WEEK 14. CHRISTMAS VACATION

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to Everyone.

I have to put my tidy up project on hold while I deal with all the wonderful duties associated with a family Christmas. I hope to be back to discarding after the first of the New Year. So look for the next installment on Tuesday, January 5, 2016 !!!  

WEEK 13. KITCHEN KAPERS

Do Too Many Utensils
Spoil the Broth?

In many cultures, thirteen is bad luck. I hope this week brings the opposite. Good luck to everyone.

Last week I gave up on sorting books and went on to what Marie Kondo calls komono, 'miscellaneous things'. I can't pile all these objects up because in my house, and most non-Asian houses, they must number in the thousands. So I will focus on one subcategory at a time.

I'm not a realtor but I recognize that even kitchens have prime locations and only the most used and useful items should be taking up prime space. Other items can be placed on the 'other  side of the tracks' to be brought out when necessary or even discarded if they no longer spark joy.

Or in my case, put in garage cupboards to wait for the final ride to the charity thrift shop. Right now in the garage cupboards I have gelatin molds. Nobody eats gelatin desserts or salads, but their products can look pretty so I keep them in case I want to make a beautiful, shimmering, ruby red Holiday side dish.

To make sure useful objects relegated to the garage are not forgotten, I have a list of them on the inside of a kitchen cupboard door. My list now reads: six large and sixteen individual copper molds, two ceramic casseroles with lids, crème brulee torch and four ramekins, cookie making stuff, a Santa Claus mold, four flat sea shells for baking (remember those), thirty-six tartlet pans, snail shells and holders for escargots, and two tin pie plates. 

None of those items, except the crème brulee torch, has been used in years. Ms. Kondo would insist I get rid of them. BUT I have the room and I do like to cook, so I will keep them a little longer. “Don't do as I do, do as Marie says.”

On our kitchen counters I have five decorative crocks stuffed with important kitchen utensils. I laid them all out, and planned to keep one of each and put the others, where else but the garage. My husband, who also likes to cook, came along and I asked if there were any he used and wanted to keep on the counter. Out of twenty-three utensils, three went to the garage. Hmmm.

Before I went on to the pots and pans and dishes, I decided to work on the pantry, which consists of two lower corner cupboards, which I call round-abouts, since they have of two tier lazy susans. The one by the sink and work counter holds pastas, rice, soups, baking supplies. That cupboard mainly just needed cleaning and rearranging. All the products will be used.

he other cupboard is across the kitchen and contains coffee supplies, snack items (cookies, crackers, and nuts), a backlog of jams, and pie fillings which I buy on sale and then forget about. I also found two cans of cranberry sauce, I guess from last Thanksgiving, and since I have a bag of frozen cranberries in the freezer, also from last TG, I need to pay more attention to 'inventory'. According to the use by dates, these items will still be good to use this year. I hope my friends who are coming for TG dinner will not read this blog.

Several years ago when I was reorganizing the kitchen, I put labels on the dishware shelves. As time went by things were put in different places and the labels no longer made sense, so that was something I redid to reflect what was actually on each shelf now.  If only people would pay attention to the labels when they put things away.

In addition to serving bowls and platters, I have 'everyday' plates of dark blue which I just read make food look unappetizing. So I guess they should help us lose weight. LOL. 

 I moved our 'good' wedding china, plain white Haviland with swirled edges that I bought so they would look good on different colored cloths, from the dining room buffet to the kitchen cupboards so I will use them more often. At one time I collected 'vintage' plates with different floral designs. (Remember my 'vintage' Christmas books from a previous blog?)  I stopped searching for different plates when I had twelve. They are now in the family room cupboard that I cleared out of magazines. I am working up the moral courage to discard them. But I still like them.

That's my downfall I like everything. I need to become more discriminating.  I wonder what Marie Kondo would say to someone who says she likes everything.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner filled with friends, family, and good food. And maybe a less few objects this year! 

WEEK 12. SO MANY BOOKS, SO LITTLE TIME

Thanksgiving covers from last week's blog
about magazines.

At one time I collected vintage Christmas books, such as The Twelve Days of Christmas by Miles & John Hadfield, published in 1961with beautiful illustrations. I bought it in Mona Mia's Antiques at 1200 Decatur Street in New Orleans in 1990 for five dollars. I know because I use the receipt as a bookmark. I stopped collecting Christmas books when I realized I had too many to display properly during the festive season. But how can I discard these books that still give me pleasure?

I also have more than 125 cookbooks. This does not count books about food, like the memoir, French Fried: The Culinary Capers of an American in Paris by Harriet Welty Rochefort. Just holding any of these books not only makes me happy, but makes me want to open it up and start reading. Not the best thing to do while trying to simplify your life.

In The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, the author recognizes that books are one of three hardest things to let go. She describes asking a client to “Please start by removing every book from your shelves and putting them all on the floor.” The client argues that it'd be easier if they were kept on the shelf so the titles could be read. But Marie insists each book must be held so the owner can decide if there is a spark of joy.

She devotes ten pages to books, explaining why they are difficult to discard but why they can be discarded. In my case, I hope I can discard some but I know it will be hard. Yvonne, a good friend, once gave me a beautiful, purple tote bag featuring a quotation from Thomas Jefferson that she said described me, “I cannot live without books.” Using e-readers, I-pads, computers, and phones to read books is very efficient and easy. And as I stated on Day 1, I first read Marie Kondo's book on my phone, but eventually had to buy a paper copy. I think most bookaphiles (bibliophiles) love to hold a real book in their hands. You can smell the paper and ink on them. You can flip back if you forgot someone's name, or need to know what town are they in now. You also can turn to the back cover to answer the question, who on earth wrote this? All much easier with paper than electronically. But real books do take up room.

