I was so excited to get started with my tidying project that I had no problem sorting through stuff in my cabinets and begin the joyful job of discarding. For me, this job is fun. I do find joy in discarding objects that no longer serve a purpose or have a use. You might have a much harder tine discarding items – my husband, for example, has a hard time letting go of things. Just the other day we were sorting through that big box of cables, cords, old computer parts, etc that everyone has laying around. We have a pretty big box full of these things to go along with our many other electronic devices and because my husband is a nerd we have a lot! Yep, I just called him a “nerd” and I mean it totally lovingly. He’s amazing and I’m so glad he understands computers!
Anyways, since I was dying to get a jump on the discarding process I drug my poor, unsuspecting husband to the basement to begin sorting through the box of cables and then to sort through our big pile of old computers, hard drives, printers, etc that we could recycle and get out of the house! While I had no problem finding a ton of stuff to discard, my poor husband sorted it all and then sheepishly said he needed to keep most of it! :) It was adorable actually! We had multiple TV cables from DirectTV still in the plastic packaging that were exact duplicates and I was ready to discard every single one, while my husband was worried we might need them ALL someday. It was cute, and made me giggle. Somehow I negotiated with him to keep just one of each kind, phew. I did learn that everyone has a different way of looking at items around the house and the key is identifying it’s purpose and being ok with letting it go if it’s already served it’s purpose.
At least I know that I have no problem letting go of stuff, which I’m happy about considering the journey I’m about to go on, but the best words I’ve read so far into Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, are “we should be choosing what we want to keep, not what we want to get rid of.” Like focusing on the good. I have a very hard time doing this in everyday life. I tend to focus on the bad in a situation and in people. Isn’t that awful?! I love the idea of looking at an object and asking “Does this spark joy?” If not, discard. While this sounds simple, I know it’s going to be hard.
I do love this approach for clothing though, a lot. I still have stuff in my closet that I wore in college, my “cute days,” as I refer to them. I keep wanting to be the same size as I was in college – you know, long before I had 3 kids. When I try to remember what I think I looked like back then, I’m not sure it’s all that different than I do now…it’s silly, yes, I was thinner, but I was 18!!!! Marie also says in her book to thank the item for the role it played in your life and then let it go.
A great example is a pink t-shirt I still have with a glitter chihuahua on it (ohmygoodness…two of my favorite things – glitter and chihuahuas, especially at that time in my life), and it’s a very small t-shirt. I loved this shirt, I wore it all the time and for some reason I still have it 18 years later!! 18 years?!!! I can’t believe I’ve had it that long! Why in the world have I held on to it this long? Partly because it has glitter on it (have I mentioned that I LOVE glitter??), and partly because it has a chihuahua on it, and I have 2 chihuahuas (the same 2 chihuahuas who are now 14 and 15 years old). More importantly, I keep hoping I’ll be able to get skinny enough to wear it again. I’ve not worn this shirt for probably 12 years – I don’t think I’ve fit into it for the last 13 years and I still have it. Marie says you should ask this question, “Does it spark joy?” It sparks really good memories of a time when I was itty -bitty and cute, but it also makes me sad because I don’t look like that anymore. Can I actually thank this shirt for giving me joy at the time I bought it and wore it, and be ok with letting go of it? I’m not sure….. When I really think about it, even if I could fit into it again some day, I’m not sure that I would even wear it, as it’s really short! :) 20 years ago short shirts were the fashion trend, but not anymore! I’m still really thinking about this one and I’ve not even started working on going through my closet yet!! My brain gets really far ahead of me sometimes.
Anyways…back to my point – I’m a few days into my tidying journey and I’m selling things like a crazy woman! It’s nice! We are saving for a car, so the extra money I make on discarded items around the house all go into a jar sitting on my counter – the official “Car Fund” – hey, you have to start somewhere right?! I used to be a big fan of having a garage sale, so all year long I would designate a space in my storage room and/or the guest room and collect items we could sell. Once garage sale season would hit, usually late April, I would drag all my stuff out to the driveway and sell it all. Whatever was left after 2 days I would donate to Goodwill. Normally, we would save all that money for something big – one year we used it for a vacation to Legoland! Now, I’m a more sophisticated seller – I like to use online selling apps to move my stuff and reach a bigger audience, and for some stuff I can charge a higher price than I would get for the item at a garage sale, which is awesome! My favorite selling app is VarageSale and I also use a few smaller local community Facebook groups. These groups are great because the seller comes to you to buy your item and for smaller items, I usually leave them outside my front porch with a nice note and the buyer just leaves money under my doormat. It’s very convenient and easy! If you get to know me well enough you know that I really love things that make my life easier. My kids have a snow day today – which means all 3 will be home, but I’m hoping that gives me a good excuse to get more tidying done since I don’t have to run them around.
So, who’s used the KonMari Method? How did you discard items that were hard to get rid of? Any advice for me and my tidying journey?
Have a great day! I’m off to try to tidy….
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