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.