A friend who retired to a much smaller apartment in a retirement community, showed off her only bookcase. I felt like crying for her, although she seemed pleased with the fact that she would have room for less than thirty books. For me, that's one shelf.

I do have paperback mysteries and other fiction that I should be able to discard easily. But I'm not always sure I've already read the book and I'd hate to discard something I haven't read yet. Because my memory (for minor details!) is not too great, I've started to write in each book where and when I bought it and how much I paid for it or who gave it to me. Then when I read it, I also add the date I finish reading it. If you need help, I recommend it. It refreshes your memory. I do it in pencil so if I do give the book away, I can erase this information.

For this project I can't possibly detail all that I'll have to go through.  I'll just focus on my collection of mysteries and start by piling them all together as the author suggests.

Well, I tried.  I am a failure. Each time I pick up a book, if I don't feel a spark of joy, I feel a very strong desire to sit down and start reading it as the only way to determine if I can discard it.  I can't work on this project right now.

If you are reading this, I'm sorry if I let you down as to this section of the project. Books are going to have to wait until I have gone through every other category. The next one, after papers and books, is komono which in Japanese refers to miscellaneous items. Marie Kondo points out too many people live surrounded by things they don't need, 'just because.' She lists the groups under this heading on page 106. Kitchen goods/food supplies is down at number nine on her list of ten. But since Thanksgiving is next week and I only have time to do one item, I will work on that one to get ready for the biggest food holiday of the year. Since I do enjoy cooking, it will be interesting to see what I discard. I have opened up some cupboards by discarding many magazines last week. The picture that accompanies this post are of food magazine covers that featured Thanksgiving turkeys. I kept all of them.  

WEEK 11. MAGAZINE JUNKIE

I am a magazine junkie. My undergraduate major in journalism school was magazines—other options at the time were newspapers, TV, or advertising. I still love these periodicals. They are useful, easy to flip through, and have beautiful pictures. A picture of food (or beautiful sunset) on Facebook or your cell phone can't compete with a richly colored double page spread in a physical paper product.

Although I'm supposed to be ready to tidy up my books—after postponing that category for papers—I decided it would be best to clear out my saved magazines. I thought if I cleared out some room by discarding them, it would open up more space for the books I wanted to keep. My magazine library focuses on three major subjects: food/entertaining, decorating, and travel. These subjects and these publications still bring joy even though most of them are hidden away in cupboards that I only open when I'm cleaning.

My really secret vice—well not so secret anymore—is that I have the first twelve years of Traditional Home magazine. And I have moved them from large suburban home to post children condo to retirement home, and from Illinois to Wisconsin to California. But I did promise my husband that our cross country move would be the last time I moved them. I also have lots of old Gourmet issues and now that it's defunct, who knows, my collection may be valuable. [See previous blog comment about paper maps. I sometimes live in a dream world.]

I discarded very few magazines, but I did a great job of reorganizing them so I could fit other things in the family room cupboards. I did discard twenty copies of the New Yorker from 2003. I was never going to sit down and read the interesting and well written but very, very long articles. I was saving them to while away a rainy afternoon, but it never rains in southern California. The cartoons were still funny, but after a few laughs they had to go.

My saved food magazines include Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Cooking Light, and Cook's Illustrated. Every year about this time, I bring out their November issues and put them on an easily accessible shelf so I can thumb through them for Thanksgiving ideas. When our children were young, I always hosted the family TG dinner and sometimes had twenty-one family and friends at a series of tables that extended from the dining room into the living room. Now I'm lucky to have six to help eat the turkey.

I also set out all the December or Holiday issues of the food magazines, and those of Traditional Home, New Mexico, and Phoenix Home and Garden. Not only do they inspire me with pictures of others' decorations, but these issues expand my own experience of the happy season.

have not been the best tidy-upper according to Marie Kondo's expectations. Some of us are not able to let go of everything and live a minimal life. But I do think my life and its objects are coming under better control.

One problem she does not address in her book, is seasonal gifts. I have started collecting presents I want to give family and friends for Christmas. They are now spilling out all over my office, which I had just cleaned of unhappy papers. Eventually, I will set aside a time to wrap and mail them but in the meantime, they are taking up space.

Next week I hope to start on books. I know I won't finish them in one attempt. And I'm afraid they are going to be like my magazines. It will be hard to find any that don't bring me joy.

WEEK 10. STILL GETTING PAPER CUTS

For continuation of the 'papers' category, I did bring all my clippings and articles of recipes, food, and entertaining into one place. It was a very big, spreading pile as I like to cook and entertain and don't like to throw anything out.  I went through thousands (I'm sure) of recipes and threw most of them out because they no longer bring me joy or are not worth the trouble of trying out.

For example, I threw out an ancient recipe from the New York Times for a Chocolate Pecan Viennese Torte. I made it a year after I was married. I guess I was still trying to impress my new husband. My note said it took five hours to make and was not worth it. Then why did I keep the recipe? Was it a reminder not to ever struggle for hours with a recipe that wasn't worth it? Well, it's gone now, but I did keep a few (hundreds?) that do bring me joy.

Magazine 'cookbooks' I kept

Many women's magazines back in the day when married women were identified by their husbands' names carried special food sections which were inserted like a separate little cookbook. I have most of those that Woman's Day published under the name The Collector's Cook Book, which I didn't discard. Some of the titles: Grown-up Lunch Boxes, How to Save Money by Using Your Freezer, and Cooking by the Minute.

Many other special sections had beautiful pictures of glistening, richly colored food. They reminded me of the glamorous fashion models who have teams of beauty experts to make sure not a hair or a freckle is out of place. The displayed food also had food stylists who made sure the presented food looks as desirable to the cook as the women's photos do to the clothes shopper.

