46.

Seven people living in 1200 sq ft of space has inevitably leads to clutter build-up.

But my question is:  Is it really inevitable?  Can we get a handle on this once and for all?

I picked up this book by Maria Kondo: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.

She advocates thoroughly discarding, organizing, and decluttering all in one go.  ONE GO.  The entire home.  She believes that if you do this in one fell swoop, it will change your mindset and you will never have to tidy like this again.  I am skeptical but desperate to get this house on track.  I’ve tried tidying a corner a day or a room a day or getting more storage.  It always ends up with stuff stuffed everywhere or laying out after a day of activities by 7 people.

We are doing some work on the upstairs which has forced us to remove everything from my master bedroom.  Here is the current situation on our main floor:

This scene is physically and psychologically hurting one of my children who is singlehandedly planning a yard sale for this Saturday morning.  She owns less than 40 items of clothing and is ruthless about purging her own stuff.  She is the one that picked up Kondo’s book at the bookstore and basically forced me to buy it.

I am up for the challenge.  ONE GO will be spanning tomorrow and Saturday as we have commitments late Saturday morning.  Can we do this in 24 hours?

(I am already talking myself out  of it trying to purchase PanAm tickets to bowling as we speak.)

According to Kondo, we need to look at each item and see if it “sparks joy” because even useful and functional items can spark joy.  I will see the things from today’s point of view – the right now moment instead of clinging to a memory or making insurance for the future.

Deep breaths. Deep tidy.

Thanks for reading and making me accountable.

Now let’s do this.

(Offer up some prayers and send some well wishes please…it might get rough.)

***

100 scribbles…hurriedly writing the here and now.

#100scribbles