I mentioned that I'm reading Japanese writer, Marie Kondo's book,
The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. I'm an
avid purger and simplifier, but I needed an extra kick in the pants before the flurry of new stuff comes with Christmas.
The message of the book is to tidy up "in one go", not a little everyday because you will be tidying forever says Kondo. The idea is to clean right, one time over the course of a few weeks or months. This way you catch a vision for order that enables you to
actually change your habits and keep your home tidy. Behind all this tidying is the method of discard, discard, discard. We all have too much stuff!
The question Marie asks when deciding whether to keep an item or not is "Does this spark joy?"
Isn't that great? I love that.
* I don't think Marie has children ;)
So, I'm reading this book with a grain of salt (or a saltshaker of salt), taking what works for me and leaving what doesn't.
One of my favorite parts of the book was about dealing with photographs. When sorting photos, Marie asks her standard question "Does it spark joy?" about each photograph.
My photos have been piling up on my computer since 2009. I have had so much angst about how to organize them and which ones to print. I once attempted to create photo books, but then got so overwhelmed I've resorted back to regular old photo albums.
So, a big New Year's goal of mine is to sort photos and have them printed in 2015. Before reading this book, I probably would have seen these photos below as ones I'd unlikely print.
But with my new question "Does it spark Joy?" I can boldly say YES and keep blurry crayons, over exposed children on a picnic table, Hello Kitty, and my Tuesday night supper being breathed on by my son.
I'm actually a little excited to tackle photo albums in 2015, feeling joy and not dread! And it's funny how even pictures of inanimate objects spark joy because they remind me of our everyday, ordinary life.
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Here is
my inspiration post by Soule Mama for how I'm going to FINALLY get my my photos in order. I absolutely love how she prints them with the white boarder.
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Also, I use Costco to do all my printing. I think they do a fabulous job.
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How do you organize your photos? Are you up to date? Does it stress you out?