Tidy & Clean Homestead
Tidying is dealing with items. Cleaning is removing dirt, dusting, mopping, etc.
Rather than Spring cleaning and tidying, I prefer to tidy and clean in October/November ahead of end of year festivities. This timing is terrific as it makes the holidays less stressful with no last minute rushes before guests arrive and the new year is started with a tidy home.
Kondo, Marie. the life-changing magic of tidying up: the Japanese art of decluttering and organizing. Ten Speed Press, 2014.
I found this to be a terrific strategy and have applied it in many ways. Starting with clothes I was able to shed all the clothing that no longer served me. The reasons to keep clothes such as “Maybe I’ll need it for an interview” or “I paid so much for it, it’s a shame to let it go” or “One day…” became inadequate reasons to retain clothes that were taking up space and didn’t leave space for new things. Thinking of tidying as making space was a game changer for me. Saying goodbye so I could say hello to new—or new to me—things. Which in turn meant spending more time mending to fix the clothes that I really enjoyed.
There is a lot of misinformation about the KonMari method. Marie Kondo doesn’t say you can’t have any books or that there is a particular number of books that one can own. The number of books or items in any category is specific to each person—the pivotal part is the does this item spark joy part. Over the years I have shed books to make room for new books. I don’t need to keep every book that I’ve ever read.
KonMari is to invite into the homestead the things that serve you and to discard those items that no longer serve you.
Kondo, Marie. spark joy: an illustrated master class on the art of organizing and tidying up. Ten Speed Press, 2016.
I agree that taking the time to fold and put away neatly has a place and makes things neat and lovely but we share chores I’ve let it go that everything will be done my way. I don’t refold the towels, sheets, or clothes that are not folded in proper KonMari fashion. I don’t reorganize by color and weight. I do fold used plastic grocery sacks and paper bags though and tuck them away in a bin for resuse. I do tidy my own dresser drawers, side of the closet, side of the bed, and my bathroom. My desk drawer is tidy and organized. The kitchen is tidy and organized too. But, I don’t worry myself about the rest. We don’t have a junk drawer though. Items are consolidated such as all the cleaning supplies are stored in the hall closet. Things have their places making tasks and projects easy, making putting things away easy, making finding things easy.
I don’t view the KonMari method or any other organizing method as a set of absolute rules. It’s a framework from which to glean inspiration and using the bits that work for you in your situation. In a society built and driven to consume more products and items, it is easy to be weighed down by excess—I’ve found it to be a wonderful thing to send those items off to new adventures.
This book goes beyond that and gets into the details of putting things away—discarding those excess items without guilt along the way.
Magnusson, Margareta. The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter. Scribner, 2018.
I had to have this book right after I read a review of it. When I was property hunting in Tennessee I found that many houses were quite cluttered. Garages packed with items, one or more sheds full of leaning towers of boxes, and closets brimming with items. I was absent-minded as my agent and I looked around one kitchen and I opened a drawer—and discovered the most gnarled mass of random items I’ve ever seen in a junk drawer. It was a scary moment. There were a number of moments like this that continue to catalyze me to tidy, tidy, tidy. I will not have a shed for my excess items, I will not have a junk drawer. I will not leave behind excess items for my family and friends to deal with after I die.