Happy Monday! Today I thought I would simply share with you about an hour's worth of notes from listening to this popular book called "The Lifechanging Majic of Tidying Up" in case you haven't been able to read it yet. It will only take a few minutes to glance over these notes and take the nuggets! This section of the book I got to hear alone has me excited to tidy up my house and life. Enjoy these few notes...!
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The art of tidying is so dependent on what a person is willing to live with.
It is dependent on your thinking.
When you finish putting your life in order it will change your whole world. The effects are stupendous. This is the magic I want to share with as many people as possible.
"Can you actually make money doing that?" people ask. (I think it's pretty great she just has taken what she is passionate about and made it into something that helps and serves millions; consequently she's made a very good living at it.)
Food clothing and shelter - basic needs -
Keeping shelter livable you would think would be as important as food preparation or clothing which turns into fashion.
It's all about discarding first!
1-Discard
2-Finish Discarding
3-Explore what to discard
Look more closely at what is there. Focus on what you want to keep - take each item in my hand and ask "Does this spark joy?" That is the key to it all!
Imagine living in an environment that only sparks joy.
(Side note------So basically her whole point she said over and over was that the ultimate goal of all this tidying up is to make you happy. Everyone wants to be happy! The cool thing to me is that my personal life long need and desire to tidy up is finally coming to pass as a result of my finding serenity and what I have called learning to be happy anyway. Not the other way around. Before, I desperately wanted to become organized hoping it would make me happy. But now, I am actually FINALLY becoming more organized out of the skill and freedom of enjoying my joy and realizing I am choosing to be happy either way. Since love is the key to happiness, loving yourself enough to do what you long for that is healthy, like for me, tidying up is flowing out of that self love and happiness. Love includes loving God, yourself, and others. What is it that you have before thought would make you happy but from reading this today you realize you had it backwards? ________________ Begin to realize the real key is loving yourself enough or someone else or God enough to ____________ and watch your desires flow out of that and come to pass too.) Ok, back to my notes from the book......
The approach of tidying by location is fatal and will not work.
This wastes time and effort. Repetition and wasted time kill motivation. In other words, don't say I am going to organize this space, then go to that space. No, Pull all like items from all over the house bringing order to all things in that category. This will prevent shuffling stuff fruitlessly. (This is huge and so different from how I've always done it. This works.)
Search every piece of clothing of mine in all the house and put in the floor. Pick up each item and ask yourself if it sparks joy.
Next, remove all items of each category like this and put in one space....cleaning items, cosmetics, clothes, momentos, office supplies, art supplies, photos, etc.
Start with things you don't like so much like clothes or cleaning items. Don't start with photos or other momentos.
All things go into 3 categories
Functional value, informational value and emotional attachment
Clothes are easiest.
Leave photos for last.
Order to go by for tidying up:
Clothes
Books
Papers
Misc
Momentos
Hope you enjoyed these notes as much as I did and something from them can benefit you as you tidy up your spaces and life. And hope you and I both get to finish this book one day.😉😃😘