Books - It's a Love Let Go Thing

Books were next on my list to purge.  Marie says to hold each book in your hands.   Use the same gauge you used for your clothes and shoes.  How does the book make you feel, regardless of whether you have read it or not?  

I have never been able to get rid of books before because I love books!  I love to learn.  I love to travel to faraway places by immersing myself in a book.  Books are wonderful.  However, I found as I held each book, I had a feeling when I held it.  This was getting easier for me.  Good feeling – keep.  Bad feeling – discard.  My bulging bookshelves were now much happier.  Each book now has space to breathe.  Each book has a place.  Ahhhhh.

Shoes and Spider Webs

What about my shoes?  There were those pumps gathering dust and spider webs in the back corner.  Did they bring me joy when I held them?  Nooooo.  Time to go!  When I held a few pair, I could see that their days of service were over.  They had stains and were cracked.  Poor shoes!  They had been tucked away in my closet waiting to go to their grave.  I felt good about releasing them so they could begin their next life as parts of the atmosphere, floating around, free and happy.

The cool thing about this process is the next time I am offered clothing or go shopping, I will know not to accept anything into my balanced, harmonic, happy closet that doesn’t bring me joy.  Just today I put on a skirt.  I like the way it feels and I like the color.  I do Not like the way it fits.  Out it goes!  There is so much freedom in that!

Let the Tidying Begin!

Everything we own makes us feel a certain way.  Some things make us happy. Some things don’t.  Some things we hold on to out of obligation.  Maybe we inherited it from a lost parent or it was a gift.  Regardless of how it came into our lives, our possessions make us feel something. 

I started this tidying process in my closet.  Marie recommends taking everything out.  You have to be able to hold each item in your hand and see how it makes you feel.  Happy and good?  That goes in the Keep Pile.  Sad or yucky or repulsed? That goes in the Trash Pile.  Very simple concept, right? 

What about the things you don’t like or haven’t ever worn that make you feel sort of guilty for getting rid of them?  Clothes, shoes, possessions feel good only if they are used.  They are sad if they just hang or sit day after day and never get to see the light of day.  If you hold something and you have no love for it, but you feel a little guilty for letting it go – thank it for its service to you and tell it you are releasing it.  Ahhhh.  That felt good.  Those blue jean jumpers in the back of my closet – gone!  They were released to be of service to someone else.  That suit coat I got and never wore – gone – off to be of service to someone else.  My bulging closet already felt better!

After you have sorted into your Keep and Trash piles, the next thing to do is put all your clothes away.  The author says to stand everything up on end.  Our clothes don’t like to be stacked because they are all squished, can’t breathe, and the likelihood of being chosen to be worn when on the bottom of the stack is slim.  I like this, too.  My socks and workout clothes are much happier now because I can easily see each item and choose what I’m going to wear.  It makes me happy to know my clothes are happy.

My Journey Into Tidying

I was born to organize.  It’s one of the things I do.  I love it.  Making order out of chaos feeds my soul. 

My dad was very neat and tidy.  Everything had a place.  My mom would say, “A place for everything and everything in its place.”  As with most of my parents’ wisdom, I pshawed it as old-fashioned.  If I wanted to have messes, it was ok.  This was my house.  I was an adult.  However, something didn’t feel right.  I had a bulging clothes closet, an overflowing work area in the office, and it was beginning to scream at me. 

Enter The Life-changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo.  I had to get this book.  My sister was taking a health coach course and it was required reading.  She told me that after starting the book, she tidied her closet!  I had to read this book and see why it had nudged Ruth into letting go of long unused or non-joy bringing items.  I was excited because I knew this would help me. 

After I read the book, I was sharing my excitement about what I had learned with my business coach and he challenged me to write about it.  What he suggested resounded with me.  I decided to take his advice.  Now here I am! 

This will be a 7 week series.  I believe you will find value in it and I trust you will share with me how you have been impacted by this “tidying” concept as well.  I would love to hear from you!  Shall we get started?