The vast majority of the old recipes I discarded because I no longer have the time or interest to make labor intensive, multi ingredient foods, such as cakes from scratch, although I do like to decorate them. Many of the recipes called for ingredients no longer appropriate—lard, margarine, and monosodium glutamate. As I filled up a huge recycle box, I thought I should really start a blog about 'vintage' recipes and how women used to entertain. But that will be for someone younger if she can keep from laughing as she reads them.

Some of the recipes and
travel brochures I recycled

Another huge category I've been working on, is travel material. I travel a lot, as much and as often as I can. And I always pick up maps and brochures about interesting places because I think they will come in handy the next time I go. A large under counter cupboard in my family room was filled with them, from Portland, OR to Washington, DC. And I always forget about them whenever I'm planning a trip. So I filled another huge box for the recycling bin with all that material probably printed at a huge cost of tourist dollars. I did keep city and regional maps, because if you read last week's blog you know I have an illness that Ken Jennings also has, mapmania. I also feel joyful thinking about New Mexico and Santa Fe so I kept material about the Land of Enchantment. It is a state I love and would have moved there but it is too cold in winter.

I also kept anything that had the word Christmas in it. We once had a house with three decorated Christmas trees inside that reflected on three glass walls surrounding a courtyard with several lighted evergreens outside. Holiday decorations will be another hard category to tidy up.

The question I asked last week was answered when I lifted the yellow quilt covering the table in my office and discovered a lot more paper. More drafts of works in progress, all to be discarded. But also a large box of high school and college mementos. I can put those aside until I reach that category.

But now am I really ready to move on to BOOKS?

WEEK 9. DROWNING IN PAPER

According to the book, I should now be working on books, but I love books and it's going to be hard for me to discard any, so I'm postponing that and instead will do “papers”. I'm a writer and in my office I am surrounded by six file drawers for clippings, documents, articles, bank statements, and health records. I also have some of the shelves in my seven tall bookcases stacked with pages of typed manuscripts. Same with a 'working' table that has no space for work. And there are several drawers in the family room stuffed with various kinds of papers, such as maps and recipes. So I decided I had papers, not books, that urgently needed discarding.  But how was I going to pile all of them in the middle of the room.

Impossible. For most of the discarding, I would have to do it, drawer by drawer, surface by surface. Sorry Marie. I hope this isn't a fatal flaw in successfully completing your plan. But when you discover how much I discard you might understand. Several months ago, before I read the book, I had already gone through and discarded two garbage sacks of papers. And I still have tons left.

I don't know if holding the papers and feeling a spark of joy will work in this category either. The papers I keep will be 'necessary'. What I discard will be either not necessary or not joyful.

If you still believe I couldn't be worse than you, I have all my bank books which lists deposits and checks since I graduated from college. Yes, years of them. If I ever write a memoir of my epic trip to Europe I can check exactly what I paid for a steamship crossing.

I started working on this category with all papers on top of surfaces. First off, I realized this category also includes book marks, business cards, and folder tabs for new folders. These I kept on two shelves and did reduce them to one shelf. But I'm keeping notebooks and diaries that I probably should just throw out, but I can't. Maybe later. I know the Kondo method would say 'later' means 'never'.

I am failing miserably in this category. I have folders for airline and hotel memberships and they are full of junk mail, but I'm afraid I might throw away something important for claiming miles or perks. I did clean them out a bit, but instead of throwing the whole file away I just moved it to a more hidden place. Arrgh.

This is much worse than working on my clothes. Three hours and not even halfway through.

Some files, map,
still messy board, 

I've completed three large book cases on the north side of my office. I still have two two-drawer file cabinets on that side to go through later. Now I've moved on to the first bookcase (of four) on the south side. There are envelopes, stationery, including from foreign hotels, and a large box of cards (birthday and thank you) from friends for more than ten years. I'll only save those congratulating me on my first book to encourage me to keep writing. And then there's a box of cards from my children and other family members. I must keep those. I organized new, unused Xmas cards received from charitable organizations into a usable stack. I did throw away some unsuitable ones. Most I kept for this coming Christmas and then will discard any still left. (Do I really trust myself to throw them away later? It's probably not in the Kondo spirit to keep putting off discards).

I went through years of medical records that were stacked on a bookshelf next to my books about health. It took me almost two hours to go through and throw most away. How many years of negative mammogram reports does anyone need? I did keep some records, mainly those about major incidents, broken knee, surgery, rotator cuff. I'm really very healthy so it's amazing that I have so many papers relating to health issues. But I hate to throw anything out.

This habit may have been inherited. Whenever my mother would ask my father if she should throw something away, he'd say, “We've got the room, so might as well keep it.” This created a terrible problem when it came to clean out the house they had lived in for more than fifty years. That is one of the reasons I'd like to reduce the items in my life.

Well, enough about the agony of deciding which papers are necessary and which discardable. None really give me a spark of joy. Well, yes, reading over cards from friends is pleasant, so I'm not going to throw them away. Earlier I said I'd discard those but I changed my mind.

OK, moving on. Maps also come under papers. I have a drawer stuffed with maps. Marie would say throw them away.  They are out of date, and current maps are easily accessed on the internet. But I like maps. I've always liked maps and was pleased to know that Ken Jennings, the 'Jeopardy' TV champ wrote a book about liking maps, Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks. I also have a crazy idea that all the state maps I'm saving may some day be worth a lot of money, when nobody prints them anymore. So I will keep them for my great grandchildren to get rich. More likely my children will throw them out after I'm gone.

What's hiding under the quilt?

