Our Journey Decluttering with Konmari: Books

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A few months ago I wrote about how we were going to declutter our home and lives before moving.  From October 19 to about February 13, I didn’t declutter or simplify much {by not much – I mean I did the bathroom the first day and then didn’t do anything else for about 4 months}.  So, it’s going well obviously.  I joined a few decluttering/Konmari groups on facebook for accountability and research.  I suppose we could categorize the first four months of this process as just that: research.  I read the Konmari book, I observed other women going through the process and learned from their example.

…And then Ash Wednesday came {with that, the Lenten season}.  There are several things I thought about focusing on for Lent, but the tangible one I’ve chosen is clutter/stuff/junk.  Our home renovation is progressing well {slowly, but I’m sure that’s how all DIY renos feel}.  Before we know it, it will be time to move in. {Insert excited squeal, followed by the realization that I’m going to have to physically pack and move. Ruh roh.}  I have realized over time just how much the physical clutter in my home affects my mental mindset and well being… and it’s not good.  It’s time to buckle down and get serious about this junk in the trunk, yo!

The Konmari process is basically divided into two parts: get rid of anything that doesn’t spark joy, then organize what’s left.  The kicker is that you CANNOT skip to organizing, buy lots of cute totes and keep all your junk.  You HAVE TO very, very thoroughly go through every item you own and evaluate its worthiness in your life.  I’ve also joined the 40 bags in 40 days group, which ties perfectly into Konmari {hopefully I’ll get rid of a lot more than 40 bags!}.

As I laid in bed last weekend {actually Valentine’s Day morning – haha}, I thought about the fact that I rarely pick up a book anymore… I’ll read the bible and marriage books, but that’s about it.  Meanwhile, I have two huge bookshelves in the office that are full of books – teaching, kids, nonfiction, fiction, marriage, parenting… oy.  I decided it was high time for my first big Konmari event!  Marie Kondo suggests putting all of the books in your house on the floor in one area so you can see the visual hugeness of the clutter.  The problem with this idea is that the office is really more of an office/storage room/craft room/library, so it doesn’t exactly have a floor… not one that’s accessible anyway.

If you’re likely to get freaked out by the realness of the mess in my home, you should probably hit that little red “x” at the top of the screen now.

I didn’t get the books off the shelves and instead opted to go through each shelf and keep only what I would truly use.  If I got stuck or was having a difficult time with something, I focused on two thoughts: (1) I haven’t read these books in forever and (2) the public library is probably 2 miles from my house and they have approximately a kajillion books I could check out.

Here is an example of one shelf {and this was one of the shelves where I kept more}.

I got rid of ALL my fiction books, lots of the kids books and many others.  I kept the most faith/marriage books – those are the ones I do reach for when I want to read.

Here are the totals so far for our journey decluttering with Konmari… this includes a few bags of clothes and one box of random stuff that I had collected after our yard sale last fall and never sold/donated/etc.

11 boxes, 2 bags (364 items)
-8 boxes books donated (204 books)
-1 box of random household donated (16 items)
-2 trash bags of clothes donated (46 items)
-1 box of books to homeschool family (Approx 75 books)
-1 box of books to church (22 books + the 3:16 curriculum set)

Happy Valentine’s Day to me!  It is so freeing to get rid of these things that take up mental and physical space!

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