TIDYING UP with Marie Kondo – Hoo-hah or Heaven?
If you aren’t familiar with Marie Kondo, she has a series on Netflix called Tidying Up. Her tagline is ‘Tidy your space, transform your life’. If you haven’t seen it but are curious, be sure to check it out. She has lots of tips and tricks. Take what serves you and leave the rest. But I’m a true believer in her methods and will be implementing more of her tips into my own home.I’ve always been pretty good about going through my stuff and letting things go and I did just that one weekend in January. I finally convinced my husband to go through his clothes and make some decisions of what stays and what goes. I’ve asked him to do this every year for at least the last 5 years if not longer, and 2019 was the year he was finally ready to tackle the project. As we went through things, he was lamenting ‘but it’s still in great shape’ or ‘but I paid X for those shoes and they still look brand new’. I asked him, do they fit? No. Are they out of style? Yes. Can someone else benefit from them if they in good shape? Yes. And that last question was the most important one. He thought if someone could benefit by him letting go then he felt better. So, we took 3 bags of men’s clothes and 3 bags of blankets and sheets to the Everett Gospel Mission and sent 2 bags to Retex Northwest for recycling.Marie Kondo recommends that you thank the items for having served you for the time you had them and wish them well with their new owner. All of those questions I asked my husband were related to an item bringing joy and serving his life in the here and now. I think it’s important that we tackle our stuff now so that it doesn’t end up in someone else’s lap to one day tackle, wondering an item should stay or go or if it had any importance.But now, what do you do with all of that stuff you’ve decided no longer brings you joy? The following came from a FB post: Since the new "Tidying Up with Marie Kondo" Netflix series began airing, we are seeing post after post about people who are purging their closets and taking full bags of clothing, baby items, household goods, etc. to Goodwill.Instead, please consider dropping off your clean and gently worn clothing and other donations to local shelters and organizations who assist folks experiencing homelessness such as:
- Interfaith Family Shelter
- Washington Kids in Transition
- Clothes for Kids
- Cocoon House
- Pathways for Women
- Everett Gospel Mission (women & men’s shelter)
- Community Closet @ Everett YMCA
- Esther’s Place
- The MORELove Project
- Shower to the People… just to name a few!
Happy Tidying Up!