Konmari, Round 3: Books (partial) and papers

When last we left off, I had finished the bathroom and hallway, which was the beginning of expanding beyond just my clothes, and tipped us off to the idea that the Marie Kondo method really could have far-reaching effects on the way we saw and used our entire space.

The next stage of the Konmari method is to books and papers. When I purchased my Kindle a few years ago, I got rid of most of my books. I know that is horribly painful for bookworms to hear -- and it was hard to do at the time -- but it also cut down on so much busy clutter and dust in the living room I was pleased with the results. If I find that I want to re-read an old book, I re-buy it on the Kindle; so far that's only been about 5 books. I did keep one box of books in the basement, the most beloved of my favorites that I could not part with --so those came upstairs for a fresh review.



The ones that remained were my favorite authors, and surprisingly mostly non-fiction: Florence King, Molly Ivins and Calvin Trillin, all wonderfully wry and passionate storytellers. And two childhood series, the Bobbsey Twins and Anne of Green Gables. The Bobbsey Twins were my first foray into mystery series, which is the preferred format for stories for me even to this day, although I watch more on TV than I do read. Cop shows, murder mystery shows, I don't love all of them but I do watch many of them! (I still miss Law & Order.)



I also reviewed our DVD collection, which is pretty lean to begin with. Got rid of a few things but not much -- Hubby asked to keep many. But I neatened them up at least.







I am calling this a "partial" review because I discovered when I did my husband's office yesterday that he had a whole treasure trove of books and more movie DVDs squirreled away there. One of the main tenets of the Konmari method -- which I have found has solved SO MANY organization issues it is now my iron-clad rule -- is that you must collect all like items together, and then cull them all at the same time. Finding a new batch of stuff means that we will need to bring them all together and do the process again.

Weirdly, I haven't actually been happy with the end result above; it felt unfinished to me. Maybe my organization antenna knew there were secretly more to do!

Next was papers. Again, this is something I thought I had a handle on -- I had done a big purge a while ago and reduce everything down to 4 skinny boxes and a large basket for ongoing stuff. I only saved the important items -- mortgage papers, taxes, big ticket purchases, vitals etc. Bank statements and bills had long ago either converted to electronic billing or had been tossed -- the basics were taken care of!



But in reading the book, I realized that I was violating the main rule of "Like with Like" -- the boxes were upstairs in hard-to-get-to shelves in my husband's office, and the on-going basket was downstairs in the kitchen. So I never filed anything away -- it just kept piling up in the on-going basket, and then of course I kept putting off doing ANYTHING to the papers in that basket. It was a clutter magnet!

Everything came upstairs and got reviewed. Turns out I wasn't just keeping 7 years of taxes returns, I still had them from the 1980s! When I moved out to Chicago after college, my father sent me a package of all the returns he had done for me in college (since I was working enough to have to pay taxes) with strict instructions to keep them. I then kept every one I did myself after that as well.

I love you Dad, but it was time to let go of some of the past. But I listened! (His advice below is still good.)



That knocked out one box -- in the end I got it down to 3, after cleaning out some warranties and insurance books we didn't need anymore.

When it came time for putting it all away, I decided that I needed to change the flow -- my goal with the bedroom had been to make that my first stop when I got home; instead of dropping my purse and shoes by the door or on the kitchen table, I changed my daily habit it so I walk upstairs first and put everything away there, getting changed and petting the dog and leaving my purse on my dresser (where is it easier to swap out or take stuff out of it that builds up) as my new ritual. So it made more sense to bring the in-basket upstairs too. Now my nightstand holds a much smaller in-basket and one box that stores the filed items; I'm still not great about filing or completing the paper items daily, but I do go through it every 1-2 weeks. This is much improved over my 6-month lag time before, LOL!

The last paper I had to conquer was cards. I am a terrible, terrible correspondent, and I am even worse at sending cards. I have the best intentions, and I keep buying cards to send  -- for birthdays, anniversaries, funerals, holidays -- and then they fall into the quagmire of my in-basket that I forget to do, and they don't get mailed out in time. I kid myself that it would be easier if I lived closer to my family because then I could just hand it to them instead of mail, but I have just as many cards for my husband in my bulging folder of un-sent cards as I do for everyone else! I have nearly given up on sending Christmas cards -- it's been about 5 years since I tried. I don't even have stamps.



Reader, I threw them all away.

I followed Kondo's method -- I thanked them for humbling and shaming me into realizing I am unreliable regarding this form of social communication and celebration -- and I let them go. I let go of the idea that I will ever be good at sending cards -- I won't. But I send texts, calls, emails, online messages, and I send gifts to my family. That's good enough.

It was so unbelievably freeing.

It's OK not be a card person. I don't have to try to catch up or keep up. And I'm OK with that.

++++++

At this point, it was mid-May, and I went on a weeklong trip back to Connecticut for a visit with family, seeing a lot of old friends, and my 25th college reunion at Yale. (I should probably do a post of pictures of that; it was gorgeous and so much fun.)

But when I came back, in June I did my kitchen. It was mind-blowing. So that will definitely be coming next.

How about you guys? Anyone trying the Konmari method?