Week 10: Compromise: Declutter and donate items from at least one area in your home.

…Determine how you will agree on what to keep, relocate, or donate ahead of time.

The new year started out with the KonMari method of tidying up showing up everywhere we looked. We couldn’t get away from Marie Kondo. Fitz and I have been in this house about 10 years now and knew it was time to declutter and donate. We had accumulated stuff we didn’t need or want. We set a goal to finish tidying up by May. I don’t think we’ll make it, but we’re getting there.

I was excited about the prospect of decluttering but I hadn’t had much luck doing it previously. A coworker had read Marie Kondo’s book years ago, so I was already familiar with the technique and had tried it one time in October of 2016. I gathered all of the cleaning supplies into one place so I could reduce and reorganize. I hadn’t properly understood her order of tidying or her concept of evaluating what “brings joy.” There weren’t really any cleaning products that brought be joy. I was overwhelmed. How could I have this many cleaning supplies and not have the tidiest house on the block?

We had also tried tidying the refrigerator previously. Why was there no room in our fridge? Oh behold, 17 chili sauces, 14 mustard, horseradish, & wasabi jars, and 20 types of pickles. Yet, each brought something different to the table. Alas, they each brought Fitz joy. The perks of living with a chef.

Yes, we had tried decluttering before, but we were not discouraged. Onward. We decided to start with the kitchen, specifically with things that would be easy to toss or donate so we could build momentum around decluttering. In the spirit of this week’s theme of compromise, we decided that if we bought something for one dish, if it was out of date, or if we just didn’t use it often enough for it to take up space, we would toss it. If we wanted to keep it, we would make space for it to be visible and easily accessible. It actually wasn’t very hard to agree on our decluttering rules ahead of time.

We focused first on the spice drawers and utensil drawer. I was sure I had taken before pictures but I sure can’t find them now. Maybe I was too excited about decluttering that I tossed those, too. Fitz did most of the tossing and consolidating as I cleaned the drawers and cut new drawer liners. I paired down utensils in the silverware drawer and got rid of three EXTRA full sets of cheese knives. Why in the world did we have 4 sets of cheese knives?

We worked more as a team for the pantry. I was really happy about that because the organization now works for me. The tall bottles used to be on the top and I could barely reach them. I would cause a bottle avalanche any time I tried to get something. Now the things on the top shelf are unbreakable (tea bags) or things I don’t really use. In the end, we tossed 2 kitchen garbage bags worth of stuff and donated 2 banker’s boxes worth of items.

Since Week 10, the pantry and drawers look about the same and they have been easy to maintain. We’ve tackled the bathroom and some of the closets. We have boxes and piles of things to donate taking up space in the garage where my car usually goes. It’s extra motivation to get rid of all of this stuff before it gets hot. I planned to donate the school supply-types of things to Treasures 4 Teachers and realized that they take all kinds of things. They schedule pick-ups, too. They are getting it all.
Stay tuned for Week 11: Trust: Select seeds or transplants for an indoor or outdoor garden and plant it together.