On The Journey, Chapter 1

So, did any of you get the book?  Just in case you need the title:  It’s The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up, The Japanese Art of Decluttering And Organizing.  On my last post I promised we would go over chapter one.  Here’s where I am.  Marie Kondo suggests starting out with your clothes.  I did.  Unfortunately, she suggests you do it all in one sitting.  Well, the problem I encountered is that I only have pockets of time.  Normally, this would discourage me, but this time, it did not.  This whole week, I’ve been taking a few minutes here and there to go through my closet.  This will take me a while since I only have time to go through 5 or 7 pieces of clothing at a time.  To make matters a little more difficult, this week, our church is doing VBS.  I’ll be tied up all morning every day and exhausted in the afternoon, but I am not giving up.

Here’s a few things I’ve learned in chapter one.  It was eye opening to read, “The general assumption, in Japan at least, is that tidying doesn’t need to be taught but rather is picked up naturally.”  Kondo explains how that cannot be farther from the truth and I agree.  Just because your mom is tidy, and you grow up in a tidy home does not mean you will automatically know what to do.  I know this personally.  The state of our home affects us in so many ways.  Just like food, clothing, and shelter are basic necessities, so is the state of our shelter!  Here is a HUGE one for me.  She talks about rebounding.  It is so frustrating to me when I spend so much time and many times even money on organizing a space only for the space to end up a huge mess again.  The problem I’ve had is that I shouldn’t just organize.  I should be getting rid of everything I no longer need nor brings me joy.  Why spend the time and money organizing stuff I don’t care about or need?!?!  After all, “Putting things away creates the illusion that the clutter problem has been solved,” but we know in reality it’s just hidden, waiting to explode!  I love that this book is forcing me to look deep and figure out my WHY and that, “Tidying is just a tool, not the final destination.”

The only part I found goofy is that I should be taking care on how I fold my socks because they need to rest.  What?  Really?

As with anything that is not the Word of God, I will take it with a grain of salt, apply what will work for me as well as for my family, and hopefully learn from it.

 

One very important lesson God has taught me is that minimalism looks different to different people and that is okay!

What have you learned this week?

*All quotes came from the book mentioned above.