Spark Joy, and Start Cleaning!

The hub is at spring turkey hunting camp, and I couldn’t sleep last night, I read the descriptions of Marie Kondo's book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up on Amazon and decided I needed to do some Spring cleaning. I didn’t read the book or watch the videos, but I feel I’ve read enough and spoke to people who did, that I could implement it.

I started small just after breakfast when I cleaned out the hall coat closet. It smelled of feet and old wool. After clearing out all the of my shoes, and everyone else’s I found several giant dog hair tumbleweeds. I cleaned swept, and feeling energized I moved on to my bedroom closet. Quickly it became apparent that I have a 'keeping' problem. Hoarding is such a harsh word. I found a bag of Canadian paper money, pictures of my colonoscopy several years ago, a lamb chop puppet, and lots of art projects from the kids.

It’s incredible how much we accumulate, we’ve been in our house 16 years, and it seems as though my closet became a dumping ground for memories. I understand how people are afraid to toss out items for fear they’ll forget the memory. In digging deeper into the abyss of my closet, I found myself caressing holiday drawings and recalling memories of the kid's awards and craft projects. I found dresses ordered from Amazon that I was sure I’d fit in after losing those extra pounds, and Shoes that I wore once on a date with the hubs.

While I pondered whether to keep things or toss them I had to ask the questions posed in the book. Did these things bring me joy? Did the object give me the feeling of snuggling a puppy? NO! The things did not bring me joy, the memories of my family, and

our shared experiences, the love of my husband and children; these are the things that bring me joy. Stuff is just stuff. Don’t let it stop you from living. The memories live in you, not in the stuff.