The paper category is not going to be done in one attempt. I forgot all the paper I have under a quilt covered work table in my office. The quilt was made by my grandmother and mother when I graduated from grade school (no middle school in my town). It has a yellow background with pieced appliques of sixteen sun bonnet Sues made out of my cotton school dresses. Each square is embroidered with the name of an eighth grade friend. It's a special treasure to me, but I had forgotten what it hides. Kondoing what's under the quilt will be covered in my next blog.

Halloween will be the perfect time also to face the horrors of a lifetime of clipped, saved, and unused recipes.   

WEEK 8. AM I A CLOTHES HORSE?

Unfortunately, I really 'fell off the Kondo wagon.' Last night I took a discarded skirt out of my give a way pile which was still waiting to be given away. I wanted to wear it to a special restaurant and thought it would look good. I'm sooo bad. Decided not to wear it after all, but now I don't know whether to keep it, just in case, or truly discard it. I'm taking discarded clothes to Salvation Army in two days, so have to make final decision by then.I also slept in as I always do when I have important plans for the morning, and this was the day to get to the big item clothes—dresses and suits. But I did get through the next step in my project.

I piled all my dresses and suits (from three closets!) on the two beds in our guest room.
There were thirty-one items and I discarded only seven—about 23%.

A pile of dresses that no longer bring
me joy or don't fit.

I kept five of seven floor length dresses. When I first moved to the desert, women wore long dresses to house parties, lots of fun and we felt so glamorous. Now we don't do that much, but I kept some because I love them and I do feel special when I wear them. One is a dress I wore to two of my children's weddings and it still fits! But I don't have room in my regular closet for these long items. I guess I should work on getting all my clothes in one closet but that's going to take some time. So now they are in the guest closet.

The other five dresses and suits I'm discarding because they no longer give me joy or frankly, they don't fit anymore and it's time to admit that ship has sailed as far as achieving a smaller waist. One is a beautiful peach suit that I wore to special work related occasions. But it doesn't fit and I no longer have special work events. Others are two deep purple suits—does anyone really need two of them. I also discarded a beige linen shirt and pants suit that I love but it's linen and I don't iron. Finally, I discarded an old, and much loved black silk 'funeral' dress which no longer fits and I had already replaced with another black silk dress I had made in Thailand. Young people may think it's amusing to have a dress for going to somber occasions, but unfortunately the older I get the more of these I attend. And of course, you can never go wrong with a little black dress wherever you go.

Dresses I kept, note
LBD

All the suits and dresses I kept really do bring me joy when I wear them and they fit well. Whenever I read how French women stay chic, the importance of good fit and using a tailor, if necessary, to alter clothes for a better fit is stressed. I haven't used a tailor yet, but perhaps that's the next step after my tidying-up project.

Now that I've finished Marie's first category: clothes, I need to store them. In her book, she discusses why it's best to keep all in a category in the same place. But one closet isn't big enough for all my clothes. I'm not really a clothes horse, but I need more than one location. Most of my clothes are in my closet. I have two six-feet rods for short items (blouses, skirts) and a two-foot rod for long items (pants and dresses). I also have two thirty-inch shelves where I keep my boxes filled with tee shirts and tank tops. In my bedroom I use four drawers: socks, shorts/yoga pants, scarves/belts, and sweaters. I guess I have to admit that I also keep wool cardigan sweaters in a cedar chest during the summer.

But wait, there's more. In the bathroom I have a drawer with underwear and sleepwear. And that's it, except for the long dresses still in the guest closet, and a few jackets in the hall closet.

Now that I'm done with tidying-up my clothes, can I look forward to what Ms. Kondo foresees?

“Tidying brings visible results... When people revert to clutter no matter how much they tidy, it is not their room or their belongings but their way of thinking that is at fault. Even if they are initially inspired, they can’t stay motivated and their efforts peter out. The root cause lies in the fact that they can’t see the results or feel the effects. This is precisely why success depends on experiencing tangible results immediately. If you use the right method and concentrate your efforts on eliminating clutter thoroughly and completely within a short span of time, you’ll see instant results that will empower you to keep your space in order ever after. Anyone who experiences this process, no matter who they are, will vow never clutter again” pp.16-17, The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up.  

A well organized closet leads
to a well organized mind.

It really is pleasant and inspiring to see only clothes that fit and I enjoy in a tidy order. In fact, I have carried over some of her precepts into traveling. I recently stayed in a motel for three weeks and actually put my clothes in the available dresser drawers—usually I just live out of a suitcase. Not only did I put my tee shirts in a drawer but they were all neatly folded and stacked vertically ala the Kondo method. And they stayed neat the whole time, including through two wash days. Her method seems to be working for me. But the next category is going to be even harder.

Week 8 delayed

Week 8 has been delayed until Thursday morning.  Please come back to read how I deal with dresses and suits--a fascinating subject. ☺

WEEK 7. WHAT'S AN UNMENTIONABLE?

Today is the day I was going to do my last large category of clothes, dresses, suits, and pants outfits but it's just too hot to try on clothes. It's October and should be cool, but the blazing temperatures are not yet gone. And I have to try on these items because if it doesn't fit it doesn't matter how much joy it sparks.  I have to get rid of it.

So I did small things. It's funny, but I just remembered an old-fashioned term. Unmentionables. Would anybody under thirty know that was a term used to describe underwear? Anyway, whatever you call them, that was next on my schedule. 

 I first went through underpants and bras, discarding nothing because I had gone through them a few months before I started this tidying up project and they were in good shape.

Nightgowns/pajamas, ditto. I have one beautiful cotton lawn, heavily embroidered knee length night gown I bought in Thailand nine years ago. I love it but it's getting frayed under the arms and I should get rid of it, but I keep hoping I will find a magic tailor who can repair it. It only cost $25 (remember I said Thailand, nine years ago) and I bought it because I was mad at my husband who said I shouldn't buy anything at the 'night market', so I bought this in a very upscale store. Not a very rational reason but it does bring me joy.

