Woman in Real Life

As we attempt to purge our clutter-filled homes of all things ugly, unloved and excess, Marie Kondo advises us to keep only those items that spark joy. My question to you is, what if far too many items spark joy? When it comes to thrifted and inherited dishes and vases, the current state of our dining room clearly demonstrates that you can have too much of a good thing.

Thrift lovers unite in 2016! With 2015 behind us and surely more thrift shopping in our futures in 2016, I thought it would be fun to look back at some of my favourite items/posts of last year. It was interesting to examine my old posts and reflect on which thrifted and gifted items became favourites, brought joy and were just generally more useful. Of course there were other items that ended up kind of falling to the wayside. And that's just as telling, isn't it?

I highly recommend looking back at your old purchases to help you find better, more useful treasures going forward! It goes back to the advice of popular organization expert Marie Kondo - keep only those items that bring you joy. And each of the items pictured above gives me joy.

Some of you may recall that I embarked on a 4-month purge back in May, with a goal of finally weeding out ALL (or most) of the abundance of excess stuff we have in our home. You might well wonder, if this was a "4-month" purge and began back in May, why am I writing about it still? Good question.

I wouldn't want to say that the purge was a failure, because we actually made great strides, getting rid of an unprecedented (for us) amount of stuff - clothing, magazines, papers, VHS tapes, etc. But progress got stalled somewhere along the way (mainly when the kids were home for the summer) and frankly hasn't picked up all that much since. The really good thing is, though, I have more confidence about my ability to toss unneeded items. I saw some real successes and I am ready for a solid phase two. In that spirit, I want to show you the success that my family had in paring down and organizing our books. Books are a tough category for us, because we hold them dearly in our hearts.

The sun is shining, the windows are finally cracked open and my winter malaise is lifting. I'm pretty sure that means it's spring cleaning and organizing time! And I gotta say I love it. Well, sort of. I'd rather be Samantha and twinkle my nose to get it all done. But, that not being an option, I love the satisfaction of finishing up with refreshed, clean spaces...and less stuff.

I've been looking for some inspiration to kick my spring tidy into gear. Aliya from Penguin Random House (who just did an office purge in preparation for a move herself) was kind enough to send me a copy of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.