Goal #32: Read 1 academic book



The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, by Marie Kondo



Okay, I know this book is trending right now, though I didn't know that when I first picked it up at the bookstore to page through it. My house is a giant clutter mess of baby tornadoes, emergency preparedness husband, and sentimental me, and I needed some kind of inspiration to get me started with the process of de-cluttering. Or purging, rather. I won't go into too much detail about the konmari method since a quick google search will pull up hundreds of articles and blogs explaining the theory and technique. But I will say this book was just what I needed to get the process started. The key is to envision what you want your home or space to be (in my case, I want a cozy home where friends and family can relax and feel peace), throw away the clothing, books, papers, mementos, and miscellany that don't excite you or help you reach your goal, and find a specific place for every single clothing, book, paper, memento, and miscellany kept. I finished the book a week ago and since then I have thrown out SO MUCH GRABAGE and it feels awesome. However, I am not a completely devout disciple of the method for a couple of reasons:  1) Marie Kondo obviously doesn't have kids and doesn't adapt her method to families in larger-than-a-Japanese-apartment homes on a mini-farm, 2) There are several items in our home that don't "spark joy" that we just need to keep out of necessity like duct tape and diaper genies, and 3) contrary to what Marie Kondo recommends, I have failed to thank each discarded item for the service it performed in my life. I still have SO MUCH GARBAGE to go, but my heart already feels lighter and I'm really excited about what this will do for our home. As long as I can get my husband who likes to hold on to everything "just in case" on board.

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