Swim suits, I finally found one that fit and looked good a few weeks ago, so I could get rid of the two piece suit with its fluffy top draped to hide bellies that I have always hated. I did keep my 'back up' suit, which isn't perfect, but since we live in southern California I feel I need to keep a back up suit. It does not spark joy, but I think it's necessary right now. The more I wear the new suit, the more I like it.

Socks. This was a fruitful category. Again I was shocked to discover I had forty-one pairs!! Why do I need forty-one pairs of socks, white, black, brown, and several novelty pairs trimmed with Santa Claus or Winnie the Pooh, and several knee length 'nylons' for under trousers. I got rid of nine pairs, mainly some heavy black wool socks which I don't know why I've kept. They would only be useful at the North Pole. Giving away nine of forty-one is 22%.

So I didn't do much in this category. But to date I have emptied two dresser drawers, and I can actually see the tops and bottoms hanging in my closet. Also my seven shoe boxes of Kondo folded tee shirts look nice. Next week I finish up the clothing category.

WEEK 6. BOTTOMS UP

My camera is giving me trouble, so I won't be able to post pictures of what I've done with bottoms.  I'm also trying not to worry that I won't be successful at this project because I am not following the procedure exactly.

It's somewhat unnerving to read that the author believes “The ultimate secret of success is this: If you tidy up in one shot, rather than little by little, you can dramatically change your mind-set. A change so profound that it touches your emotions will irresistibly affect your way of thinking and your lifestyle habits. My clients do not develop the habit of tidying gradually. Every one of them has been clutter-free since they undertook their tidying marathon. This approach is the key to preventing rebound.” [Kondo, page 16]

I'm not sure exactly what her definition of 'one shot' is because elsewhere she mentions that it takes her clients an average of six months to do the entire process. There is no way I can do a whole house in one shot. I am doing each category, or sub category in one shot. Like in so many matters, I will just have to trust that doing the process to the best of my ability will eventually lead to success.

I have psyched myself up so I am now ready to face skirts, shorts, and pants. My lifestyle doesn't call for many skirts. Of twelve skirts, I kept nine, about 75%. Maybe I'm just better at choosing joyful skirts than other clothing categories.

One interesting outcome of this process is that I'm discovering how many articles of clothing I actually own. T-shirts were embarrassing and now I'm faced with thirty-one long pants. I kept twenty-two, 71%. Some are lightweight, cropped, some are jeans, some are patterned, and some are wool for cool weather. Most are black or khaki colored.

As usual I had to save something because I needed it. I kept my only pair of navy pants, not because they bring me joy. I just feel neutral about them but I have some tops that spark my joy and they need to go with navy pants so I will keep them until I find a navy pair that sparks my joy or until I've discarded the several navy tops I have kept.

Although it's very hot here, I only have six pairs of shorts. I don't like to wear them out in public, but when it's 115 degrees I can't worry about how I look. And I didn't discard any of them. I guess that's one category of clothes I buy very carefully.

Next week I hope to finish the clothes category.

WEEK 5. FROM TOPS TO....MORE TOPS

Last week, when I packed up my discarded shoes to take to a charitable thrift store, I felt better. In the guest closet I found a sack of shoes I had discarded before I started Kondo's tidying-up process but hadn't give away yet. So I did discard more than two pairs of shoes. Hooray for me. But now I had to start on clothes, I'd put it off long enough and I would start at the top.

As I faced them I decided to just do indoor tops first. Outer wear like jackets and sweaters would have to go into a subcategory, later. I know, I know. Another deviation from the proposed method. But it was too overwhelming to have to consider everything in one day. I know I'm already going to have a problem because I may have to keep some things that are not joyful, but are necessary. 

I piled all my tops, blouses, shirts on my guest room bed. Frankly, I was embarrassed as I kept piling up more and more, from dresser drawers and closet shelves and hangers. I who so often said I have nothing to wear, actually had more than 100 tops, exactly 119, which included fifty-seven T shirts. It is very hard for me to discard anything and some of these items were pretty old. But guided by the Kondo method I managed to eliminate forty-nine of the 119 tops, or about 41%.

Here are some of the gruesome statistics on how much I kept.

57 T shirts, kept 34 including 3 collared polo shirts, about 60%

21 Tank tops, sleeveless shirts, kept 15, 71%

15 sleeved blouses, kept 6, about 40%

26 long sleeved shirts/blouse, kept 15, 58%.

I admired the pile of discarded clothes that hopefully someone else would be able to use. And I admired the empty spaces in my closet. The day had gone well. I folded the kept T shirts according to Marie Kondo's method and put them, sorted by color, in shoe boxes on the closet shelves where I used to stack them. As she directs in the book, I hung my tops in a rising, long to short, dark to light order, within each category, long sleeved shirts, short sleeved, sleeveless. I sighed as I look at this neatly filled space. How long I wondered will they stay that neat? Hmmm.

The next morning I started on my other sub category—jackets and sweaters.  I live in the California desert so I don't have much cold weather wear. My only coat is an avocado green trench coat which I've had for more than twenty years and still love. It brings back memories of when I wanted to be a foreign correspondent. It has a liner so can be worn if I ever go anywhere that's actually cold. Cold to my desert thinned blood is under sixty degrees.

The first item I pulled from the new pile of clothing was a surprise--a white silk, mandarin style jacket, heavily embroidered with colorful designs. I thought I'd get rid of cause I hardly wear it, but I felt joyful when I held it. So I kept it and this winter I'll make an effort to wear it more often.

In the pockets of a hot pink, puffy, winter jacket I found a pair of black leather gloves I thought I'd lost.  I never wear the jacket but keep it for Chicago's 'snow' country.  I put the black gloves in an 'accessory' drawer where I can keep an eye on them.

