After a couple weeks of silence, the Great Tidy-My-Life Project continues. A couple reasons for the silence:

First, paper is waaaaay too boring for its own post. There was paper. It went into piles. Some piles got filed away, others recycled. Nothing much to see there.

Second, there’s that whole sprained ankle thing. Yeah. Kinda slows you down.

Third, komono (miscellaneous) is a huge category. It basically involves everything that isn’t clothes, books, paper, or sentimental items. This also means a much harder category to tidy, for me, because many items belong to the whole family rather than to me individually. Plus, some things have to be treated like paper (keep what you need) and others like clothes/books (keep what brings you joy).

First on the list was CDs, DVDs, and video games. I sorted through these before anyone else, putting them all on the living room floor and only re-shelving the ones that brought me joy. Then the boys went through them and pulled out their joy-bringers, and Jason followed them. In the end, another bag for Half Price Books – including a half-dozen newly-culled books from me, plus the boys’ culled books- netted us another $60. Woot!

The rest of komono was very piecemeal. Makeup and skincare? Check. Electronics? Check. Office supplies? Check. Bedding and towels? Check. Exercise stuff? Check. Food and kitchenware? Check. Purse and desk stuff? Check. And on and on and on, until we had boxes and boxes to sell/donate and ginormous bags to dispose of. This was only the part that made it into photo. (Note little Gavroche for size perspective!)

We didn’t follow all the rules, I admit. There is plenty of komono in our disorganized, mostly-unpacked garage: holiday stuff, tools, things left behind by the previous owner, car stuff, yard stuff, outdoor toys, etc. But the garage, laden with boxes waiting for their date with the once-weekly recycling truck, would be a bit of a hazard on a sprained ankle. Not to mention, triple-digit heat does not a pleasant garage make. Not to mention, most items are too messy or bulky to drag inside. So the garage, against the rules or no, shall undergo its tidying sometime in the future.

Still, ignoring the garage, we did great work. Our kitchen is finally organized. We know what needs replacing. We know what we do/don’t own, and where it all belongs. And all the spare change (which, admittedly, came mostly from old coin collecting)? Another $25 in the bank. So far. Boom.

And, while it’s not quite KonMari, we also used this time to chop down a dead tree in our backyard. Under the previous ownership, it had been struck by lightning, and was a huge hazard. Brush pickup for our neighborhood is this month, so it was perfect timing. Eventually, this sitting stump will make a lovely outdoor area when we have the time to spruce it up!