I have officially deemed this year the “Year of Declutter”. Like I mentioned in Episode 8: Confessions of Clutter Queens and Our Spring Cleaning Adventures, I have been working diligently to get my house decluttered and organized.

I have always had a love/hate relationship with cleaning. While it is therapeutic and so positive for my mental health once it’s done, my actual motivation to clean is always a struggle. Oftentimes, I’m so overwhelmed with what I need to clean, that I avoid it, causing the never ending ebb and flow of my mental health. That is why I’m so focused on getting things organized and GETTING RID OF CRAP! I live alone and it amazes me how much crap one person truly has. I have filled my entire house to the point I don’t have room for everything. The clutter makes cleaning even harder, so I’m trying to make things easier for myself. I’m putting in the work now, to make things easier for myself long term. It’s been a lot of work!

Recently, I tackled my book collection, mainly my overflowing bookshelves. I was frustrated with how disorganized everything looked and I was often buying duplicate copies of books because I couldn’t tell what I already owned. That’s pretty easy to do when you have almost 600 books! The first thing I did was research online databases where I could store my book collection so I knew what I had moving forward. I wanted something that I could reference on my phone when I was at a bookstore and that would allow me to use a barcode scanner to add my books. In the past I had used Goodreads bookshelves to keep track of my collection, but it had its pain points. Eventually, I chose LibraryThing. It met all of the things on my list and was very easy to use. I ordered an inexpensive barcode scanner on Amazon (link) and got to work! Over the course of a weekend, I identified about a dozen duplicate copies of books I had and was able to give them away to another fellow reader. I was also able to move books I had already read into totes so that my shelves weren’t overflowing.

Overall, I’m very proud of what I accomplished in just a couple of days. Now when I walk into my office I no longer feel anxious and feel so good when I see my books stacked orderly on the shelves. It has given me the motivation to keep going in other areas of my house. I’m currently tackling my garage that I have used as storage for years now. My goal is to be able to park my car there! Wish me luck! Haha!

I hope our episode and this blog encourages you to start your organization journey. Our methods may not be what works for you, but we hope to bring you inspiration to find your process.

Happy Spring Cleaning!

Brandi

The Year of Declutter

Atomic Habits by James Clear