For our first-ever Enjoy Life Project, we are working on Creating Home. The first step is to purge my home of the unnecessary, anything that isn’t useful, beautiful, or loved. I am using the KonMari method, developed by Marie Kondo, a Japanese decluttering guru and author of two book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up {LM} and Spark Joy {SJ}.  So far, I’ve introduced the project, discussed my criteria and completed my clothes (part I and part II) and books.

 Things that are pending weigh on the mind for more than you might think.

The past few months on the blog, I have consistently mentioned guilt.  Initially when I set out to create home for me and my family, I did not think that guilt had anything to do with this situation.  Turns out it was a HUGE part of this situation. This became very evident as I was preparing to tidy my clothes and I realized that my closet and my papers both hold a lot of items that are unresolved.  With clothes, it was the items that I could no longer wear. Or those that I had bought them with the idea that I would one day fit into them. You get my drift. Paper was another area where the guilt was SCREAMING at me. So many papers and resources that I no longer needed. I wrote about the journey in real-time and here is the transcript.

Tuesday, March 5 at 8 AM – I’m waiting on the Buddy Man to wake up and I have moved all the papers out of the literal and proverbial closet and unto the floor.  Here’s my view!

What a mess! I’m sitting on a trunk and I am SO OVERWHELMED! Nervous apprehension is an understatement. I have a headache!!!!!!  I guess there’s nothing to do but jump in and get it done.  Referencing my end goal now.

At 11:15 AM – The Buddy isn’t feeling well. So, I have laid him down to rest.  Back at it.

At 12:30 PM – Something has clicked.  I am SO SICK of sorting paper.  So, if it doesn’t spark joy or if I don’t need it for legal purposes, it is gone! Including notepads from conferences that I attended – into the recycling they go.

At 3:17 PM – Taking care of Buddy Man. Spot tidying in-between checking him out.

Thursday, March 6 at 6 PM – I just finished going through the first past-through of paper, minus my journals and sentimental items.  I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders that I have been carrying around for at least 8 years.  It was cathartic, there were tears at several points.

But looking at that first pass-through of reducing my papers to things that spark joy or at least are useful and needed makes me know I am able to do the hard thing dealing with emotions that I have been staring at me for 12 years or more. In fact, I found a To-do List dated 2011 with the first item being: Clean out papers.  The irony!

I had notebooks from a company that I tried to start.  Mementos from my years of employment that reminded me of the good times and how poorly I appreciate them when I had them.  I also had papers that reminded me of the bad times, seemingly breaking open old wounds, causing me to relive the pain and the disappointment.

In addition, I had seven, SEVEN, notebooks of style and fitness tips that I had torn from magazines and the web.  It was basically Pinterest before there was Pinterest. Most of these ideas I had enthusiastically began but never fully implemented.

Many times, I wanted to quit and dive into a pint of ice cream but I remember what Marie said. Things will get difficult. Just keep sorting. I did and it worked.

Thursday, March 14 at 9:15 AM – As I made the second pass-through of my papers, specifically my style notebooks, I realized the HOURS that I spent planning to live my life rather an actually living it. Gut punch.

Here’s what I have left to keep.

 Wednesday, March 20 @ 1:30 AM – Marie says that by tidying, I’m honing my intuition and ability to act.  That’s why when I was sick and couldn’t sleep, I decided to continue KonMari(ng) my Komono, namely my journals that I had planned to save to Sentimenal.  I think I now know what I need to keep and what I should discard so I gave it a go.

I had six planners which I kept for referencing dates and activities that I have been involved in.

I have a total of 28 journals that have been written in – only 5 of which were completely filled.  They stay, obviously. Fourteen of the of the remaining 23 haven’t even been written in at all. Shame! I gave away 6 of those because they didn’t spark joy. Eleven were emptied of relevant pages that I need to keep for reference and then headed for recycling.  The rest were kept.

Surprisingly it didn’t take me that long.  I finished within the hour.

I can definitely say that my skills of what I want to have in my life currently and what I want to take with me have become clearer during this process.  I think I will breeze through Komono.

I will be back next week with my tips and tricks for tidying my papers.  See you then.

enjoy life…