"Killing Your Darlings" aka Tidying "Sacred" Areas

This week I was going to post about something else, but I can't get my mind off the controversy that has sprouted up regarding tidying..aka the KonMari method of decreasing clutter. At the beginning of the week, I started watching the Art of Tidying Up. I was, once again, at the beginning process of reorganizing my office/craft room. I hoped there might be some organizing tips that clicked with me so I wouldn't have to do this every year. I'm fortunate to have a nice writing and crafting space, yet I seem unable to do any crafting in the room. There's so much surrounding me, I have trouble being creative. I either have too much stuff, not utilizing the space correctly, or more than likely a combination of both. I hoped the show would jump start me in the process.

What I loved about the Art of Tidying was that Marie Kondo encourages the people, who asked for her help, to keep the items that spark joy for them, whether it was clothes, kitchen items, household items, and the anger-inducing categories: books and sentimental/photograph. I also interpreted "sparking joy" to mean useful needed items to keep a home at a place where it brings you joy: vacuum, toilet brush, tools (though those might spark joy for my husband), etc. The declutters controlled how much stayed or went rather than the organizer giving them an set amount (three boxes of books, two watches, four purses, etc) as happens in other organizing shows.

As I was starting on adventure of KonMari, articles disagreeing with this method started popping up on Facebook. I read a few and was disheartened by the anger, especially coming from bibliophiles and crafters/scrapbookers over the fact that books and photographs are listed as items that should be pared down. I love books. Love reading. Love crafting, especially scrapbooking and my photos (there is not a room in our house where we don't have a framed photograph we cherish hanging up). But even with my love of reading and photographs, I realized there were some items in both of those categories I could--and should--part with. Just because I let go of some books doesn't mean I no longer appreciate books, that I didn't like those authors, or that I no longer want to learn or grow. 

To me, it's like the writing advice of "killing your darlings". Many times, I've had to edit out a phrase, punchy dialogue, and even at times (like the current book I'm editing) entire chapters that I loved. While I loved the words I wrote, it didn't really move the story forward. It was just there. No purpose except taking up space...aka increasing the word count. Some of those sections, I pull out and save in a document to use later, others I delete because I know it doesn't fit with my style of writing (I was trying to be "someone" else in my writing) or was similar to something I already wrote and I don't want to duplicate myself.

There was a large collection of research books I've kept because I had spent quite a bit of time gathering them for a series I planned to write. As my collection grew, my interest in the project waned. I realized the project wasn't sometime I longed to write, but was going to write because I wanted to "belong". I felt if I wrote that types of story it would impress certain people...make them like me. (I'm deliberately keeping the details vague.)

The books didn't bring me joy. Heck, the thought of the project didn't bring me joy. I felt oppressed, not because of the content in the books, but because it was a reminder of a time when I was so desperate to be liked, I was willing to be someone else to win approval. Which I had come to understand would never happen because there would always be a reason I didn't measure up. Donating those books was a freeing experience. I wasn't just clearing shelf space but was letting go of writing what "might' please others and venturing onto projects that excited and challenged me. I was closing doors on trying to earn those friendships.

For photographs, I was keeping duplicates and blurry images because I was telling myself it was disrespectful. It was like throwing out or rewriting events. Lying. But, we didn't need every picture to remember that time in our life, especially if the photo "said the same thing" as another one already in our scrapbook. As an over-writer (ask my patient editor), I have a tendency to "say" the same thing in multiple ways. I'm learning to cut those passages out earlier and to trust that saying it once is enough. I'm using that same philosophy when I start sorting through all the saved photos. Though, I do plan on saving some photos, in archival storage containers, for each child in case they want photographs from their childhood. 

Photo Sorting

I love going on vacations. I love taking pictures as does my husband and my middle child which is how I now find myself sorting through 3,000+ photos from our 10 day vacation in California. It's nice to have so many pictures to choose from but it's a huge task to narrow them down. We had taken the laptop on vacation with us and before leaving the beautiful state of California, my husband had downloaded the photos for our daughter's camera. Our son came also but he isn't a big picture taker, maybe because he knew we were doing plenty of it between 2 cell phones, 2 point and shoot cameras, and one DSLR.

Now that I have all the photos in place, and have chosen which photo printing place I'm using...Amazon Prime Photos (with free shipping it costs the same as free photos from Shutterfly and paying for shipping and I don't have to wait for a deal)...and it's time to pick which ones to upload. I completed the last scrapbook album I was working on and with a crop coming up in July, I need to gather up the items for my next crop project: Vacation 2017.

My first step was making a folder, Upload CA pics to Amazon, and copying pretty much every single photo into it this way we still have all the originals. I plan on deleting this folder and the contents once the pictures are upload to Amazon.  I was able to delete about 200 from the start as they were blurry or off nothing but it still leaves quite a number to sort through. Some of the photos, golf outings, I'm leaving for my husband to go through because what I think is just a rock might be something important from him and our son's golfing trip to Torrey Pines.

Next, I went through and deleted any doubles or composition of photo that appear to make it a double and any photos that even though not blurring just weren't good for some reason. As I had 3,000 photos to work with, I was a little more discerning on what I kept and also in trimming down some of the pictures...like our twenty photos of giraffes.

Currently, I'm down to a little over 1,600 photos to print. Still a lot but I know that number will go down once my husband narrows down the golf photos and the ones of seals at La Jolla cove. I plan on doing another "editing" pass on the photos to get it down to an even more manageable level.

