OK Gretchen, you had me at "clean my closets".
I said to a friends a few months ago that my goal for my house was to have an empty shelf in every closet in the house. She seriously looked at me and said simply, "Why?" As clueless as she was to my joy of empty shelves, I was clueless as to why anyone would not want to do this! In talking to her friends, Gretchen had one that stated she kept an empty shelf in hr house....completely empty.
Lack of clutter of "stuff" equates to lack of clutter in my mind. I want less. Organizing starts with less; finding things starts with less; I'm not a hoarder; I've been known to make my family nervous when I load the car with bags to go to Goodwill. Gosh knows, I do like to shop for a new pair of shoes though, so I'm not totally immune to having nice things! But I just want less stuff in most areas of my life.
She states in chapter two: "One study suggested that eliminating clutter would cut down the amount of housework in the average home by 40 percent". Now, if that isn't motivation to clean out clutter, I don't know what would be!
I had not heard much about this book, but sometimes things come into your life at interesting times....this during my month of "managing the madness", to which I have not been very faithful!
Now, having said that I am not a hoarder, you are right to think I don't have piles of papers lying around, old magazines, tons of unused clothing or piles in the corners of my rooms.
But....there is still so much stuff!
So yesterday I focused on my shelves in the living room. First, a note about reading. I love to read. I read almost every day. I used to buy "real" books, but not I'm addicted to my Kindle (instant gratification, no clutter). But on my shelves are books going back to high school...many years. And I don't re-read books. There are too many new ones to get too to waste time rereading!
I decided to take a look at my shelves. I love these shelves: I had them built after we move into this house (now I know I could have done it myself!). Anyway, it's not horrible. But at the top of the shelf are books I read in high school, and haven't touched since. But I've moved them 4 times. I will never reread them. I kept one or two for memory sake.
Elephants: They all stay. But I look forward to having more space to display them. This is my one (sort of) hoarder tendency, or at least one that leans away from my anti-stuff personality. When I was very young, my sister nicknamed me "elephant". Yep. She was 7 years older than I was, and when she went away to college, her friends thought I must be huge. I wasn't. It's that my initials were "L-F-N", and somehow, she realized that by adding a "t" at the end would say "elephant". It stuck. There are still people I could run into today from my early childhood that would call me that. Seriously. Little known fact.
A funny thing happened: With the nickname came a lot of elephants over the years.....and a love for the animal itself. Stuffed ones back then, then nicer ones, and I still get the occasional Christmas gift from my husband of a really unique or interesting one. The point is making space for the things we love, that are meaningful, and getting rid of the things that are useless.
So anyway: there are a lot of elephants around, some in the attic. I hope by clearing out shelves I can spotlight the ones that have special meaning and give them a place in my home that I can enjoy them. By weeding through old paperbacks that I will never use again, I can find a home for things that mean something to me. But until I have empty space to work with, they would remain crammed in, packed away, tossed aside. Empty shelves: Possibilities.
Anyway.....as I've said before, it doesn't take long. After 15 minutes of sorting, I had this;
These two bags grew into four, and off to Goodwill they went. Puppy was worried, but no, I didn't give her away.
I'm glad I started this book "The Happiness Project". I'm just barely in, but so far it's motivated me. I'll keep you posted as I keep reading....and uncluttering!
As March comes to an end I have managed the mayhem a bit; I want to do more! I hope you do too!
Still need help getting started? Gretchen mentions a blog I had not heard of before: Unclutterer! I can't wait to check it out!
ps: amomwithnails.com is not affiliated in any way with
The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin
Harper Collins eBooks
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