I had eighteen outerwear items and kept fourteen, a keep rate of 78%.  I discarded only 22%-- not very good. But maybe I'm better at choosing outer wear than other articles of clothing.

I started on the sweaters.  It was ninety degrees outside, supposed to go to 109 degrees and I was holding wool sweaters in my hands. Of course, none of them brought me joy right then, but I had to think of the future.

My first discards were two of my mother's cardigans. She's been a saint in heaven for ten years and I've worn them occasionally to feel close to her. Now I could let them go and hope they bring joy to someone else.

For more than twenty years, I have loved a charming white sweater with pastel embroidered flowers but I had to admit it's too small to ever wear again.

When done I had discarded nine (four pull overs, five cardigans) and  kept twenty-four (seven pull overs, seventeen cardigans)

Score: discard 27%, kept 73%, again not too good.

Marie says her clients give away an average of one half (50%) to three fourths (75%) of their clothes, so far I'm averaging 27%, 22%, 41%. I have not even made her clients' lowest average of 50%.

Well, I still have skirts, slacks, dresses, two piece outfits to go.  And that's just the rest of the clothes category.

WEEK 4. A Sea of Shoes

Well, I did something that might seem to be against all the other non-cluttering methods but I hope it will be the start of my 'new life'. I was in Walmart to buy some essentials when I noticed a beach towel sale and one towel called my name. Looking at it I was filled with happiness. It was in pink, yellow and green, with drawings of pineapples and other fun stuff. My beach towels have always been scruffy, worn objects, because they get rough use from sand, cement and chlorine. But now I look at this towel and hope it is the first of choosing objects for joy rather than for utility. And the price of all this happiness—nine dollars.

A very happy beach towel

As I said last week, I also had to go through the difficult process of finding a new bathing suit. And I did. I didn't get a spark of joy when I touched it, but at least I didn't scowl at myself in the mirror when I tried it on. I think I'd have to lose a number of pounds and a number of years before a bathing suit could bring a spark of joy.

But back from the beach, I'm on to the next step in my magic tidying-up—shoes! I have trouble finding shoes that fit, so I feel I don't have very many. But they do take up a lot of space. Maybe I have more than I think.

I called all the shoes to a meeting on the floor and sat surrounded by a sea of shoes looking to me for guidance. Well, I counted them. I have thirty-eight pairs of shoes and after careful consideration and looking for sparks of joy I am getting rid of only two pairs. I now understand why Marie says its best to get rid of clothes first. I have three pairs of navy and two pairs of grey shoes--colors I rarely wear, but as long as I have clothes in those colors I can't get rid of the 'go with' shoes. Hmm. Her method is beginning to make more sense.

Only two pairs discarded.  What am I
doing wrong?

I did get rid of a pair of very dark green suede which I like but when I wear them everyone thinks they're black, so there's no point in giving them space. I need green shoes that look green. The other pair, a very comfortable black Cole Hahn loafers, were completely worn and scuffed. They did not spark joy. I needed to let them go. But I feel I need green shoes and black loafers so eventually I'll have to replace them.

I'm trying not to buy new until I am through with my complete tidying up process. (I really needed a new bathing suit and the towel was pure joy, so they don't count.)

How many are too many?

Right before I read the book, I did buy new shoes--blue Keds with pink roses (I'm a sucker for pink), and multicolored, thin strappy sandals. I bought the sandals as I knew an older, similar pair were about to give up their elastic and I wanted to be prepared and they were on sale. A third pair was a more attractive replacement for some old, thick, ugly brown sandals, with cracked soles, but were so comfortable I hated to throw them away. They are now gone forever. This took place before the tidying-up started.

A side benefit to working on my shoes was cleaning out about fifty plastic sacks that were stuck in around the shoe boxes I kept on a closet shelf. I don't know why the sacks were there. I guess I just clutter for no good reason. 

I am keeping the empty shoe boxes for the time being because as Marie says, they're good for organizing drawers. And I can see my neatly folded T shirts fitting in them.

Unfortunately, since I tidied out of order, I will probably have to redo my shoes once I have finished with all my clothes. Next week I will start with tops.   

At the right are my double hung shoe holders.  And I also have a six foot shelf of shoes.  Obviously, I need to do better.  I would really appreciate knowing how many pairs of shoes you have.  How many are too many?

Week 3. I Subvert the Order

Last week I wanted to start with Kondo's first category for choosing joy, clothes. She suggests this order: Tops, bottoms, hung items, socks, underwear, handbags, accessories (scarves, belts), special activities (swim, yoga), shoes. We're all used to going through our clothes and discarding items that no longer work--the washing machine shrunk them. So this should be the easiest category. I agree but already I plan to subvert her order. I was going away (yeah, again) for a few days, but I wanted to get started on the project. And the quickest items for me to work with would be handbags/purses.

According to my friends, I don't have many of these. They have lots more. I have a strange phobia about handbags. I don't understand why they have to be so big and heavy (and in some cases, extremely expensive). Men don't carry such hindrances. Why do women? I also feel the same way about high heeled shoes, but that can wait until I work on the shoe category. I was eager to get started on my 'slightly modified' Kondo method, and went off to gather purses from all the places I stashed them. I decided that tote bags would have to wait for their own sorting on the next day. I had too many of them.

Purses I discarded

I threw clutches, evening bags, handbags, purses, shoulder bags on a guest room bed. I couldn't really see searching on the floor as she suggests for those that gave off a spark of joy.

This category was easy. It didn't take long to separate out the joyful ones. However, some of those that still gave me joy were too worn to be useful. I'd recently finished a book on French chic and no French woman would have wanted to even be buried with the weary ones I'd been carrying.

