A night of a thousand plastic spoons

I finally read Marie Kondo’s book in January 2020 and decided that this was the year that I would declutter our things. I don’t commit unless I can follow through, and I knew this was a BIG project, so I was taking it head on.

Which meant no more excuses

Three small children and a full-time job? We’ll do it in small chunks!

House still being renovated from a water leak and mold infestation from months ago? We’ll start upstairs!

Husband who has very strong convictions about never wasting, always recycling, and finding the most thoughtful, sustainable way to dispose of anything? Well, we’ll figure it out together!

I started, just like you’re supposed to. Category one is clothes. I got through those (read more here), donated them, breathed a sigh of relief, and carried on.

Baby clothes! Whole other emotional rollercoaster.

Category 2, books, done! (future blog post coming)

But before we dove into papers, we needed room in our garage to store all of our discard items during the shelter-in-home, world-shut-down phase of 2020. We needed to unpack the remaining boxes from our January floors-getting-replaced partial-move-out.

And that’s how I found myself surrounded by 1,000 + plastic spoons at 10:30 at night, frustrated, tired, and wondering what to do next.

Go to bed. The answer was go to bed.

Feeling discouraged, I asked my husband while we were about to go to sleep, “Why do you think I’m doing this?”

He replied, “To make our lives difficult.”

And while I know he was just grouchy from being kept up past his bedtime on a Sunday night, sorting through plastic spoons and forks, I realized that it was a time to back up a bit and write out why I believe this is worth our limited free time.

I believe …

• that if we stop treating our home like a storage unit, we will enjoy our time here more.

• that if we can spend less time cleaning, organizing, and fighting the clutter, we can spend more time playing, relaxing, and enjoying family time.

• that if we surround ourselves with only things that make us happy, we will be happier.

• that we will realize that less is more, and we will be able to breathe and relax in a home that has just enough, not too much.

• that after we deal with our things instead of hide them away, we will be less distracted by what we have to do and more focused on what we want to do.

• that we will learn to be more grateful and thankful for the things we do choose to keep, and that will impact how we treat other people and things in this world.

There is so much to gain, but it takes a lot of time and work to get through all the clutter that we’ve accumulated over the last few decades. How did we end up with so many plastic spoons? It doesn’t really matter. We have them now, and we have to decide what to do with them. Probably let most of them go.

And we’ll remember this and be more considerate the next time we think about buying disposable utensils. I’m pretty sure we’re never going to end up with 1,000 plastic white spoons again.

Helpful tips for tidying

A few things I was reminded of after tonight:

• If a pile of stuff or category is feeling overwhelming, break in into smaller parts.

• If you can’t remember why you’re doing this, or wondering if it’s worth it, write down or re-read your tidying goals.

• It’s okay to take a break. Tidying is harder when you’re tired.

• Go back to the basics. Hold it, and think about whether it brings you joy. Does it make you happy? Keep it with pride. Don’t think you will use it? Then thank it, and let it go.

Happy tidying, friends.