Monday morning's are for conquering!

Coffee - check
Blue (because it's Monday morning and it keeps me calm) - check
Perfect pedicure - check
Week's To-Do-List - check

It's Monday morning and I'm feeling something between motivated and sluggish. I need to get off my ass, and do this s**t! Winter makes me so slow, but then again I say that in the heat of the summer too, but the days are longer so I do tend to be out of the house more, and get more things done by default.

I spent the weekend with my husband, cleaning, or shall we say, decluttered, my house. After reading Marie Kondo's book The life changing magic of tidying up, I had gone into a frenzy and detoxed my wardrobe. But the bags of clothes were sitting around for my girlfriends to come pick through what they wanted to adopt. That bag was waiting here for 3 months!

So I gave my girlfriends the ultimatum on Sunday, come get or forget! The electronics and other things we got ride of yesterday, including furniture wasn't so lucky to have been given a second chance. Marie's theory is to say goodbye to your things, thank them for serving you, and throw it away. Don't offload your crap onto someone else. Although, my brother did point out, that only really rich people can afford to be minimalists. If they need something again after they've trashed it, they can just go out and buy another one...hmmm...

Marie also says the full detox of the whole house should be done within 6 months of you starting. It's a life 'event' that you only need to do once in your life. Which is true, because since I read the book, I haven't purchased anything new, and my shopping habits have changed, hopefully for good. Some of the basic principles of the KonMarie method are: Discard 'Does this spark joy?' // Do it by category  // Designate a 'home' for everything.

• When deciding what to discard, remember that the endgame isn’t to throw out or donate as much as possible, but to make sure that the things you hold onto make you happy. This is where picking up each item and asking, “does this spark joy?” comes in. It may sound like a hazy benchmark but with practice, it becomes an invaluable tool. It’s particularly effective for organizing closets as we often develop superficial attachments to clothing (I paid a lot for this, I wore it when I met my husband, maybe if I lose 10 pounds), not really considering if the shirt, dress, or pair of shoes serves a purpose.
• Sort and purge by category rather than by room. While your instinct may be to start in say, the kitchen, and then move onto the living room and so on, it’s best to pick a category (clothing, books, documents, etc…) and go from there. The reasoning is that similar items are likely scattered throughout the house, not confined to one room.
• After discarding, designating a specific home for every single item you keep is critical in avoiding a clutter relapse. According to Kondo, fancy stackable storage solutions encourage hoarding, so simple and easy-to-use options are best. Ideally, it should be just as effortless to put something away as it is to locate it later.

Leaving you with a polka dotted picture that makes me smile, from lover Maruska, with her Ermis winged sandals.

Have a wonderful week lovers xoxo