During the month of October, I had read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. At the time I began to go through my possessions and discarding things that brought me no joy and no function.

Without so much clutter in my life, I found that my daily routine became easier not having to dig through unnecessary junk to find what I needed nor was there much tidying up needed on a daily basis because not many things were left laying about. It was easier to put things away as I used them than leaving them for later.

These habits not only affected my behaviours with what I already had but also affected what I craved. I used to be obsessed with online home decor sites. I would spend hours on Pinterest getting inspiration for how I wanted to keep my home. I would even buy things from the dollar store just to make things look more complete. I associated the number of possessions with success and ended up with so many things that I didn’t really need or want.

It has been three months since finishing the book and have been relatively happy with the outcome. This has not been without exception. Like many, Christmas time means gifts from friends and family. A lot of these gifts usually consist of trinkets, clothing, and other things that I don’t have a need for. To some’s dismay, I did things a little differently this year. For my wish list, I added a second list of items that I didn’t need. This list included clothing, socks, scarfs and things that I had discarded just a couple of months prior. Luckily my family took the second list more to heart than the first and I did not end up with anything I didn’t want.

Fast forward a little ways to the present day. Looking around, I see things around me that no longer bring my joy or serve a purpose. I am in need of another round of purging.

I also see that some of the things that bring me the most joy aren’t displayed or set up for function. A prime example is my stationary. I have a bunch of small random paper boxes where I keep my various papers, envelopes, and cards. I also have letters that I have received that mean the most to me in a box which is overflowing with random things.

This is not the most practical way to keep these items, and having them somehow displayed would not only make them more functional and organized but bring personality and appeal into my surroundings. I did a little project with this in mind which can be explored in another post I recently wrote.

The purge that I decided to tackle was contained to my bedroom. I used my bed as a place to lay everything out, one category at a time. I got rid of even more clothing, trinkets and old papers from my first degree. Some of the items that I had kept the first time around but easily discarded this time around were tokens from my childhood: dance competition medals, participation ribbons, old photographs of people I haven’t heard from in a decade and my CD collection from my teenage years.

At the end of my bedroom tidying, I had 1 garbage bag full of things to toss and 2 garbage bags full of things to donate. This blows my mind that I had that much stuff to get rid of that I hadn’t already ditched from the initial tidy.

My space seems so much more relaxing with fewer things. I love that when I look around the things that I love are in view without being bogged down but meaningless things. Being that I am starting school in February, the reduction of junk will definitely help me focus.

We will see how things go, maybe I will need to do another tidying in another 3 months. I can assume that is the case since we will be approaching spring. Until then, I will hopefully maintain this tidy space and continue to feel the joy.

 

Have a lovely day.

xo. K.