simplify.

A year or so ago, I read a book called "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo.  

The book was truly "life-changing".  Marie Kondo has come up with this decluttering system that she calls KonMari.  The basic premise is that you only keep things that spark joy for you.  You also declutter by category and not by room.

She has a specific order that you are to go in to make the system work and she promises that for those people who have gone through her entire program, she has seen no rebounds.  Once I started this method, I was hooked.  It became an obsession for me last summer and I flew through the decluttering and organizing tasks associated with several categories.

Clothes.
Papers.
Books.
Kitchen Items.
Bathroom Items.
Toys.

I was really making good progress.  

Near the end of the summer, I was nearing the end of my KonMari journey.  I still had a few categories left to go through.

Holiday decor.
Electronics.
Teaching supplies.
Sentimental items.

And I stalled. 

Right there in the first week of August, with the items sorted and ready to be tackled, I stalled.

I just left the sentimental items piled in a box, put the holiday decor back into the garage, put the tub of electronics into a cabinet in the laundry room, and took the teaching supplies back to my classroom storage closet.

I had made amazing progress and when I started working at school again, I just lost the momentum to continue!

The house stayed clean and organized for the first few months of school, but once we hit second and third quarter, I started losing control.  Again.  I rebounded.  

Sure, we didn't own as many items as we did prior to my first KonMari round, and we were more careful about our purchases now, but still...it was just a little unfinished.

Fast-forward to this last spring.

Our buyers contacted us and we began to make plans to move.  I was still exhausted by the end of the school year and unfortunately didn't have it in me to start another KonMari round before school got out.

In dealing with the house sale and purchase hiccups and trying to get the closing all worked out, I haven't even had a chance to start yet.  

But guess what?  It's coming.

I'll be starting my second round of KonMari this next week while we still have two weeks in the current house.  

I don't want to take ANYthing into the new house that doesn't spark joy for me.  

​I don't want to take up precious space and our precious time dealing with stuff.  

It's not worth it.

It's not worth it to be cleaning and organizing the house every single free moment we have.

It's not worth it to create list after list to just keep our heads above water.

It's just not worth it.

And so, at the farmhouse...we will simplify.