I struggle with clutter. After I was hired as a first grade teacher, I immediately began collecting everything that I thought I would need to be a good teacher. I had friends collecting books for me, I dug through the free pile and I went to every store! A couple of months into the year, I quickly became known as an unorganized teacher with a messy room. Although there are worse reputations to have, it wasn't one I wanted. My academic coach offered to help and we spent an afternoon making a good dent in it all. Some of my team members have even helped me file. And I've slowly plugged away at organizing cupboards and stuff. It's a lot better, but nowhere near what I would like.
Confession time! My house is like this too. Recently the same coach randomly visited my house and could see where it all came from. Guys, I'm embarrassed to have people randomly drop by. I have to plan events weeks in advance just to have time to clean. It sucks. So I've decided to do something about it. And I've already started. I am going to share this process with you.
I have been starting to half-heartedly de-clutter for awhile. But then I checked out the audiobook The Life Changing Magic of Tidying. I know there is a lot of hype about this, but it's so worth it!! The methods can seem a little weird, but they work!! It has rocked me to my core. I really thought there was something wrong with me. But it's really just that I've been tidying up all wrong. I'm sick of spending entire weekends trying to clean only to have to do it all over again in a few weeks. I'm ready to take control of my stuff. Win for the day: all of my laundry is done. Like, all of it. It is a strange feeling.
I took all of my tops and put them on the floor in a giant pile. I then listened to the ambient noise of the Gryffindor Common Room. (You can listen to it too!) Then I asked myself as I held each item, "Does this spark joy?" If the answer was yes, I threw it in my keep pile. If the answer was no I thanked it for its service and put it in a donation pile. At the end of it, I had five bags to donate and about two to keep. Then I tackled all of my bottoms--skirts, shorts and pants. Three bags to donate and roughly one to keep. The momentum is encouraging. Whoa! I finished out all of the clothing categories, even socks! Who knew how few of my socks brought me joy? A quick example: I had probably five pairs of just fuzzy socks. You know the kind...a sort of gag gift that you just wear around the house. Well none of them gave me joy except this one pair of llama socks. It's hilarious, but true. And I'm set on the fuzzy sock department now. Haha. My car is entirely full of stuff to donate. And my bed is full of my clothes to keep. More importantly, my bed is full of clothes that bring me joy.
I then followed the book's instructions on how to put away all of my clothes. It took me an hour to put away all of my clothes, including hanging them all, folding them correctly and putting away all of my coats. This was liberating. At the end of the day, I donated a dozen bags of clothes. It was about two thirds of my clothing. Some of it was old clothing I've had since high school or thought I'd already donated. But now it's done and it's freaking liberating!! I realized that it took me about three days of doing laundry to get all of my clothing and bedding washed before this deep cleaning. Now, based on the pile of clothing I want to keep, I bet I'll have only three to four loads to do ever. Which means I could do all the laundry in half a day. OMG! That would be amazing. I can't wait to see where this goes from here!
Update: It's been a few weeks since I've done this and my laundry is up to date and my clothes are still put away perfectly. My clothes are still tidy! I'm still working through the rest of the process.
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