Simplify and Clarify

"Simplify and Clarify"
that's the theme of the year.

It seems like every year is a new phase of organizing and getting minimal. I'm expecting this year to be one of even more fantastic results - especially that I'm armed with Marie Kondo's strategy.

So far, in the past month, at home, I've gone through my clothes, shoes, books, and now I'm tackling papers. At the office, it has mainly been papers - ALOT, as in the thousands, of papers. Gosh how a company can really get through and store SO MUCH paper.

The process so far has taken a lot of self-awareness, patience and discipline. It does take a lot of discipline to stick to the category - and not get caught up in jumping to other categories... not to mention that I live in a house with a lot of other people... but I'm thankful for this process.

Just yesterday, however, I cleared out a whole landing dumped with the mother's, my sister in law's and brother's stuff.

As so:

It's amazing how derelict an area can get when there is a lack of discipline and respect.
It's not finished yet, but I will get to those boxes when I get to the books and papers part.

And here was my attempt at KonMari-ing my clothes

I didn't quite do the "special folding", but it worked out somewhat. :)
I was just glad to get rid of the extra non-joy items i think.

Today, surprise-surprise, my awesome mother started on her books...

We are knowledge hoarders... Yes, those bookshelves are ALL books.
The table is messy because I've been trying to group all the books and family paperwork together.

I really had to bite my tongue to not tell her she was doing it the "wrong" way. The "proper" way, as I agree with Marie Kondo, is to really take everything off the shelves and go through them one by one. This part of the process is crucial as it will trigger of something in one's brain of the weight of ALL the things that you have been holding on to, and subconsciously make one think of how much you are willing to carry with you into the future. Honestly, once one has gone through all that carrying and seeing just how much there is, a certain emotion wells up. Sometimes it's shock, sometimes it's sadness, sometimes it's anger... and this is the emotional energy you need to push you through to really decide what things that "spark joy" for you, that you definitely want to put back onto the shelves and bring with you into the future. Randomly touching books on the shelves will not give one that impact...

And yet, this is her process, I cannot force a process, or standard of cleanliness and minimalism on her. She has own journey too. I can only equip her with the tools. And even if she accomplishes just a little bit today, at least it is a little bit. It isn't exactly the "correct" way of doing it as quickly and thoroughly as it "should" be, but hey, be thankful for the little things.

It's going to be tiring (my legs and arms are still aching from all the carrying and walking up and down the stairs from clearing the landing), but in the meantime, I'm enjoying the journey. :)

I love cleaning!! :)