I chose to keep thirteen of twenty seven—keeping just under fifty percent which sounded pretty good to me. However, they included two small black, clutch bags that were chosen not so much for joy as because they were neutral and useful. Two was excessive but I felt I needed to use them again to see which I prefer. I also kept two Coach leather shoulder bags, one navy and one brown. They don't fill me with joy either, but are serviceable for business type meetings. Perhaps I should give them away.  I wonder if it's OK to make these decisions later if you're not sure. Although I suppose not sure means 'no joy.'

I also kept two black cloth, over the shoulder bags with many compartments for overseas travel.  They probably should go too. But they are serviceable.

It seems I've been buying purses to serve a purpose or to be a certain color or style. Not because the object makes me happy. Hmm. I'll have to remember that insight the next time I go shopping. Search for joy not just usefulness.

But I did have some 'happy' bags: a glitzy sky blue with sequins and crystal beads sort of vintage looking, another that had been a gift—a small clutch covered in deep pink silk rosettes—and a perky black and white with a white bow on its side, another gift. They make me feel French chic when I use them. I also saved a red leather wallet and a very soft brown leather long wallet. Never used but I like them and so kept them. Is that crazy?

Purses I kept

Of the thirteen bags I saved, six were either all pink or with a pink pattern. I have to admit I do like pink.

Although Kondo says not to worry about storing items, I did want to put away those I kept before I started another category. I hung the ones with handles from a closet rod which I can lift and slide them off of. Actually, it's on my husband's side of the closet and hangs over his shoes on the floor.  The floppy ones, not so many now, I stored in a shelf in a small shoe box.

The next day I worked on tote bags. Well, that doesn't sound too difficult. How many can you have? Maybe more than the spots on a Dalmatian, because when I earned a salary, I went to lots of conventions and attendees always got a bag to carry all their agendas and papers in. The most prestigious I received was a Hugo Boss leather briefcase. This was given out at an international symposium on 'Cancer in Underserved Countries' held in Entebbe, Uganda. When it was handed to me, I felt a slight disconnect with the purpose of the meeting, helping poor nations deal with cancer. 

I shook my head at the memory as I handled the totes searching for a spark of joy. I went through several different kinds, about thirty all together. I got joy from two, one a green from Harrods British department store my daughter gave me. It's very attractive and I like it. Another definite keeper was also a gift, from a friend, which I use for book club meetings. It's purple with several outside compartments and sporting a Thomas Jefferson quotation which is one of my life mottoes. “I can not live without books.” This is so true and why I dread reaching the difficult category of books.

I also kept three smaller totes, a yellow and white vinyl that I like because it's cheerful, and a beige with pink Hawaiian flowers on it. I wear a lot of pink so it also sparked joy. The third is also beige with a picture of our first grandchild from his nursery school. I never use it, but I can't discard it, not yet anyway. Maybe when I get to the memento category I'll have more will power. Kondo says that's why she puts mementos last—to give you time to practice discarding less emotional items.

Since our local stores no longer provide plastic bags, I also put six (!) cloth totes in the car trunk in case I need them for groceries. They don't give me joy, but they are a need. And I saved two sturdy zipper totes with outside pockets as 'travel' bags. Again, no joy but I may need them. Altogether I kept thirteen of the thirty. A discard rate of fifty-seven percent. I congratulated myself since most of the totes hadn't been used in ten years.

My decluttering project will be put on hold while I go to the beach for a few days. It sounds like wonderful R&R, but first I need to shop for a new bathing suit. Arrgh. I wonder if Kondo's book will help me with that project.

Week 2. "The Moment You Start You Restart Your Life"

This quote from Marie Kondo reminds me of the Chinese (not Japanese!) proverb “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” My first step was to read her book on my phone. But my second step faltered. Home from my two thousand mile journey, Chicago to California, I forgot my plan to greet my house and offer gratitude. I was too busy and tired lugging in luggage and unpacking. At night in bed, expressing thanks for the blessing of air conditioning in my desert house, I remembered Kondo's suggestion and silently listed all the things in the house that made me happy. A nice way to fall asleep, even though my bed was surrounded by piles of stuff I hadn't put away yet.

The next morning after starting laundry I ordered a hard back copy of the book. The e-book I read on my phone provided the plan but I needed to underline and make notes as ideas struck me. I wouldn't get the hard cover for another week, but I still had lots to do just to get ready to start this promised 'life changing' process.

Kondo stresses that the true goal is not to have a clutter free living space. It should be to establish the lifestyle you want most once your house has been put in order. She tells her clients to visualize the desired destination before they start the decluttering process. I ask myself what do I want? Of course I want to be able to find things I constantly lose--to fulfill that old cliché of a place for everything and everything in its place. I also want to have easy access to the things that do 'bring a spark of joy' to me. Many of these things have been hidden away by the need to have more useful items easily accessible. I don't really expect to have my life changed by being clutter free, but I can see that I might have a lot more pleasure by focusing on joy filled objects.

For example, why do I have old, stained, mismatched white, thrift shop bowls in my kitchen cupboards instead of the beautiful, ceramic vegetable rimmed platter from Italy that I love? My joy is packed away in a closet. Obviously, my priorities need to be changed.

The Japanese organizer believes effective tidying involves only two essential actions: discarding and deciding where to store things. Of the two, discarding must come first. If I keep only what I love, and discard the rest, I will have room to keep joyful items accessible.

She cautions that you should not even think of putting your things away until you have finished the process of discarding. I'm not sure what she means by “finished the process of discarding,” but I do know that I can't wait until I've done the whole house. As she has set up a category list for discarding, I will put away as I finish a category, or even a subcategory. Otherwise, I'll be living in piles of non-discarded items.

