Sometimes spring cleaning involves more than just cleaning floors and windows thoroughly. It means moving things off the floors and putting them somewhere else: storage, the trash or a charity. Sometimes it even means cleaning out the junk drawer. This is known as de-cluttering. Some years around this time, I go into major de-clutter mode. My husband gets a little worried when I start to make piles of things to give to charities and fill bags with things I’m throwing away. He is afraid that one of these days I’m going to start throwing away/giving away his stuff.
These major de-cluttering episodes started back in 2013, when the shelf in my closet collapsed– I had stored too many heavy boxes on the shelf. I needed to figure out what to do with all my stuff, so I read “The Clutter Cure” by Judi Culbertson, and it really helped me let go of some things in my closet and sewing room. But I hadn’t tackled the rest of the house, yet.
Now there are lots of books available to help us get our minds around actually getting rid of our belongings. Marie Kondo has become famous in the United States for her book “The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up: the Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.” She recommends you gather all like things together (all your books or all your clothes) and pick up each item to decide if it gives you joy. If it does, you should keep it, if it doesn’t, you should get rid of it. She says it should take about six months to choose the things you want to keep throughout your whole house, and from then on you will have a new mindset and never have to declutter again– just tidy-up occasionally. I felt her book went too far in the direction of giving up too much stuff.
Next I read “Every Thing That Remains,” a memoir by two Americans who call themselves “The Minimalists.” They also have a website that includes a blog and podcasts: www.theminimalists.com. They weren’t much better, but their book was fun to read. They think you should pack everything up then take things out as you need them. At the end of 21 days anything that is still packed up goes out the door. I did like their views on consumerism. We are constantly told by advertisers to “buy, buy, buy.” But where do we put all this stuff? And do we really need it? One minimalist made a New Year’s resolution to purchase zero material possessions all year. It was hard for the first few months, but eventually he no longer had urges to buy unneeded things.
When Margareta Magnusson’s parents died she had to go through their things and decide what to keep, and then she had to do the same when her husband died. She decided she would make it easier on her children when she dies by getting rid of things she no longer needs or loves. She wrote the book “The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning” to help others do the same. The title sounds morbid, but the author has a wonderful sense of humor, and writes the book as though she is in the room chatting with you.
The book I found most useful is “The Joy of Less” by Francine Jay. She uses some of the same ideas as Marie Kondo— such as take every item out of a drawer or cabinet, then pick each item up. She states “the idea is not to choose the things we’ll get rid of, but to choose the things we’ll keep.” But she believes each person is different and must decide on how much is right for them. There is no magic number of objects one should own. She didn’t make me feel like I was keeping too much.
Here are a few more books to inspire you:
Well, I’ve been inspired. I think I’ll go clean out the laundry room today.
