Joy No Joy

I made the most of my Sunday morning by lazing in bed and doing very little of anything. I didn't even wake up until after 8am and I just needed to 'stop' and not think about doing anything - shut down the brain and completely relax.

So I caught up on my 'Married at First Sight' and 'MKR' episodes that aired while I was in Sydney.

Adoring Husband prepared a delicious steak with salad, sweet potato and potato chips for lunch. It was amazingly delicious and really hit the spot.

It must have re-energised me because I began to feel inspired.

I was inspired to strip the bed and remake it - I must say that it was hard physical work and I actually had to lie down for ten minutes when I was done! You'd think with all the swimming before I went to Sydney and all the walking while I was in Sydney, that my fitness level might be conducive to making a bed!! What's going on there?

Still, I gathered my energy pretty quickly and decided to do a Marie Kondo on my wardrobe.

If you don't know Marie Kondo, she is a world wide phenomenon with her own TV series about decluttering your house.

The process involves completely emptying your wardrobe onto your bed and then going through every item individually, holding it in your hands and asking yourself whether it brings you joy or not. It started off pretty slowly for me, but by the end I didn't even have to think about it - almost like Tinder - swipe right, swipe left.

I completely emptied my wardrobe, washed the walls and Adoring Husband was kind enough to vacuum the floor.

This was the pile that I had to work through ...

There are clothes hanging in the laundry drying and there is a load of washing still waiting to be done from the Sydney trip - neither of those were added to this pile.

Eventually it was split into two. The 'No Joy' pile ...

and the 'Joy' pile now hanging in my wardrobe.

I have two bags of items to send to 'Rethread the Earth' - an old friend of Vegan Chickie's who creates beautiful bags from recycled clothing and bags and then sells them at the markets.

I have a clothes basket full and two large bags of items to go to a charity organisation.

There are now 40 empty coat hangers in my wardrobe.

It took me four hours to declutter, hang the joyful items, sort through the 'no joy' pile and separate the Rethread the Earth items, then fold all the other items so that they could fit into the basket, fill the other two bags with what was left over and then throw away the garbage.

I had to say goodbye to a couple of my 'Joy' items because they have seen better days and I just can't see them lasting through another winter. A beautiful pair of suede and knit boots lined with sheeps wool. They brought me thirteen years of joy and it was very sad to say goodbye.

My wedding boots that I only got to wear about eight times, but the colour is flaking off the outer material so they need to go too.

A pair of 3/4 jeans that I bought during our first lady's trip away at the Gold Coast. Black with a fancy trim at the knee and diamontes along the shin. They served me well but they don't fit me anymore - happily they are too big, but time to go.

I feel good that the job is done and now I have the top of my dressing table to do - I suspect that will take at least two hours. The back bedroom is the final room to be decluttered - that will definitely take a day. It's totally out of control!

In Feng Shui terms, it's the money corner of our house, so it desperately needs to be done!

I'm looking forward to sliding between clean sheets tonight, so I'm signing off here and heading to bed.

There is still much to be done at The Happy Abode tomorrow, so I need to get a good night's sleep.

Nite all.