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Tidying

Yes, I did it. I watched the Netflix show Tidying with Marie Kondo and then proceeded to tear apart my apartment. It's been a journey let me tell you. I haven't been able to clean our apartment since we moved in almost a year ago because I was pregnant, and then I was recovering. The new year seemed like the perfect time to get started. I hoped that by tidying and getting rid of a bunch of stuff, I'd ultimately have less to clean on a daily basis and wouldn't have to stress.

I started with my closet and Aaron helped me out. He was very intrigued by my sports bra. In my first pass through the closet, I got rid of three bags worth of clothes. I was talking with a friend about how hard it is to get rid of clothes because there's so much sentiment attached to them. I told her that my post partum depression makes me feel pretty numb, so that's been helping in getting rid of things ;)
After clothes I went through our pantry and tried to combine boxes of pasta into containers, and organize everything better. Then I went through my book case and got rid of a TON of books that I'd been holding onto simply because I was an english major and I wanted to look 'smart.' Yes, I'm looking at you Shakespeare. As much as I love his work and how wonderful it is, I'm not actually going to just sit down one day and reread Hamlet. I only kept books that I actually want to reread. 

I used her folding method to fold all of Aaron's tiny baby clothes that didn't fit anymore. I took a bin that was completely full and only filled up six inches by the end.
I got rid of my George Washington painting because it no longer sparked joy. We gave it to a guy in the ward who was absolutely ecstatic about it and that was nice to see. 

After almost three months of work and many trips to Goodwill, my living room looked like this. 
My bedroom was at one point completely clean with nothing anywhere.

And then life happened. In order to get my house this clean, I'd clean all day long for two days in a row. Then I'd end up so exhausted that I would just cry all day the rest of the week and feel like my life was over and all I was ever going to do the rest of my life was clean. When Sammy would come home from work at the end of the day he'd play with Aaron for and comment how I was so lucky that I got to play with him all day. I'd feel sad because I didn't play with him at all because I'd just preoccupied him so I could clean.  Then I got sick for a week and didn't clean at all and just cuddled with Aaron and I was SO much happier that week. I'm still working on finding a healthy balance between tidying, cleaning, and living life. 

While I didn't follow all of her rules exactly, I'm grateful for the show and the push it gave me to tidy my home and finally get rid of things I'd been holding onto for years that I didn't need and no longer sparked joy. 


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