The art of tidying up

A few years ago I read a book called "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo. I loved it. I liked how the book was laid out, how sections were created, the method, the intention behind it all, the positive and gentle spin. Excellent. Then, I saw a show Marie Kondo did on Netflix - and I fell in love with the work even more. Her gentle and peaceful nature was so attractive and luring, the method just makes sense and works, and the results within the families was wonderful. 

I've always considered myself a clean person, and hubby and I have lived in our home pre-children - I definitely felt the house was big for just the two of us, and even when our daughter arrived a few years after we had lived here, it still felt roomy - but we started to fill. I have noticed that as I've gotten older and had more children, built two business' into the home, have two dogs, and life, and the multitude of stuff that comes with each living being - I realize, I am clean but not tidy. And its suffocating me, BIG TIME! With the arrival of baby no.3 in the next few months, the adjustment of moving seasonal stuff out and summer stuff in, setting up our pool, getting bikes and helmets organized - which meant purchasing new stuff for both kiddos this year, planning camps, activities, family arrangements, birthday parties, lawn work and seasonal stuffs, in-laws moving (again), family coming into town, keeping up with homeschool over the summer, reading goals (40 hours/month), laundry, blah blah blah. Life just gets whelming, full and challenging to keep up with it all, especially if I have let it slip - it just becomes too easy. 

Hubby and I had planned to have this last week off of work, and with me trying to get my iron levels up and starting to feel a bit more human, we decided to take it easy and do stuff's around the house. Its crazy that its been 6 days and I am only today feeling like we are making changes. And I am so grateful. I felt like I could breathe a bit this morning and what a relief that has been. I made a trip to drop off some Amazon returns this morning, a schwack of library books, and a bag of clothes and shoes thats been sitting in our closet to VV. And I was proud of myself for not even taking a discount coupon for my donation. Because the fact is, as much as I love browsing around a thrift store - I don't stay focused. I often will use time shopping there to avoid something really going on, and I still have to come home - and then its usually with more stuff. If I haven't been able to tidy or manage what I have already, why should I be adding more? Is shopping out of avoidance really the energy I want to bring into our expanding home? I realize I have had some growth - and when I got home today, and the kitchen was clean and clear, I realized the art of tidying up in a new level and I feel so grateful. And I also felt mature, filled up, proud of and relaxed. I would like that for all areas of the home, which means choosing farsightedness and love and modelling better. I have had enormous guilt over the last while with the children (will save the details for another time) but the fact is, I feel responsible and obligated to make changes and adjustments. Lead by example. 

Anyways, I'm off to eat a delicious late lunch with my peeps and get moving along on the list we have created. 

Onwards and Upwards

ox

C