These days find me busy clearing and chucking, sorting and sifting, storing and saving. Three truck loads of stuff cleared by the junk removers, hundreds of books donated to the Poughkeepsie Library and wardrobes full of clothing to the Salvation Army. And still there’s more.
As I clear out the clutter and crap and treasure and trove of decades, I discover – amid the alien heaps – a hidden gem that foretells all. It’s an old spiral -bound sketch book, a bit ragged and yellowed around the edges, but a delight to find. There inside – among many drawings done by friends – is the perfect illustration from Gill Popple:
Thank you Gill.
I remember David Lodge’s novel as one of his many good reads. Here’s the blurb:
Deaf Sentence tells the story of Desmond Bates, a recently retired linguistics professor in his mid-sixties. Vexed by his encroaching deafness and at loose ends in his personal life, Desmond inadvertently gets involved with a seemingly personable young American female student who seeks his support in matters academic and not so academic, who finally threatens to destabilize his life completely with her unpredictable-and wayward-behavior. What emerges is a funny, moving account of one man’s effort to come to terms with aging and mortality-a classic meditation on modern middle age.
And here is the Tony Harrison poem about his parents house that is the source of that painful quotation.
That’s such a wonderful and poignant poem that speaks so powerfully of change and grief and loss.
Get Rid of all your Clothes
But – back to this personal decluttering palaver. Gert Loveday is right on target with her post The Queen of Clean and the Duchess of Much Less
Yes – it’s about clutter maven Marie Kondo and the post is most practical, and hilarious:
Marie has written three books on tidying, with sales of 2 million, has a website that teaches you how best to fold things up, and runs a consulting business. Her basic premise is simple: only keep things that “truly spark joy”. She doesn’t seem to believe in books, but she’s very interested in the respect you show your socks and tights.
Gert would like to have the benefits of this system, but she doesn’t want to work so hard at it. So she’s come up with a few rules for decluttering your life and taking the work out of keeping your house clean.
1. Get rid of all your clothes. All you need is a simple uniform for summer and another for winter (make sure it’s one that sparks joy). All the better if it’s a onesie, so you only need 2 coat hangers. You can hire clothes for special occasions.
2. Don’t wear underwear, socks or tights.
3. One plate, bowl, cup, etc, for each person in the house. Guests can bring their own and take them home to wash up.
There’s more. Including useful suggestions for how to weaponize the cat in this war on clutter.
Good luck with that.
When it comes to your clothes follow eco-fashion, not the fast-fashion.
Good advice.
Many times, I have thought it would have been much easier if I had been a monk.
One robe on my back, one hanging in the closet.
I find it hard to keep track of things, as I am not a very organized person. So more stuff means more stress, and more hours spent looking for things that I have misplaced.
In 2014, I saw a female monk standing on the side of a street in Japan. An image of simplicity.
https://storieswithnobooks.com/2014/03/19/monk-with-begging-bowl/
That’s a great picture.
And of course we probably all remember the day when making a move meant filling up a suitcase and a couple of shopping bags and calling a taxi.
A pair of denim jeans, tee shirt or simple shirt and a pocket full of old pennies, being the heaviest item. Sometimes no knickers if the laundry pile or occasion demanded cuts the emotional significance we attach…but we have those feelings still even when the clothes have gone. Lighten up and light up you life. Xx
No knickers! Whatever next!
“-weaponise the cat…. ” ????
According to the Gert Loveday program: https://gertloveday.wordpress.com/2015/04/01/the-queen-of-clean-and-the-duchess-of-much-less/
6. Your cat can be trained to do the housework using Gert’s training program Make your Cat a Domestic™ and Gert’s Cat-Friendly Cleaning Tools™. These are, of course, much smaller than normal – another great space-saver.
(Will not be trying this on any cat on any cat near me in the foreseeable future. Not until the wounds heal.”
By the way, how on earth do you pronounce “Poughkeepsie”? That piece of information’s just what I need to add to the clutter in my mind.
Ah! – Puh-kip-see – Queen City of the Hudson. Gateway to somewhere and the Walkway Across the Hudson.
The name comes from a word in the Wappinger language, roughly U-puku-ipi-sing, meaning “the reed-covered lodge by the little-water place”, referring to a stream feeding into the Hudson River south of the present downtown area.
Beautiful downtown Puh-kip-see – birthplace of the photographer Lee Miller and Alfred Mosher Butts – the man who invented Scrabble.
As pronounced by Gene Hackman in The French Connection. Bad Santa.
Yes, indeed. And now i have discovered a whole YouTube channel devoted to Pop Culture references to Poughkeepsie: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnXKb3uYIT_B42OKoiw6UWg/videos
I wish we still named places like that, instead of calling them after dead white males.
We have plenty of those too.
But it’s not all Melbourne and Sydney down your way. You have Wagga Wagga and Walla Walla, right?
And Uputipotpon and Nar Nar Goon and Woolloomooloo and Yackandandah…..
Names wondrous strange to the parochial anglo ear. (And now this silly nesting comment structure squeezes out the response. Have to see if I can fix that.) Meanwhile I am wondering whether those with such magical musical language are secretly related to the Welsh.
Well done Josie. But I hate to tell you Marie Kondo now has a website selling articles which could very rapidly turn into clutter.
It is now clear that we must summon all our resources and inner strength to fight for the right to clutter on the beaches, on the landing grounds, in the fields and in the streets. Clutter will fight in the hills, in the closets, and in the boxes in the basement and in the attic. Clutter will never surrender.
I’m sifting, throwing and organising in my new home and enjoyed this – profound as well
as recognisable.
John – some of my clutter includes copies of “English in Education” from the 1980’s. No room for them. What to do?
The universality and necessity of throwing stuff into the memory hole! Hi John: What are you letting go off? How do you decide what to keep? What matters and how do you decide?
What matters is the people who love you and so your health and your love for yourself. Much else is compensation.
How much compensation?
A pair of denim jeans, tee shirt or simple shirt and a pocket full of old pennies, being the heaviest item. Sometimes no knickers if the laundry pile or occasion demanded cuts the emotional significance we attach…but we have those feelings still even when the clothes have gone. Lighten up and light up you life. Xx far too much