Happy house

3 words:
domestic, inspiring, pleasant

It’s only 92 degrees as I post this, so: HEARTH.

My home’s
been a regular little hive of domesticity in recent days (which makes it sound
like I’ve been baking bread and whipping up souffles and generally using my
kitchen, which I assure you is not actually taking place; also: no flower-arranging).

But ever
since I read Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I’ve been changing my life by tidying
up. 

Crazy
but true: this stuff actually works.

[Update:
I’ve KonMari’d my clothes, and a wonderful friend helped me build a dresser to accommodate my little bundles of clothes, and I am almost frighteningly happy every time I
open my closet (which now actually closes).]

And then
I turned to Gretchen Rubin for some more home life inspiration, because I’m on
a roll here.

I really liked Rubin’s earlier book, The Happiness Project (liked it even more than expected).

And I
knew I’d like this one, too—once I was feeling settled enough to read it. 

(I’m
currently feeling wildly, contentedly, excitedly settled, so I went in.)

Rubin
covers some similar ground as Marie Kondo (removing clutter), and she builds on
some ideas in her own Happiness Project (building
shrines: gathering together objects that remind you of happy times).

But the
book goes beyond the physical aspects of home, to encompass things like giving
warm greetings and farewells, and suffering for 15 minutes.

This
15-minute suffering concept intrigues me. Basically, the idea is: we can stand
almost anything for 15 minutes. So
spend 15 minutes a day on one of those odious tasks you keep avoiding, and the
thing’ll actually get done.

I might
also convert it into “relax for 15 minutes”—because sometimes that’s the thing
that doesn’t get done. 

I’m putting “Read for 15 minutes” on my to-do list for tomorrow. (As if I’ll stop at 15…)