To Keep or Not

Last year I read Marie Kondo's books on tidying up our homes.   “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" and "Spark Joy."  Reading Marie's books she explains her theory about not keeping  anything in your home that doesn't bring joy!  I know many of you have read her books as well and have used her methods to tidy your homes.  She suggests doing this job all at once!  For me it's too daunting, but we have used her thoughts in cleaning up our storage areas and other areas as well.  Having a finished basement is a wonderful place to store unused items in closets and "away from view" of our normal living space.  It's good and it's bad.  It's very easy to just take it to the basement!  Our son calls it our "marinating spot!"  As much as this is hard to admit, it's true. 

We have always given away items we no longer use to Amvets.  It's very easy to bag up unwanted items that others may want or need.  They pick up your items right from your driveway.  The proceeds go to help veterans, so it's a win win in our minds.  So many bags and boxes have left our home since we began this purge.

I found a box of David Winter cottages recently and now they are displayed on the mantle in our Florida room.  They really remind me of our time in England.

During one of our recent clear outs, we discovered a drain issue that needed repair.  After Grayden made the repairs we needed to fix the floor to the cabinet.  So while retrieving the wood for the repair, I came across a box marked, dolls.  I used to have my dolls above the chifforobe in the guest room upstairs.  Thinking about these dolls made me realize that I needed to display them or get rid of them.  I can't get rid of these dolls!  Some were my childhood dolls and some were my sister's dolls.  They have been with me for so long, they need to be displayed.  We had a shelf downstairs that used to be in my kitchen.  It would make a nice shelf to put a few of the dolls on in the guest room downstairs.

This shelf would have been on the should we keep it or should it go list.  I'm happy we were able to find a place for my dolls and use the shelf as well.  The Kon Mari method is a little too strict for me, but it has helped us to rid our home of many items we were not using.  I can feel our home sighing relief.  

Last year we purged our closets of our clothes that we no longer used.  I now can store all of my seasonal clothes in my closet as opposed to storing non seasonal clothes downstairs.  We've lived in our home for 43 years.  I imagine if we had moved more we would have gotten rid of a lot of the stuff we are now.  Even though we have gotten rid of many items that would never be used in our home, I have come across items that should be used again.  That makes me happy.

Have you used the Kon Mari method?  I'd love to hear your ideas of tidying up your home for better organization.