We’re often writing about going ultralight here on this blog and the importance of weighing everything and going light when traveling and hiking, but Stanna has taken this lightweight thing to a new level.  She read a review of “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing,” by Marie Kondo, Home Organization Advice from Marie Kondo – NYTimes.com and now she’s 2 weeks, 3 rooms, all her clothes and shoes into the rehab program.

The quote and often repeated recommendation espoused by Ms. Kondo’s newest acolyte is, “Pull everything out of the closest/drawer and as you  place it back, ask yourself ‘Does it give you Joy?’  If not, get rid of it'”

The closet and dresser drawer purge took place while I was on the Great Divide trail, so the only evidence besides a 50% reduction in clothes hanger occupancy is this photo of the dining room table.  The king-sized bed was packed with discards as well.  Fortunately some of these treasures found a home in our extended family and never made it to the thrift store.

Our infamous bookshelves took the biggest hit being reduced by 80%. She’s found a home for one of two of the ancient sets of encyclopedias. It appears that we’ll lose at least two whole sets of shelves. And now we’ll be able to take the map collections off the floor and onto several of the liberated shelves.  Those binders still need purging and I suspect that whole upper shelf will be freed.

Hopefully there’s not a volume or weight limit on the contributions.  The next logistic challenge is getting these volumes to Friends of the Library.

We sure hope the library still has books-on-tape since we’ve managed to horde quite a number (many of which we inherited from my aunt).

Stanna’s headed for the kitchen next, and that’s going to be the biggest trauma, because many of those shelves and drawers are filled with heirlooms from family and the French Bakery.  And then “we” need to work on the male half of the closets and dressers.  I’m not sure I get much “joy” out of any of my clothes.

Besides Ms Kondo’s best seller’s current inspiration, we’ve learned over the past several estates that it’s best to “give it with a warm hand,” rather than saddle the heirs with the nightmare of cluttered closets and cabinets.  NOTE to the family:  If you’re interested in anything, let us know & we’ll put your name on it, or call you to come pick it up.