Marie Kondoing My Life
My brother has a girlfriend. We used to call her Train Girl because they met on a train, but she doesn’t like that name, so I will refer to her by her Earth name, it’s Caroline. I ADORE HER. Potentially because she reminds me of myself, but like all of the things I love about myself. :) I know, I sound self-centered, but I promise, I’m actually really giving and kind and thoughtful. Shoot, self-righteous now. I can’t win.
Whatever. Back to Caroline.
A little history about this broad. She has lived in NYC (like in Manhattan) for her whole life. So right away, you know she knows what’s up. She’s also a bit high strung (something I happen to love) due to the energy she has literally grown up INSIDE of. NYC drove me to madness and I only lived there for 2 years. I couldn’t handle the energy. It was TOO MUCH for my little sensitive body! I literally cannot comprehend how she has coped with the city for her WHOLE FLIPPING LIFE. So a few weird tendencies, like consuming ungodly amounts of french fries and chocolate faster than the speed of light while still having five candy bars on reserve in her purse, these are things I can completely understand.
She is wild, she is creative, she is brilliant (she went to Harvard and studied psychology), she’s GORGEOUS (see photo to the left), and she loves my brother. There are so many mysteries… like she plays instruments and sings like it’s no one’s business, but she doesn’t share them all. I respect that… but I am so excited to watch her reveal more of herself.
Anyway, back to Marie Kondo. I told my whole family to read this book. My brother bought it, and HATED it… so Caroline took it and read it. She LOVED it.
This book is changing the way I think about EVERYTHING. Not just tidying up my house. But tidying up ME. My SOUL. My LIFE. It’s incredible. Here are some rather powerful quotes from the book.
Back to Caroline. She currently works for Glamour magazine. She writes for them. She was going to come to this broadway show with me tonight, but then she remembered she had an article due tomorrow, so she had to decline my invite. Bummer. I asked what the article was about, and she said she was writing an article about how Marie Kondo helped her rearrange and organize her beauty suppies. I said, “I’ll support you as best I can in your article writing… I will write a blog about how Marie Kondo helped me organize my life.” Mind you… I hadn’t reallllly begun the organization process.
DICLAIMER: I forgot to publish this blog… so by now, her article has been published… here it is!!!!
Anyway, I as you can see, I sort of followed through and wrote one, too. In solidarity. :) So I wrote this blog on the bus ride to NYC… Luckily, I didn’t have a deadline, because I forgot to post it.
BUT. I learned SO much in the hours I spent cleaning my life (specifically, my closet). In the interest of not boring you, I will try to be concise:
1. Marie Kondo says to ask, “Does it bring you joy? If not, get rid of it.”
The other thing I have begun asking myself in all aspects of my life is: “Does this do harm or good?” This includes the environment, my body, anyone I love, ANYTHING.
2. Attachment to the past or fear of the future? I needed to examine what it was that was running away from.
I kept getting distracted… I would start and then walk away. I noticed it was whenever I looked at the big picture. The room was still a mess. I needed out of the room. I needed a new perspective. So, I brought a bunch of stuff out to the living room and asked Drew for help. I wanted to save a few comfy shirts for my kids. Weird, I know… but I love old t-shirts with meaning. I wish I had more from my parents. After a long battle with a bunch of silly oversized tshirts, I was finally able to let go of my fear of not having enough of my memories saved. I have three lovely shirts for my kids/future me. And that’s just plenty.
3. Discard everything that does not spark JOY.
I needed to keep examining what I was running away from… and examine what it was I was using to distract myself with.
While taking a break from cleaning, I had an epic battle with a bag of granola. I just couldn’t stop eating it. My stomach hurt so badly, but I just needed to eat it. Was this joy? It felt a lot like pain… but I didn’t want to just throw out the bag of granola. And the closer I was to leaving it, the faster and more crazed I was with the shoveling. So, in the interest of not chucking the granola, I bent the rule… I told my friend Ali about my troubles and it became way less hard to stop eating once it was out in the open. In fact I was able to write this all out… so mission accomplished. I discarded (temporarliy) the bag of granola.
From bullets 2 and 3 I can come up with the conclusion that SHARING helps make things more manageable.
So… now I am going to share this blog. Abruptly, because I feel like this is all I have to say on the subject matter at this present moment.
Thank you, Caroline, for inspiring me to write about what I learned from Marie Kondo’s brilliant book. I still have a long way to go, but I am really happy about what I’ve learned thus far!
WOOO WOOO WOOO!
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