The most difficult thing about writing for me is time. It isn’t so much about finding time at this stage in life (no kiddos around the house yet), it’s about allowing myself time.

You see, I have this horrid little voice in my brain that tells me every day I should absolutely, positively NOT take any time for my hobbies and creative pursuits when there is work to be done. This is a problem. There is always work to be done.

I am not a terribly messy person when it comes to the type of “Ew, gross, I don’t want to be barefoot or eat in your house” type of messes, but I am a very cluttered person. I have held onto things for memory’s sake, for “maybe I’ll someday use this” sake, for “but it was a gift” sake, for “it’s a waste to throw that out” sake… and because of that my house – which has ample enough room for two people by far – feels like a disaster to me.

Disclaimer: I’m nowhere near hoarding levels, but it’s driving ME crazy, and isn’t that bad enough?

I admit our third bedroom is the “I don’t know what to do with this” room. I want to have the room back, especially since next year we plan on several interior house fixer-upper projects. Difficult to do with mess around.

My mind does not want to allow me anything that causes joy when things are not in their place. I have gotten better about this in stages, but the truth of the matter is it still hangs over my head like a Catholic school nun with a ruler.

Solution: Don’t worry about not writing or not doing other creative things for a time and focus, once and for all, on putting my house together just once.

Enter “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: the Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing” by Marie Kondo.

I discovered this book a few months ago and requested it from my local library. There was an unsurprisingly long waiting list, but after a few months I had it in my hands.

It sounded like any other type of hype or fad new fix-your-life solution, but I was curious to see what the fuss was over and thought that perhaps I could find a suggestion or two within these pages to help me out.

Confession: I fell in love with the book.

And because of that, I’m going to tackle my house her way. The KonMari method. (With a few admitted changes that I will mention along the way.)

Over the next however-long-it-takes-before-I-finish-or-give-up I’ll be posting my weekly updates, the good and the bad. I have a tendency to swing between bursts of focus and motivation and joy then down to pits of low mood and depression. I’ll mark those down too.

I don’t have the intention of making this process seem a shiny and perfect transition (because let’s face it, hardly anyone functions that way in real life), so let’s make it real, folks!

Are you with me?