This is not a product review, but I watched a segment on morning television about this book and the phenomenon that it is causing. And the quick premise is do a full purge of your house at once (do not take my blog as a reason not to read this wise book. She is doing what no one has ever taken the time to do and that is teaching us how and why to tidy up properly for good and how to make it stick.) not a little at a time and to do it by seeing if your items (not your husbands or kids) spark joy or a smile when you touch each and every thing.
A hippie at heart, which I am assuming my ten readers have picked up on now, I love the idea of recycling, repurposing, donating or in only extreme cases trashing what I have deemed not joy filled giving those items new life for someone else or new life in another form.
The next step in THE LIFE CHANGING MAGIC OF TIDYING UP is to display and treat the items you have like the gems they are. Seven months ago, when my grandmother's husband died she was selling their home and downsizing she wanted to get rid of everything she deemed unnecessary to her every day life. She gave me Tupperware, bathroom rugs, blankets, capri shorts, banana hammock, and a top. All very random things but they were all things she didn't need but they all fit into our needs in our house perfectly. Then in April my grandmother died and all of these items became like gold placed around my house and I look at each item not like a set of Tupperware but more like hugs and kisses from my grandma when I really miss her the most. This is how we should see our belongings if we really need them. Not every single thing we own is going to have grandma love attached to it. But there are going to be gifts you are given that you don't have joy from and that is the hard part of this journey, seeing that maybe that Sweater from your sister would be better donated to a clothing free store like Rethreads in Fairfield, Ohio. What good is a gift sitting in your closet? A gift is better if you can donate it and a low income family can have clothes for the winter. I digress, purposely. :) Rethreads is at 1425 Nilles Road in Fairfield, Ohio in the Church of the Nazarene building and they accept gently used clothing, shoes and accessories for the whole family and redistributes them to families in need quarterly at Open houses or on a as needed basis through the Butler County ESC Success Program ( that's me and co-workers in Fairfield). Plug, plug.
Back to the subject at hand. I am making my way through the book and cleaning or purging as I go. I found an amazing resource on Pintrest, why reinvent the wheel yourself if someone else has done it. The KONIMARI METHOD is spreading like wildfire and there is the link for some great printouts and other pintrest links.
Well, instead of giving away all of the great gems in this book. I will leave some of the greatness for you to read. :)
THE LIFE CHANGING OF MAGIC OF TIDYING UP
Again, this is not a free review. I paid for this book and I am doing this tidying to my house unprompted. I truly want to share this with the world because I think its that great. Did I mention I am a lazy ass who only like the results of cleaning and hates to clean? Yeah. That is what drew me to this. A way to help keep the tidy. Hope you find it as helpful and help others with what you purge from your house. Pass it on.
