The professional neatness consultants have always left me feeling less than impressed – like they are all a bunch of judgmental obsessives with a phycological disorder or two who are compulsive about eliminating all clutter in their lives. 

Enter Marie Kondo!  Her YouTube videos are just wonderful.  And now I have discovered her blog.  She is teaching me how to go through my stuff and keep what sparks joy.

I’ve lived in the same house for decades, and I’ve been better at acquiring stuff that recycling what I no longer need.  And if I am ever going to make the transition to the beautiful, smaller, simpler condominium lifestyle, a lot of my rarely used stuff has got to go.

Watching her videos a few weeks ago sort of got me started, but last weekend, I began my tidying up efforts in earnest.

I have this closet room. And it has every item of clothing that I’ve purchased in the last 30 years. There are old shoes, hand bags, computer bags and boxes of electronic stuff.  Now I have three huge give away bags full of clothes and three more even bigger bags of throw aways. And as I sent all of these items on their way, I thanked them for their service.

There is another group of belongings that aren’t going anywhere – at least not yet.  These are things that spark joy. And not a whole lot falls into that category, which I guess is the point of it all.

Why soon just walking through my front door could spark joy!  Hmmm.  The question is just “How soon?”

OK!  It’s time to lug my give away bags out to the car for drop off at a nearby huge give away container!