Last year, I became aware of a little book called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo.Kondo's method is to take all of your things in a systematic and prescribed way and go through them and purge, purge, purge.
The idea behind KonMari, as it is called, is that you examine each and everything that you own and hold it.If the item does not "spark joy," you turf it.
The whole process is designed to create "a happier home" in your new declutter and finely organized space.Also, Kondo has a patented clothes-folding method that seems overly fussy to me.Really, if the clothes are folded at all in my house, we are having a pretty good week.
I like the idea of a decluttered home. I am physically unable to keep a decluttered home.One section in Kondo's book deals with cleaning out your closet and all of your clothes.You pick a free weekend and you grab all of the clothes, coats and shoes that you own that you have hidden in multiple storage area around your house and once you see your mountain of clothes, you feel slightly embarrassed and then you go through and carefully let the clothes that are broken, don't fit, or you never liked go.
I know that this exercise has really helped some of my friends who shop and own enough clothes to change them out every season.
This section was useless for me because I hate shopping and buying clothes and if I were to go through my closet and got rid of everything that didn't spark joy, I would be walking around in nothing but a pair of Costco lounge pants and a twenty-year old T-shirt that is at its optimal softness. I have no emotional attachment to any clothes that I own or wear and I think I need to update my wardrobe.
A section in Kondo's militaristic book that was also completely irrelevant to me was the section that deals with books.
For many people, (not English majors), the volume of books that I own is excessive and silly, verging on hoarding.For me, (a proud English major), the number of books that I own is comfortable with some holes I need to fill.
Books are not a problem. For me, lack of bookshelf space is the problem. I am a voracious fiction reader and follow a number of series that have twelve-plus books in the series, If I am going to reread a series (which I do most years), I want every book in that series on my shelf.If Marie Kondo finds a solution to storing books, I'm all over that.
I had to move my biggest bookshelf last weekend and my mom was helping me and had kindly suggested that maybe I would want to go through and purge some of my books.
I smiled and said, "Nope. I'm an adult and you can't make me." I then promptly made my kids go through their books and get rid of books they no longer read or that I hate (bye-bye, Caillou).
Do as I say, not as I do, children.
I need the bookshelf space for my own books.
