decluttering

New Order: A Decluttering Handbook for Creative Folks (and Everyone Else) by Fay Wolf

Our library system can keep me busy reading organizing books for years! I just finished reading New Order: A Decluttering Handbook for Creative Folks (and Everyone Else) by Fay Wolf as a follow-up to The Art of Discarding. The best part about New Order is its detailed resourcefulness. There are lists of charities and several website and apps suggested throughout the book.

Personally, the best part about reading this book was her suggestion to use an app as a daily to do list. I used lists on old-fashioned (joyful) paper to accomplish daily tasks. Yet, when I downloaded Wunderlist, things got, well, awesome! Wunderlist allows me to enter any task I want to get done (and I can categorize it by any lists I’d like). I get to enter the date and if I’d like a reminder, and also see a daily and weekly breakdown. It has a satisfying “ping” when I check an item off the list, and I can modify daily tasks to include last-minute things to accomplish. Finally, I can alter due dates of things that didn’t get done, and get reminders for those in the future. In fact, this blog post is on my to do list for later this week, but I had 30 minutes before a library run, so I looked ahead at what I could start and, well, here we are. Did I mention Wunderlist is free? How fantastic is that?

I took another great nugget from this author about budgeting work time (again she suggests a handy website). I’m trying it with my children and may implement it in our homeschooling routine, which is just around the corner!

I’d recommend this book to those who need specific resources for donating items or really need to work on budgeting time. What great organizing book do you love?

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Be Brave. Let it Go.

Clutter comes from the postponed decision of what to do with an item. When we gather all like items together to sort, we are deciding to decide! We are taking the time to confront our indecisiveness and with Marie Kondo’s inspiration we shift this process from a negative one to a joyful one. Some items will be kept and some will be discarded.

As Marie Kondo explains in her book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, while tidying she kept searching for reasons to let an item go. She spent years cleaning and decluttering her room and still it felt cluttered. Then she had the realization that by focusing on only what to get rid of, she was focusing on unhappiness. Instead, by keeping those items she loved, she shifted her tidying focus and inspired millions. So her criterion for keeping an item is that it “sparks joy.”

When you decide to tidy, enjoy the focus on the happiness that the item brings. It’s very easy to keep items we love. In fact, this is the easiest part. However, what if the item doesn’t spark joy? Here is where you can be brave! Get comfortable with the thought of letting it go. At this point you have decided to decide on each item’s role in your life. It’s almost like the item is interviewing for a position in your life. Why keep something that doesn’t support your goals or ideals? Why keep an old gift that you don’t feel pretty wearing? Why keep something that sits hidden in the corner of your closet? Be brave. Let it go.

Next post will go into more detail on how to let it go, for now, just become comfortable with discarding.