This 1967 photo is the only known proof that I have actually cleaned something myself. Please note that my sassy dish towel apron did nothing to appease my distaste for this chore, as is evident by my facial expression.

I not ashamed at all to admit that I come from a short line of sub-par housekeepers. These women were/are amazing humans who had much more important things to do, such as, lovingly parent, grow beautiful gardens, read interesting books, and as I often complained about, feed the chickens.  In my view, excellent role models. They also had a lot of stuff. And by stuff, I mean normal stuff, like boxes of things that they don’t use but don’t want to get rid of yet, books, extra clothes and so on.

Much to my spouse’s dismay, I inherited that gene. Many of you have heard the story of how I knew Jeff was the one for me. I came home for lunch one day to find him on his knees, cleaning the bathroom floor. Something that I’d never, ever think of doing of the middle of the day, if at all!  He comes from a LONG line of excellent housekeepers. The pillow-fluffing, washing machine sparkles on the outside, inside of the cupboards always perfect kind of housekeepers. While I’m far from a hoarder – it’s not THAT bad -I do have an attic full of stuff.

It’s with this back story that I’ve decided to take advantage of the extra day this February to start another 30-day challenge. My success with Whole30 inspired me to think about what other positive changes I could make in my life. So begins my quest to tackle some of the tasks outlined in the The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

 

The premise of this book is that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you’ll never have to do it again. That if an item doesn’t “spark joy”, you should thank it for its service and let it go. Rather than go room by room, it suggests categories – clothes, miscellaneous, books, papers, photos. I’m already overwhelmed.

Now, let’s face it. Although I’ve been caught several times petting myself while wearing my favorite fake-fur vest, I’m not the kind of person who can thank my old sweater for its service before giving it away with a straight face. Can anyone? But I’m going to give it a go, as well as revisit another housekeeping reform program that I’ll blog about later, and keep you posted.

Off to round up the clothes and get this moving. Later!