It’s time for my annual cleaning – or for nesting

Kaity Holtman

I’ve never been really into resolutions, and if I do make them, they don’t usually last very long.

Last January, I accomplished most of my goal of purging every room in the house. And I actually enjoyed it enough that it’s my annual goal — to clean like I’m moving.

This year, I plan to do that again, though I can call it nesting this year.

I hate to admit it, but I took all my Christmas decorations — except my nativity — down the day after Christmas. I usually leave everything until after the Epiphany, or at least after the new year begins.

But this year, I was just ready to get my house back to normal so I can prepare myself for all the baby gear we’ll gather over the next few months. We are very ready to really get to work on the nursery and to get everything ready for baby.

I recently came across an article online at today.com, The Today Show’s website. The article featured author Marie Kondo’s “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.”

I am very intrigued by her methods. Here are her “nine tips for tidying up,” and I think I may have to put some of them into practice.

1. Sort by category, not location: Don’t do the bedrooms first, then the living room, then the rest of the house. Do all your clothes, then all your books, etc.

2. Tidy in one go. Don’t draw it out. If you tidy a bit each day, you’ll find that you’re tidying forever. Do it all at once and you’ll have the system in place to stay tidy.

3. Pick up each item one at a time and ask yourself, “Does it spark joy?”

4. Fold your clothes so that they stand up vertically. This way, you can put all your t-shirts (or other items) in a drawer and see every item at once, rather than digging through piles of fabric to find the shirt you want.

5. Don’t repurpose clothes to loungewear. Don’t justify keeping a torn, ratty T-shirt just because you think you can repurpose it as a pajama top.

6. Recycle your papers. For important legal documents, scan them. Everything else you should get rid of.

7. Don’t keep gifts out of guilt. After the joy of the gift-giving moment is through, you can donate the gift without guilt. It has served its purpose.

8. Storage experts are hoarders. A “clever” storage solution never really solves anything. A new box or organizer won’t make you tidy. Pursue ultimate simplicity.

9. Start with what you know will be easy to get rid of. If you start with mementos or items you attach a functional value, it will be harder to know if they spark joy. Start with items that are easier to make decisions about, and then you will be in the right mindset to tackle mementos later.

Now obviously, we can create some ifs, ands, or buts about all of these tips. They are completely basic and minimal.

Obviously if you have farm or business records, you have to hold on to those longer.

A lot of things play into the process — how long we live in one place, how many years it’s been since we cleaned out these things, how sentimental we are, etc.

I truly believe that there is a generational difference here.

Going to auctions of people who have died or have to downsize can be very sad because the stuff they valued very much is now being sold for little to nothing.

My generation does not collect sets of things the way previous generations do. We do not want for much, and we have easier access to material things because of online shopping and quicker travel to shopping centers.

So while we gather clutter, we don’t necessarily have the attachment to things the way older generations do.

I get it, both ways.

But to see antique stores just so full of stuff that I’m afraid the floor will fall in reminds me to keep what really matters now instead of having all of that stuff later.

And gifts and mementos are really, really hard to tackle — they are the one task I never really went through fully last year.

I’m not sure I have the heart to tackle it this year, but even if I do, I still have a lot of things that mean a lot to me that won’t be going anywhere.

But the clutter — it’s got to go. Out with the old, and in with the new. Babies sure do come with a lot of accessories, and it is time to make some room.