This won't take long," I thought.
<i>Ha!</i> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just to give you an idea of the before, here are pictures of my closet and dresser, overflowing with clothes:
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This doesn't include all of the clothes in random places, like the drying rack that is almost never put away and the dryer.</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But I didn't hesitate, this was my whole plan for my Friday off! I went from room to room gathering laundry baskets full of clothes, and the piles on the living room floor started growing until I got to this:</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Mwk_h7K7Af5jkZT6JBdBSqUcqD7x274h7WX6IRvzzf4uJeY7oS_Z8EADpTiOVOL6wWRv6Bq7P617OqRWih7SBMlD1uJ9b9jAfMXrHG804swyz0mJlSBX6IopwktTNEHXG-_i6dFiDJ_K/s1600/livingroommess.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Mwk_h7K7Af5jkZT6JBdBSqUcqD7x274h7WX6IRvzzf4uJeY7oS_Z8EADpTiOVOL6wWRv6Bq7P617OqRWih7SBMlD1uJ9b9jAfMXrHG804swyz0mJlSBX6IopwktTNEHXG-_i6dFiDJ_K/s640/livingroommess.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was at this point that I had a minor panic attack and decided to take a break for some deep breaths and to put a load of dirty clothes in the washing machine. That's right, <b>there were still more clothes that I couldn't even add to this giant mess!</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After that, I went in the order of subcategories she suggested, starting with tops that were out of season.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It went pretty smoothly from there, to be honest. Getting started was scary, but pretty soon I was hardly thinking about which items I wanted to keep - I would pick up each article of clothing and almost immediately know that it was time for it to go!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kondo recommends not worrying about sentimental attachment or gifts, but putting into perspective the idea that holding onto something you don't use or don't want is the truly wasteful act. The item has served its purpose in your life, and now it can be set free! Good bye clothes I once loved, but never wear!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5 trash bags and 1 donation pile later:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At this point, I was getting really excited! I took a break for lunch because all of the running up and down the stairs and bending and sorting had me needing an energy boost. I ate such a big lunch of leftover salmon croquettes over rice and garlic butter peas, it reminded me of the big lunches my grandmother would serve my Papa when I was a kid after he'd spent all morning working hard at building or running one of his latest business ventures. Hearty southern food is for busting ass!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now that the discarding period was over, it was time to organize! I had a small pile of clothes to hang, but first I went through and folded all the foldables:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is everything I would be putting into my dresser, plus my shoes, and far less than it was holding before. The dryer was done, so I could add those missing clothes as well. Even as I was going through this process, I ended up discarding a few extra articles of clothing I changed my mind about.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kondo recommends folding things into rectangles and then stacking them vertically for maximum space efficiency. This was super easy to do, but did give me time to look at each piece closely and inspect for any holes or stains I had missed (except for my loungewear, with those I don't care so much about imperfections).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once I had them all folded, I organized my drawers with some soft boxes and shoeboxes I had to keep the categories separated.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I started at the bottom, with pants, shorts, heavy sweaters:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then I moved to the middle drawer with shirts, tank tops, swimsuits, scarves and handkerchiefs, and the two belts I had left:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After that, all I had left was underwear and socks for the top drawer:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-4WSNJMY5oOvLEQnOPhu9p26YkAqG0VaB0cllsBS8J9C0bMGQXU7V6T8SDpvnrCV_AOrru0egFZ-tAzCDwH_MFxHgRDbe8kD7s5B2K1DyLlggJJAW5VvnqOHOybsZvelGboHP5nPHjEFq/s1600/IMG_2889.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-4WSNJMY5oOvLEQnOPhu9p26YkAqG0VaB0cllsBS8J9C0bMGQXU7V6T8SDpvnrCV_AOrru0egFZ-tAzCDwH_MFxHgRDbe8kD7s5B2K1DyLlggJJAW5VvnqOHOybsZvelGboHP5nPHjEFq/s640/IMG_2889.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Y'all, I didn't have room for all of the stuff I <i>wanted</i> to put in my dresser before I went through this process, and now I have <i>half a drawer</i> left over. And also a lot of extra spare change, I found spare change everywhere!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And this is what my closet looks like now:</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4CnRqTxm1X5dRmzT8dVjUItPjvSEU1dL8_2HFljnNwr50bcZvs8XGLwBru7D8m_6zuFGCgR4N_dNay1wQpoEH_PWOJo8o7mzQyVP7IDXbvxgPiPygYoG97KQOxz5FMkVjL5Yln8lxqNkv/s1600/Image-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4CnRqTxm1X5dRmzT8dVjUItPjvSEU1dL8_2HFljnNwr50bcZvs8XGLwBru7D8m_6zuFGCgR4N_dNay1wQpoEH_PWOJo8o7mzQyVP7IDXbvxgPiPygYoG97KQOxz5FMkVjL5Yln8lxqNkv/s640/Image-1.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Anybody need some extra hangers? I have about 3 dozen more than I need!</span></i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This photo is missing a few tops that I need to handwash due to my new obsession with rayon, but that's still basically it. That also includes a few pieces I picked up at Goodwill recently to form the basis of this year's RenFest costumes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The whole process took me about 5-6 hours, but it was totally worth it. Despite my initial overwhelmed feelings, by the time I was done I felt energized and ready to tackle the next category. I will probably tweak the organization as I use it, but this is such a huge improvement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I did take the remaining hours of the day off to rest and spend time with my significant other. Mario Kart 8 waits for no woman!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next category will require a bit more heavy lifting, but I'll be thankful once we get ready to move to a new house in a few months. Next up: <b>BOOKS!</b></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Can I say goodbye to my beloved books?!</span></i></td></tr>
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Kaceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08892876625120188529noreply@blogger.com4