Jenny's Book Bag

I love this book. I wasn’t expecting to get as much out of this as I did. I thought I’d learn the latest method for organizing my house from a book with a catchy title. I wasn’t really expecting it to be anything life-changing, until I read it. It’s so much more than a book on how to declutter and organize. In many ways it read like a psychology book and I mean that in a great way.

By the time you finish reading this book, you’ll have clearly identified your goal for tidying, deeper than “I want to live clutter-free.” You’ll know exactly in what sequence you should go through your possessions. You’ll be discarding everything in your home that doesn’t spark joy, so be prepared. She’ll even tell you how to arrange the clothes in your closet, how to fold the clothes in your drawers and how to find a proper home for everything in your house. You’ll also learn a lot about yourself and the decisions you made that got you to a cluttered state in the first place.

Marie Kondo talks about how using her method (The KonMari Method) can dramatically change your mindset. She gets inside your head and discusses how to recognize your ownership patterns. She discusses in detail what it means when you have difficulties getting rid of certain possessions. You’ll ask yourself whether you have an attachment to the past or if you have anxieties about the future.

These are some of my favorite quotes:

“Success is 90% dependent on our mindset.”

“When you are choosing what to keep, ask your heart; when you are choosing where to store something, ask your house.”

“People cannot change their habits without first changing their way of thinking.”

I was pleasantly surprised to read her words of wisdom about success and how to improve just about any area of my life. I’m actually excited about starting my own decluttering project. I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time. Now I have a specific plan to follow and the project doesn’t feel so daunting. Before I had no idea where to begin, so occasionally I’d go through my file cabinet, the stuff under my bed, or my closet, but my home still wasn’t organized the way that I wanted. I hadn’t reached my “just right click point.”

My dream is to become a published author, but I find it difficult to write daily when I come home to a cluttered home. Having a cluttered home is stressful, distracting and doesn’t inspire creativity. It drains your energy, both physically and emotionally. It’s a constant reminder of all of the bad decisions I’ve made and my constant indecisiveness. How can I possibly sit down and write a fiction novel if I have to remove a mountain of mail off of the top of my laptop every time I want to use it? As the saying goes, cluttered house, cluttered mind.

I’ve made a promise to myself that I will completely declutter my home by 12/31/2015. I have 9 days off during Thanksgiving and 16 days off during Christmas, so I have two big chunks of free time to complete this project. Let's see if I can accomplish this in 25 days. Wish me luck!

“When you put your house in order, you put your affairs and your past in order, too.”

“Life truly begins after you have put your house in order.”