In honor of my one year tidying anniversary, I did it all again! I just finished the first draft of the tidying guide I've been writing, which I'm now calling Your Tidying Up Companion, and I thought it would be helpful to read along as I tidied to see if my instructions made sense. Marie Kondo says after you've had completed your tidying marathon, you’ll never have to do it again, and she’s right. My stuff was nowhere near its former state, and I would have been fine with “maintenance tidying." Nevertheless, I was curious to see how I felt about my prior decisions, particularly as I noticed items that felt dormant in their homes.
Pulling my things together again, one happy sight was that my piles were much smaller. I never felt overwhelmed by the sight of it all in one place. The items were already categorized and clicked together nicely, only beckoning for some TLC.
Starting with Clothes, I got into spark joy mode right away, and since there were hardly any sparkless items, each category was like a good vibes session. “You’re doing great! Keep it up! Aw, I know I haven’t worn you lately, but you’re awesome.” (Yes, I said these words aloud to my clothes.) Sure enough, several dress shirts in, I stopped. It was a shirt I used to wear a lot; after saving it last year, the shirt hadn't moved off its hanger once. Instead of struggling with my feelings, the words just popped out of my mouth: “Thank you.” I folded my shirt and set it aside.
Finishing clothes, I set aside 33 items to discard. Again, the pile felt right. I knew everything in it was ready to go. They were mostly items I was on the fence about a year ago, and I had let tidying errors (value, need, sentiment) factor into the decision. The items I chose to keep went back to their homes, and again they clicked into their happy little teams. Because I didn’t discard 200 items, my closet didn’t look much different than before, so there's not this huge transformation to bask in. My closet is what it is, I had confidence in my decisions, and I was glad to send some clothes to a better home.
Books didn’t take too long, but I slimmed my library down by 15 books. Papers were more of a slog; over three hours, I took out another 20% of what I had left. Getting back into the groove of selecting items that bring me joy, I was ready to take on the rest of my Komono.
Movies and music were my most dormant items. Even slimmed down, they took up a lot of space, emitted a lot of visual/textual clutter, and I just wasn’t using them. The biggest red flag was my temptation to buy new storage for them - that is, hide them. I struggled as I did last year for much of the day trying to figure out what to keep, but in the end I discarded almost everything. I decided if I really wanted the movies again, I would find them, and the music was already backed up digitally in the cloud. I didn’t need the physical copies lying around, so off they went.
This decision emptied what was left of my CD tower and most shelves of my entertainment center. This was a really big deal for me in terms of moving on. I felt like a big hole had been unplugged, and I proceeded to send the rest of my A/V equipment with it. I’d been watching a lot less TV over the past year, so I didn’t really need this second set-up in my office. Without the equipment or media, I didn’t need the furniture to store it either. Poof! A 6’x6’ section of wall opened up.
I proceeded to buy a FJÄLKINGE shelving unit from IKEA, which replaced six pieces of furniture: three bookshelves, a file drawer, entertainment center, and CD Tower. I reserved the top shelf as my "personal shrine," two shelves for books, and the bottom shelf for my writing and memory box. I placed my valuables and office supplies in one drawer, and my electrical equipment/gadgets in the other. A year after my tidying festival, my Clothes were happy in the closet, Household Items were in their proper homes, and my other komono, Books, Papers, and Sentimental items were all together in one place. Unbelievable!
While my first tidying marathon took a couple weeks, Tidying 2.0 was not even two days. It was helpful to go through the paces to clarify my writing for the guide, but I don't think it's necessary for you to revisit all five categories each year. I will say, though, that your tastes continue to change, and it's important to keep checking in with your possessions to see if they still spark joy. I think it’s a good idea to pull out a category once in awhile and hold your items again to see how you feel.
I was glad to take some time to recognize my first tidying anniversary, and think about all that's happened in the past year. Now that my things are even further reduced, I need to get editing if I want to publish my guide before the end of this year!
