that time we marie kondo'd our condo

I’ve noticed a trend over the past few years, and that trend is this:  when I walk into our house and things are dirty and cluttered, it stresses me out. 

The formula is pretty simple really.  Clutter = stress.

I brilliantly figured this out by my own trial-and-error (also known as my ability to accumulate lots of stuff and inability to keep it all nicely put away).  But as it turns out, studies are beginning to suggest that this is actually a thing.  I’m not the only one!

As a bit of back story, we’ve lived in Seattle for almost five years now.  We massively downsized our belongings before we moved from Salt Lake (down from two bedrooms to one), but somehow we’ve still managed to accumulate more than our 515-square foot condo can handle.  And when a woman is expected to come home from work only to have to sit down and do grad school homework, a messy kitchen, cluttered coffee table, and overflowing books, craft supplies, clothes, etc. are not conducive to a focused study environment.  I’m telling you, emotional breakdowns have occurred over two-day-old dirty dishes.

And the truth of the matter is, I don’t want to be a person who owns a bunch of stuff.  Because when you have “stuff,” you have to have a place to put it all, and you have to take care of it.  I need more time to take care of myself and the people I love… not my stuff.  [Not to mention the fact that humans go through inordinate amounts of the earth’s resources to produce it all.]

Enter: The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

I found this little gem of a book at Costco a few years ago.  I had already come across a few blogs that had mentioned it, and was curious.  Long story short, I don’t necessarily endorse all of her philosophy around decluttering, but I have very much appreciated the idea that we maintain a “relationship” of sorts with our stuff—we interact with our possessions on a regular basis, they (ideally) support our lives, and they provide us with a sense of who we are as a person.  Therefore, we should only keep around those things which bring us joy.  I need my home to be a peaceful, restorative space.  As William Morris once said:

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”

So at the beginning of this year, I got Matt on board to do some major decluttering.  We Marie Kondo’d our whole place (yes, it’s a verb.)  We didn’t do everything in the exact order she suggests, but we did pull all of our things in each category out at a time and went through them one by one—kind of like shopping, but from our own home.  It was brutal to see how much “stuff” we owned, but such a valuable experience!  We documented for proof (but mostly for fun).

We started with our books (my most difficult category)...

Our books "before"

Our books "after"

Then we moved on to board games (Matt's most difficult category)...

We pulled them all out onto the floor...

...and ended up with these on our shelves!

We tackled our clothes by pulling them all out onto the bed (which ensured we'd get through them by the end of the day)...

This was eye-opening... so many clothes in one closet

My side of the closet afterward

And we eventually went through papers, kitchen supplies, craft supplies, decor, and other miscellaneous things...

These were from grad school binders

A few things coming out of our kitchen

Having gone through the long process, I’ve seen several benefits:

1. We’ve gotten to the point where we’ve been able to put our condo on the market—yay! 
2. Because there is less in the house, it’s easier and quicker to clean. 
3. I get to look around my home and see only the things that I love. 

Don’t get me wrong… having to clean my house is still a thing.  Getting frustrated by dirty dishes is still a thing.  Not making my bed, or putting all my books away, or wiping down my table is still a thing.  (The words “life changing magic” were used rather liberally in her title, I’ve found.)  That said, I did start to wonder how our culture as a whole might change if we all decided to redefine what it is we “need” in our homes.

Would we be less stressed and more content?

Would we have more financial freedom?

Would we appreciate the things we have even more?

These things have started to become true for me.  And I honestly could part with more than we initially gave away, not to pare down for the sake of paring down, but because it leaves Matt and I free to own only the things we love.  Because at the end of the day, we have more than enough.