Maybe 365 Days Of Tidying-Up

One year, one attempt each day to throw away one thing that doesn’t bring me joy

[k5crows]

March 31

We were looking for one LEGO. One tiny, urgently-needed piece the size of a dippin dot. Here is a philosophical question. Is Marie Kondo’s method possible in a world where LEGOs exist?

[k5crows]

Goodbye, Shirt

I have owned you for at least a decade, never liked you much, but moved you from place to place because I “might find something you go with.” Well, the FREELOADING IS OVER, BABY! Into the donate pile.

[k5crows]

January 13

Threw away some grotty old tank tops that were worn right the hell out because I got some shiny new ones from the store. So did I actually de-clutter or not? 2 tanks went out and 3 tanks came in. Overall, an increase in the number of tank tops in the household!

[k5crows]

February 10 Success #1

Everyone has been sick the last few weeks, including Husband’s sinus infection, which necessitated an entire shelf of potioning from the doctor. He is feeling better & I am feeling better & 6 is better & Baby JUST MAY have avoided it all, so I so back to tidying-up. Today’s success is my new Keurig organizer! Before and after is the best!

*edit* Realized after attaching the pics that the Keurig is covered with crumbs from my husband baking bread yesterday. HUMBLEBRAG 😂

[k5crows]

February 3

One of the things I am having to tidy-up are all of my PREVIOUS attempts at organizing that actually turned into a lot of clutter. For example: this. It had long long ago had all its colored pencils removed & scattered about and since I have a 6 year old I put the pencils in a plastic ziplock bag instead. Frankly I do not envision a time in the near future when I want to pick up 75 colored pencils and put them away in their inodividual sleeping bags. So this is being given away or donated.

[k5crows]

January Tidy-Up Results

-Tidied up after Christmas & got rid of our tree, which opened up a ton of space in the apartment

- Identified major problem areas

- Christmas present of LEGO table helped keep living room clean of 6’s clutter

- 6’s actual ROOM still a disaster

- Projects for February: closet and kitchen

[k5crows]

January 28 Problem Area #2

Husband and I got these ‘hanging drawers’ several months ago after I read in some article they were good for organizing. But I find them pretty annoying! 1. Our clothes and underpants fall out constantly and 2. It isn’t that easy to see what we have. I am thinking of scrapping the whole thing and getting a chest of drawers.

[k5crows]

January 25 Problem Area #1

I am OBSESSED with my Keurig and experimenting with different combinations of pods and chocolates & peppermints for the ideal cup of quick coffee. So this area of the counter is a disaster! But I don’t want to put them all in a container because I like seeing my options. On the other hand *gestures at this*

[k5crows]

January 24 Half-Successes

My Husband bought some ZAZZY colored pants before he left and wanted to wear them so he threw them in the wash “with some other things that looked similar” and as a result several of my tank tops turned a sickly grinchy gray, a thing I could have sworn only happened on geriatric 90s doofus dad sitcoms. So I got some new shirts, which is the opposite of decluttering. But I got rid of some other shirts to balance it out, including a shirt that I “could wear to a business thing.”

[k5crows]

January 24

What does The Method say about what to do with kids’ clothes that are stained or have stuff wrong like a broken zipper?! I presume they’re too garbage to donate, so I guess just bin them? In other news, my Husband is getting home tomorrow from a work trip so I can get back into my decluttering project. He’s cooked ever since we moved in together so I sort of don’t know how to cook anymore. I boiled some egg noodles today and then was like. . .we have no butter, what am I going to put on them, jelly?

[k5crows]

January 21

Finally accepted that some of my shirts with adorable plagiarized slogans on them like ‘I will read on a boat/I will read with a goat/I will read on the train/I will read in the rain’ I will NEVER wear because they are itchy as fuck. In the goodbye pile they go.

[k5crows]

January 19

Goodbye, very pokey and itchy and saggy couch pillows that were always jabbing me in the side with fuckin goose feathers and hello, normally-behaving pillows from Costco.

[k5crows]

January 17

Begrudgingly accepting Baby is no longer fitting into newborn clothes but instead bursting out of them like a CrossFit instructor. Taking them out of her dresser drawer.

[k5crows]

January 16

Today what wasn’t sparkin mah joy was some random-ass phone apps I hadn’t opened in ages (if ever!). An app that promised to, but did not, identify a flower if you took a picture of it. What it did was say “Can you get closer?” and then “I’m sorry, I can’t identify this one.”

[k5crows]

January 15

Age 6 WILL NOT wear pullover sweaters (I don’t even know why they carry them in the stores!) because they are too itchy/hot/horrible and I can’t say I blame her. I hated all mine, too. So they went into a donation bin at her school, possibly there exist children who like them or would wear them.

[k5crows]

January 14

Took out the tree, to the balcony at least, where my husband chopped it up into little pieces. Rearranged the furniture.

[k5crows]

January 13

Finally acknowledged that the Christmas tree is not giving me Supreme Joy so took all the ornaments off today and threw out the bottom bits & bobs in the ornament box. Something must have been wrong with that devil tree, since it never needed any water. The entire month and a half it was up it stood there, rejecting the water tenderly provided in the tree stand. Now the problem is how to get rid of it on the fifth floor of an apartment in the city. Right now I am planning to put it on the balcony so my husband can have company when he’s out there.