How I cured my inaction towards Tidying?

      "Our trouble is not ignorance, but inaction" - Dale Carnegie


Our family had a great vacation this summer in India. Along the way, we also did acquire quite a lot of stuff. As we came back to our home with 7 huge suitcases we were on for an organising disaster. The stuff we brought in was way too much to fit into our available space.
                  This is not the first time we were faced with such a challenge. In earlier occasions when we had a space crunch, we resorted to finding a new space saving storage equipment such as - a hanging wardrobe, wall storage or even a new bookshelf. Though a new kind of storage would have solved our problem now, I felt it's just a ticking time bomb. A new storage space only creates an illusion of an organised space. So I decided to seek help to do a long-term fix.

Luckily I stumbled upon this brilliant book called "The life-changing magic of tidying up" by Marie Kondo. I am happy that I read this book now than a few years later. It is by far one of the best books in the space of tidying up. The KonMari method of organising as termed after the author handles the art of organising elegantly.

# Why Tidying?
                 You might ask me why to focus on tidying at all? This explanation in the starting few pages of the book convinced me

"Organising your physical space gives much clarity and focus to your mental space"

                 With items out of order in our house for the past few weeks, I could say this is absolutely true. A cluttered physical space does create a distraction, after reading the book I believe by organising the physical space one can lay the foundation for a calmer mind.

# Tidying starts with discarding:
                 Marie explains that focusing just on the storage solutions is just a trap. This is why tidying must start with discarding. I have heard about discarding as an effective way to organise. Even heard about strategies such as discarding whichever items you haven't used for a period of time say 6 months or a year. Though these ideas sound easy and practical it never sprung me into action. It's because of this inaction many of our homes are filled with clutter.

By reading this book, I was able to convince myself to let go some of my things - either understanding that it has lived its life with me or it has taught me a lesson that I don't really need it. One truth I understood is - reading a book is not just for knowledge but also to cure inaction.

# Does this Spark Joy?
                The author says the best way to choose what to keep and what to discard is to take each item in one's hand and ask: "Does this Spark Joy?" If it does, keep it. If not, dispose of it.

By using the above yardstick I was able to donate 50% of my wardrobe to Goodwill. Applied the same technique to my books, kid's toys and so on and donated them. Organising the items this way made me love those things that I have. Also, it helps to understand my real tastes and thereby to make better buying choices in the future.

I can relate more to Marie's statement - "Tidying is more like meditation". It's about understanding yourself.

# Fear for the future:

     "The way you do one thing is the way you do everything" 
                           
                Marie gives two reasons on why we can't let somethings go: an attachment to the past or a fear for the future.

While tidying I discovered my underlying fear for the future. When I came across some of my clothes, which were bigger - I found myself asking what if I gain more pounds in the future? It's because of this fear I had been storing all those out of size trousers in my closet. Understanding that fear helped me to let it go.


Next time when an untidy bug bites me, I know where to look for a cure.