What The Kon Mari Method Has Taught Me

  I have been steadily decluttering my home. It amazes me what we have acquired during 26 years in this home. I think we become blind to items when we see them daily. I cleaned a huge contractor size trash bag of clothes and miscellaneous items out of my oldest son's bedroom and closet. My trouble is sometimes I have an emotional bond to my kids childhood items. I remember how cute they looked wearing certain clothes or how attached they were to certain toys. The funny thing is when I ask my kids if they want to keep the item, most of the time they said "no". I was shocked when they first began telling me to donate items. I finally realized I wasn't hanging onto the items for their memories, it was for my memories. 

  One day I watched a lady on YouTube, she was downsizing and decluttering. She recommended the book "The Magic of Tidying Up".  Some people may recognize it as the Kon Mari method. I first checked out the ebook version from my local library. I didn't finish reading the ebook version. I am old school, I love actual books. Something about turning the pages, feeling the book in my hands keep me focused on reading. Therefore, I bought a copy of the book. I read through it in no time. I really didn't want to put it down. It was truly enlightening for me. I highly recommend the book if you are struggling with decluttering or downsizing.

  The Kon Mari approach tackles the whole house, not just one room at a time. It deals with a group of items. Such as books, you gather all the books in every room of your home. You ask questions to yourself about each book. You decide if each book is valuable to you. Does it bring joy into your life? If it does, you keep it. This method had never occurred to me. I formerly just worked on one room at a time. More times than not I ended up shuffling items from the room I was working on to another room of the house. This method keeps me from doing that.

  Since my Cosentyx has me feeling more energetic, I hope to complete my declutter before Christmas. However, with an autoimmune disease like Ankylosing Spondylitis, you never know how each day will be. I have decided that's okay. My clutter isn't going anywhere until I get around to it. Day by day or week by week I will get it all whittled down eventually. Sometimes, I question why I have to face this chronic, debilitating illness. There are days I think it is to teach me patience and that everything in life isn't going to be perfect. We have to accept that or this disease will pull us down quickly.

 I'm hoping each of you have learned to enjoy your life even if it isn't perfect. It's the only life we have. Live it well!

Gentle hugs to all my fellow Ankylosing Spondylitis fighters. 

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