The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing 
(from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/the-life-changing-magic-of-tidying-up-marie-kondo/1119564096/2671882056126?st=PLA&sid=BNB_DRS_Marketplace+Shopping+greatbookprices_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP23972&k_clickid=3x23972)
 


So I got myself really busy the first few days after the last day of my career.  And then, I just kind of crashed and couched-out for a couple of days lethargic and exhausted.  I think this all makes sense.  For me, retiring is a mixed bag of elation and fear.  I fear getting ill.  For example, we had friends over last night for BBQ and martinis.  They are both recently retired and somewhat older and the woman, let's call her Emily, who is in good shape, emotional stable and happily married, was showing me her arthritic hands and talking about how limiting and painful the knotting of her fingers has become to her (they have stopped sailing because she could no longer carry out her first mate duties).  Arthritis?  I think about both my mom and dad who had the joints fused in their fingers and toes to stop the pain in their arthritic appendages...I digress.

 
What I had wanted to write about was tidying up and how happy I am to now have the time to do that.  The book, posted above (complete title is The Life-changing Magic of Tidying up - the Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing), is an amazing little advice boook written by a Japanese woman who clearly has OCD, but the idea of the book is really great.  You are supposed to go through all the stuff in your home, each category at a time (not each room), and look at each object as though it had a life and only keep those things you LOVE.  Again, I really love this idea. I actually bought the book months ago and it is only now that I can imagine taking that kind of time to unload stuff.  Yesterday prior to company arriving I spent 4 hours cleaning and decluttering just our main floor enough to it to be presentable to company....this process I can see will take  lots, and lots, of time and for me, even more emotional energy. 
 
In the home we are now so happily living in, we have a basement full and overflowing with things (pictures, lamps, toys for kids, a leather love seat, party supplies, big boxes full of stuff I sent back from Idaho when my father passed away and have yet to crack the seal on, windows, screens and among much, much more stuff, lots and lots of art supplies).  The "hoarder-like" chaos downstairs is the direct result of our proverbially (is that a word?) "downsizing" from 3,000 sq. feet to 1,938 sq. feet  That was nearly 2 years ago and I know the exact square footage because my husband built this beautiful home we now live in.  Add to that, we then emptied the storage unit.  And then we added in a table my step-son made, giant and wonderful table, giant is the operative word here (but it does have hearts burnt into it and I love it!).  And, of course. when I decluttered the main floor last night, anything I couldn't figure out what to do with but apparently could not part with, was put into that plump and chaotic basement space that we live above. 
 
Last week when we finally got up and into the attic to get down the AC for the bedroom, I was shocked and awed at the mess of boxes and old crap in that overhead space the spans where we live.  There is a 30-year collection of things like computer boxes, old clothes and pillows, trophies from my husband's swimming competitions (from high school and he turns 62 in 4 days) and amongst the mess, critter poop...yuck and ick.  It's a 3 decades old amassing of memories and junk from my husband's former family life and from 20 years of tenants throwing up into our attic what they don't want and clearly don't miss resulting in, basically, an attic garbage dump.  No feng shui in play here!  

And, so one of my first tasks, I feel, in getting into my retirement with the right mojo is to clean out, in a Life-Changing-Magic-of-Tidying-Up kind of way my entire home....but maybe I will take one more nap on the couch, do a little more research for the book, go do yoga upstairs or outside, and sit for one more hour on the back deck in the morning sun with my beloved cup of chia tea.......and then I will get into that basement and feel the magic :P