Magical Tidying

When I read Marie Kondo’s book, the life-changing magic of tidying up: the Japanese art of decluttering and organizing, at the end is 2015 I got super excited. Her story really resonated with me. I hung onto every word. I studied how to correctly fold clothes. I paid attention to learn how to best honor the spirit of the home and the resident pieces. See, I’m the person whom my parents nicknamed Little Miss Busy Fingers when I was a wee lass on account of I was always tidying and organizing my things. So for the New Year last year on January 1st, 2016, I Marie Kondo’ed my place. I started with the clothes with a boost of inertia from our friend Miranda. I powered through the categories over the course of several months.

It was amazing and I was able to make room for the entrance of Lake in our life and our little condo. But at the time some things were still in off-site storage. When we moved to our new house we brought them back to us. Then, there they were: filling the entrance to our beautiful home to the brim. I was afraid to open them for almost two months. I’d been living without these “treasures ” for two years. We have actually really not significantly more closet space in our huge house as compared to our compact condo. So, if I did unpack, where would my beloved things go? Many of these things belonged to my grandmother, or I’d had them since high school, or worn them as a businesswoman when I was the owner of the SPAhT Homeopathic Medical Spa. I was afraid there would be a sentimental attachment, I’d held onto them at great expense thus far, right? And really no where for them to go. There was also a substantial Steel Age filing cabinet full of files awaiting my attention. When I Marie Kondo’ed a year ago, I turned my then current filing cabinet into a 1″ binder per her instructions and with her guidance. But this cabinet was in storage at that time. What important files were really waiting for me in the cluttered entrance with the heavy filing cabinet and the humongous wardrobe boxes?

So then, what do you do when you’re home sick from work? Time to tackle this project. Get to this lingering tidying project that’s been sitting in your entryway for the past months. Face it! All I needed was a little help from a friend. Turns out having a 20 year old European is very useful for in-home, on-the-spot style consultation! We had a lot of fun in the process of turning the three huge wardrobe boxes into just a small container of folded summer clothes, plus an organized shoe ottoman.

The fun-filled tidying process of January 2017…Thank you Jo!