Stalled by Craft Chaos

I had planned to show everyone everyone my process for my making page kits for a crop. I wasn't as productive (completed layouts wise) at the last crop I attended and the biggest difference was I hadn't preplanned any of the pages. With another crop coming up in November, I wanted to get some page kits together so I completed more layouts and I also didn't have to bring so much stuff it looked like I was moving in.

I gathered up all cruise/vacation/25th anniversary themed paper, embellishments, and cardstock in blues, silver, white, and Caribbean colors. Printed out all my pictures. Found my vacation themed stamps and ink colors that complement the papers. I cleared off my large crafting and got ready to work. Oops, forgot one thing. My stash of Ziploc bags. The central  component of my kit making.

So off I went to find them--and spent 2 hours looking for the safe place I put them so I didn't lose them during the craft room move of 2017. No luck. I now have come to the conclusion that the only way to locate the wayward bags is to finish the job of moving all my craft supplies upstairs...and purging some of them. This is the task I've been avoiding for the last six weeks. I can't believe how much stuff I've accumulated over the years, and the fact is I'll never be able to use it all and some of the items no longer speak to me as my scrapbooking style has changed, and to be honest I either bought on a whim or because it was a really great sale price.

Now the easiest thing to do would be buy more Ziploc bags. It would definitely had taken me less time, but I really don't want to go buy more as I know there are 25+ bags just waiting for me to discover them among the craft chaos. But I do need to get the items sorted out and put my new craft space and office together.

Craft Room Organizing: Do I Have To?

Organizing and I have a love/hate relationship. I love to organize my office, books, and even my craft room, until I get down to the small supplies like embellishments and paper. It's the bane of my crafting existence. I can get more crafting done, and it's more enjoyable when it's all sorted, but getting there is a huge battle. I put if off until it becomes so disorganizing I have no choice if I want to craft. And I do love crafting.

Part of my issue right now is that I'm trying to find a system that works now and also in the future when we downsize. We don't have definite plans on when (or even where) we'd move but it's in discussion as our youngest is moving and we'll have way too much house. I don't want to invest a lot of money in new storage items, and want something that works well for crafting at home and on the go. Then there's the actually having to admit to myself which items I will no longer use, and coming to terms with the scrapbooking tools, paper, and other embellishments I bought because of a craze and "everyone is using it" that doesn't fit my scrapbooking style. During the last five years, I've fortunately embraced my style or scrapbooking and haven't bought items that now have me wondering what was I thinking.

One of my newest purchases is what I call my die cutting center, and it works for two out of three needs: now, future, but it's not as portable as I'd like. It's great for around the house and I can wheel it from my office into my craft room area but it's not good for retreats. Though, I don't see myself taking two machines to retreats. When we move, we're not taking my mammoth desk so this is a perfect unit for my Air, Cameo, and accessories. The paper scraps are stored in the drawers and make it easier for me to find a color I need, and it takes less time. The only problem is I have to pack up all my scraps when I'm cropping on the go. I have two plastic zippered pouches I use but am going to try an accordion folder next month. I spent a bit of time sorting the colors so I hate the thought of jumbling them back up only to resort wen I'm back home.

The next item on my list is stickers and other embellishments (brads, stickers, fiber, and eyelets...the last item I just might let it go).

Confession of a Disorganized Mess

I confess: I am not a good housekeeper. I’d much rather spend quality time with my kids than to clean or to fuss at them constantly to clean their rooms, for example. But with four people living in a small house, I find myself stretched to my limits of being a carefree housekeeper.

So I have a friend of a friend who is a professional home organizer. (And she is now my friend.) (Here is her blog, check her out.) After overcoming some emotional obstacles I had about her coming in to my house, and realizing her consultation was free, I decided to give it a go. After her first hour of consulting, she begins to charge. But within that hour, I gleaned a lot of useful information—information that I’m still working out, but still, it was relevant to the way we live.

I have no foyer. Many families I know use their foyer for organizing coats and book bags and so on. But what happens in my house is that it all goes to the floor right near the door. So the first thing she suggested was a reorganizing and cleaning out of the hall closet—which I accomplished within two weeks. Sound like a long time? It is. It would have taken just several hours, but I rarely have that big a chunk of time away from everything else.

I bought a closet extender so now I have two rods—one that hangs off the top rod. Also a plastic shoe bag holder. It now hangs over the closet door and holds hats, gloves, and scarves. ((Just how many hats does one family need? Sigh.)

Will this work? Well, winter will tell us.

The other thing she suggested was moving my scrapbook supplies from my writing office and keeping them closer to where I actually scrapbook. It made a lot of sense. But man, I am still working on it. I THINK I now have all my scrapbook stuff in my dining room in a nice cube-storage area. But there may be more lurking around in the nooks and crannies or the rest of my house. I still have to create some kind of curtain to cover that. But it really has made a difference in terms of the time I’ve been putting into my scrapbooking. It’s so much easier, now to get the stuff out and put it away.

Talk about your light bulb moments.

Still, there’s a long way to go. The next big project is to organize my office. I may need her to help with this one. But I’ll start it myself and see where it goes. After all it’s a work in progress, kind of like life. You just never know what you’ll find or what will happen next.

How about you? Do you have any good organizing tips?