Lately, we’ve been decluttering. It started with finishing the basement, and ended with a total reboot of nearly every room in the house. Because so many ceilings had to be patched and repaired, we wanted to banish the plaster dust from our lives forever.
But here’s the problem, and many of my friends know about this little hiccup, out of all the things we’ve collected over the years, our kids probably want less than 1%. Which is why I enjoyed reading “Stuff of Nightmares” by Taffy Brodesser-Akner in the NYTimes Magazine. It was all about the joy of decluttering and the current craze led by Marie Kondo.
She compares this Japanese Kondo approach to the standard American National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) approach. It was hysterical and sobering all at the same time.
Kondo wants us to pick every single thing up and if it doesn’t fill us with joy say goodbye to it and find it another home. The NAPO way is full of excuses. We can take our time, we can buy organizational things, we can maybe even get some therapy?
Some people stay in one place forever and would never think of getting rid of anything. And some of us are married to nomads. If we stay in one place longer than a decade we start to get twitchy. You know where I fall on this spectrum, I’d rather stay in one place – but I married a nomad.
And we are currently tidying up in anticipation of the next move. So who wants the French cupboard? What should I do with all my books and papers? How many pairs of red shoes do I really need? What I wouldn’t give to have Marie Kondo come into my home for a day, or two weeks.
But this week I am celebrating the Love Bug’s 4th Birthday. How can that be? She is more precious, more scrumptious, than ever before. Four is a magical age, she has started pre-K and soon she will be playing soccer and before you know it, she’ll be driving a car!!
It’s all too much to comprehend. So I’m keeping her Mother’s field hockey jacket. And the candy striper uniform the Bride wore and said she would never work in a hospital. Because the Bug might want them someday. Right?
MountainMornings 
OMG they are so cute!
Thanks, they love to cuddle but we need a better couch upstairs!
Yes! They sound like wonderful items to keep. My parents recently threw out a box of my dad’s old, old t-shirts they found in their garage. (My dad wanted to keep them, not necessarily b/c he wanted to wear them, but b/c they still fit.) I wish they had sent them up to us; my son would have loved to have them. They were just old shirts from when my parents would take us down the shore as kids, but Connor would have treasured them….We are all scattered now (my parents are in Florida, we’re in Ohio), but I try and take the kids back to Stone Harbor as often as I can. So, yes, I think mementos can mean so much…a link to another time and place—and person—you love so much. (Although, I guess the trick is deciding what to keep….)
You’ve captured our conundrum exactly! I had an old tie dye tee from the 60s that a friend put my nickname on in Swedish. My daughter wore it into rags as a teenager!
Very hard to throw things out. Even harder to donate. And one person’s (spouse) trash is another’s treasure. Easier to just keep it all to keep the peace!