As I look around I think I'm headed for failure in the tidying up project. I have several, well maybe twenty books on organizing and improving my life, and if you look at my personal areas, I have failed in those attempts. I do keep the social areas, living room, dining room, and guest bathroom in good order. At least in sight. What's in the drawers and behind cupboard doors are a different matter. I desperately need to simplify.

What's really sad about my attempts is that when we moved from the Midwest to the southern California desert, I swore all I needed was a bed, a table, a comfortable chair and a lamp. And my books, and of course my saved magazines. One of my confessions is that I moved fifteen years of what used to be my favorite magazine, Traditional Home, across the country and which are still saved in cupboards. Would I be able to get rid of them? Certainly they didn't still cause a spark of joy?

Ms. Kondo says we should only keep those things that bring a spark of joy when we touch them. I like things. I like a lot of things. I'm afraid too many things will bring me that spark when I touch them. I like the photos and prints and paintings that hang on my walls, and it will be hard to remove them. Perhaps I can keep that category out of my project. Oh dear, I better not change the process before I even begin. So here goes.

Her plan insists that the tidying up process follow a strict order which she has found for various reasons to be the most effective.

First, clothes. No problem, it will be a joy to get rid of clothes, especially those I hate and that make me 'look fat'.

Then, books. Oh, my what will I do? I have eight tall bookcases filled with lovely books.

Third, are papers—again, I look forward to that. As a writer I'm surrounded by old manuscripts.

Fourth, miscellaneous. I can't wait to get rid of stuff I don't like so I can actually find and use the stuff I love.

Last are mementos—those are last because she expects her clients to have difficulty with those and by the time you reach them you will be trained in discarding non joyful objects.

If all goes well, in next week's blog I will describe how I discarded items in the first category, clothes, with joy. And how I restarted my life.  

Day 1. I Discover the "Method"

I'm a messy person. I start the day looking for my glasses, my phone, my keys. In addition to the inconvenience of always losing items, I shudder when I think of how much time I've lost looking for things when I could be doing something more productive, or even fun. And I know, I know, if I returned objects to their 'special places' I wouldn't lose them. But I did not, maybe could not, follow that simple solution. However, browsing the internet one day I thought maybe I'd found an answer to why I didn't clean up my life. My key tapping fingers discovered the highly praised and best selling book, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing,” by Marie Kondo.

As a researcher type person, I was skeptical of all the hype and looked at as many excerpts and reviews on line that I could find. They convinced me I should at least read the book and soon. But I was a thousand miles and a few weeks from home so I did something I'd never done before. I was so eager to change my life or at least declutter it, I didn't want to wait until I got back to get a hard copy of it. Curiosity won over my preference for holding an actual book in my hands as I read. I downloaded the Kindle app to my cell phone and bought the e-book version. Wow, I thought, I've already started changing my life.

It was so engaging, I was hooked. I whipped out my phone and read a few pages whenever I had the time. Of course, I'm a self improvement junkie. I already had several book shelves filled with books on the subject, from the grandfather of them all, The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale, to the more recent At Home with Madame Chic by Jennifer L. Scott, Shelter for the Spirit by Victoria Moran, and Your Best Life Now by Joel Osteen. As you can see, I'm an equal opportunity reader. If it promises a better life, I read it. A few of these books are pictured here with pride of place the Kondo book.

Marie Kondo not only sounds like a great tidier, she also sounds like a very good psychologist. And she promises her method of tidying-up which had changed her clients' lives, would do the same for anyone who followed it. Boy, I couldn't wait to finish reading it, get home and start working on this new project. I have a good life, but I'm American and I always want more and better, right? And really, I'd just like to always know the location of my glasses, phone, and keys.

I could understand why those who read it were enthused. Of course, every self help book comes with an enthusiastic audience. The few negative reviews were from readers who didn't like the idea of thanking your possessions and the place where you lived. Being concrete realists they knew these objects had no feelings and could not respond to anything their owner said. However, even if you don't believe that, think of the effect on yourself when you give thanks. In fact, that is the premise of Simple Abundance by Gretchen Rubin. Being grateful changes you and your feelings about what is in your life. I decided Marie Kondo was a special person, and I should listen to her.

Her examples and her philosophy seemed reasonable to me, and certainly worth trying out. I thought of some beautiful serving bowls and platters that I never used because they were too hard to get out. Maybe because my kitchen cupboards were cluttered with thrift store, ugly thick bowls. I felt they were good enough for every day, while my 'good' stuff was stored away. I had as a goal, not to change my life, although that might be nice, but to just be able to find and use my 'joyful' objects.

I could hardly wait to get home and to start on my clothes—the category she stresses should be first. However, I already had caveats for her method. I didn't see myself throwing all my clothes (from three closets—regular clothes, dressy clothes, and outer wear—and dresser drawers) in a pile on the floor and going through them one at a time. I thought I would have to fudge on that one. And books. I have books throughout my house, in every room. Was I really going to have to pile them up before I could go through them?

I decided the best way to determine if her method worked for me was to record what I did, and to describe if I deviated from her method, and what happened next. Would my use of her method really be life changing?

Driving home cross country, I pictured silently greeting my home when I walked into it and telling it how grateful I am for its service to me and how joyful I am to live in it. Let's see how that works out.

Next Tuesday I'll report on my attack plan for dealing with the Kondo Method.

Blog to Start September 1, 2015

This is a blog in progress.  Actual posts will start on Tuesday, September 1, 2015.  The purpose of the blog is to journal my attempt to 'declutter' my life following the method described in the best selling book, "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo.  I admire the author and her book and hope I can accomplish what she promises, "A dramatic reorganization of the home causes correspondingly dramatic changes in lifestyle and perspective. It is life transforming."  This quotation is from pp.2-3.