Tidying Up: Day 6, 7 & 8

Oh how I wanted to tell you how much progress I made this weekend. Unfortunately, I did not make much. Saturday after running errands and visiting family, I did tackle books. As a cupcake baker, I have an abundance of baking books. It was hard to decide which cookbooks to keep and which ones to let go. I know back to the whole, "Does it bring me joy?" thing. Also, I had saved a lot of travel guides and professional teaching books from my admin degree. Some books I saved, but most I am donating.I recycled a ton of magazines too. One benefit of online magazine subscriptions, no recycling needed!

Donating

Keeping

The big brown dog found a book he liked too!

My guy did tidy up all of the bottoms in his closet, so he is slowly getting back on board. I even taught him how to fold his jeans and shorts to maximize room in his closet. No tidying tonight though because of the British Open. Shh! Don't tell him Zach Johnson won in a playoff.

Sunday was our day of rest, so no tidying yesterday. Today I tackled jewelry.I forgot that under the clothes section of the KONMARI method is shoes and jewelry. Shoes I plan on tidying tomorrow, but jewelry was pretty easy.

As a teacher, you are blessed with numerous beautiful trinkets from students over the years. It is very hard to part with some, because every student brought you joy, and recycling the jewelry they made or gave you is difficult. However, the number of loom band bracelets I have accumulated over the past two years was quite astonishing. I could probably wear a different one every day for a year and have no repeats!

So, I went by this method, if I could remember the student who gave it to me, I kept it. For example, one adorable sweet student H gave me my one and only cupcake necklace because he saw it in the gift shop at the airport and made his mom buy it for me because he knew I had to have it. It even came in its own cupcake shaped box. Still makes me smile every time I see it.

Also, my sweet pale pink bracelet from student A. She makes beautiful jewelry. She made me a special pink beaded bracelet with an apple and two books that dangle from it. Last, two elastic bracelets from student S. He made it with his mom. His explanation was the sweetest. "I included pink beads because you battled breast cancer and won. I included purple beads because you love the Ravens, and I included blue beads because it is my favorite color and that way you won't forget me." He was sooo right ; )

Before

After

Donation Box

I still have a whole shelf of Tiffany jewelry. All tucked away neat in their little blue pouches. I love each and every piece. Does anyone else have a collection of Tiffany bracelets and necklaces that they no longer wear? I can't bring myself to donate them. Jewelry brings lots of joy, but goodness statement necklaces take up a lot of space!

Bag Count:
Me: Still 6, plus 2 boxes of books and 1 small box of jewelry.
My Guy: 2 bags
Trash Guy: Still 2