One Year Later

A friend gave me the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up one year ago. And, I tidied up.

When I started, I hated the majority of our furniture, our rug, and much of my clothing. Our kitchen was bursting with things we didn't need and dishes we couldn't microwave. Cleaning the house was an awful burden and I resented almost every minute of it. My husband and I fought about chores, because there was no way to get them all done and things still looked like crap after all that work. When people came to visit, there was almost nowhere for them to sit.

One year later, I'm sitting in a clean living room on a Saturday morning. I just finished my entire week's worth of laundry in one load and it's all hanging to dry on a nice clothes rack. I like all my clothing, and all of it fits in my closet in a nicely organized set of drawers. Every piece of clothing has a home. Even my belts.

There are no bruises on my hips from running into my oversized bed frame in the middle of the night. The new bed frame is better for my back, and we didn't even need a new mattress. I'm not in pain anymore. I woke up at 7:30 and had a place to put my pjs when I changed into my clothes. I knew where to find my deodorant and lip balm when I needed them. I made the bed, because it is far more joyful walking into a clean room than a messy one. I opened the curtains, because daylight lets me see everything more clearly.

We had friends over last night, made milkshakes and served snacks, yet the kitchen is clean. All the dishes are clean, because it only takes a few minutes to wash them by hand. We have exactly the dishes that we need, and they are beautiful. If I need to microwave them, I can. If we get overwhelmed or too tired to wash them by hand, the dishes can all fit in the dishwasher in one load.

The living room is lovely, with furniture that fits the space comfortably. I can relax because I enjoy looking at everything we own. Visitors have plenty of places to sit. Everything is clean, because I enjoy keeping it nice and clean. It just feels better that way. We have a terrarium and windowsill garden now.

I'm about to finish a video game while waiting for one last delivery of the things we need: a laptop bag that will fit all the things I need for work, a travel mug that will let me drink tea all morning, and a wake-up light that will help us keep our schedule even during the winter.

Our power bill went down by $15/month because we don't need to do as much laundry or run the dishwasher more than twice a month.

We joined a CSA and now there's a box full of fresh, local produce in our kitchen. I made dinner with fresh shiitake mushrooms last night. I've never made anything so good before. We'll probably be saving money on food now that I have time to cook regularly. Time I'm not spending trying to keep up with an unmanageable house.

Over the past year, we donated things to a refugee assistance group, a thrift store that sends funds to schools for children in Africa, and a community warehouse that helps local families gather the home goods they need to restart their lives after evictions. Broken electronics went to a recycling facility. We sold a few things on Craigslist, mostly to college students thrilled to have them. Hardly anything was thrown away.

I can't believe how far we've come in one year. I didn't know how much better things could be until I started asking myself:

"Does this bring joy?"

Now I can answer: "Yes."