Tidying up

On Friday we said goodbye to our treasured cottage.

 I love the cottage all the time but never more than this moment, after we pack up all of our clutter and clean and shine it up and all 700 square feet glow, basking in the lake-light of this place.

It is hard to leave a space like this.  It calls me back in and says, stay. Be at peace.  Breathe. Life is good and all things are possible.

There is a lot to love about life at the lake, to be sure. and  I know that a big part of the magic is the simple fact of being on vacation.  Open tracts of time and no responsibilities to fill it.  Then of course there is the proximity to the glorious Cayuga waters.  But as the years go by I am increasingly aware that another component is the size and organization of the cottage itself.

It is such a tiny little space.  It doesn't feel that way, somehow, with its vaulted ceiling and open floor plan, but there's not much to it.  And while there's ever plenty of antique furniture in every room, there's not much else.  All of the basics for day to day living, but only the basics.  Just enough.

I can deep-clean the cottage in an hour.  Fifteen minutes a day keeps it spiffy.  The biggest mess is our clothing and with just a little attention it's possible to keep things in order and reap the rewards of a glowing, happy living space.

A clean house with room to breathe AND plenty of free time NOT spent cleaning?  It really is paradise.

Then, we come home.

Ok,  the above picture is an exaggeration.  Our house didn't really look quite like that upon our arrival. But it felt that way to me.  I've spent the last few days feeling intensely overwhelmed by ALL THIS STUFF.  It's everywhere, our stuff.  We have the basics.. . and then some... and then some more.  And all my time!  If I'm not picking something up, I'm wandering around trying to find something else...And this house is NOT small when you are walking around it 3 times trying to find some goddam scotch tape, I'll tell you that,

Enter this book.

I actually ordered this while we were at Farley's, because I knew it was coming, this malaise and discontent with my home.  Happens every year after we leave the cottage.  This year, though?  It's the year of action so I am DOING something. 

I am TIDYING.  

And I am going to use this blog to chronicle the journey.  Come along if you like.  Apparently it will be life changing.

We will see about that.  From my first foray I can tell you that at the very least it will take a LOOOONG time.

Marie Kondo's method for changing your life through tidying appears to be based on three main tenets:  1.  throw a shit ton of stuff away.  Like, 2/3 of what you own.  2.  tidy by category and do ALL of each category in one go.  3.  only keep things that "spark joy" and store them where they can be seen and used.

Number three seems to sum up life at Farley's, utterly.  And so I am totally buying into this.  I am DOING it, gosh darn it.  Every year I try and try and try to bring "lake life" home.  Maybe this is the trick.  And even if it's not, this house could stand some tidying.

The above picture is the "before" of category number 1, Art and Craft Supplies.  

These supplies were gathered into a heap from five disparate locations.  I am not sure why we felt the need to keep craft supplies in five different locations.  Must be ready to craft at any moment, in any room!!  Or something.  

And why in god's name did we need SO MUCH crafting crap?  We could run a small preschool with that pile.  A very disorganized preschool...

One of the principles from Marie's book-- you need to get all of the things in each category in ONE place, to really know just how much you have, how far into TOO MUCH you have gone.  Then, handle each object and only keep it if it sparks joy.  Otherwise, thank it for its service and let it go...

A few hours and 6 trash bags later, our Art and Craft Supplies are all here:

 
I was so completely overwhelmed by that pile of craft stuff.  Perhaps even more so by the knowledge that this is just one tiny little category in this huge house of mess.  But I focused, and handled each object, and tried my best.  I am not sure I was entirely true to the system.  I mean, really, does a jug of washable tempera paint really spark joy?  No.  But is sure is darn useful when you need to entertain a batch of kids.   And entertained kids DO spark joy.  So there.

Category 2 (a small one today as we had to spend a good deal of the day out on Lake Erie in Becca and Joe's boat, poor us...)

Mugs.

These are the mugs we are either letting go of, or storing neatly in a box for Fake Christmas Morning.

And these are the ones that made the cut, accessible and visible and ready to be enjoyed on this shelf above the coffee maker.    I didn't manage to get a picture of our overcrowded mug shelf before but trust me when I say that this is MUCH more joyful.