Healthy Happy Loving Life: Getting to Love Your Home

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Healthy Happy Loving Life, Kebba Buckley Button, konmari, Love your home, Marie Kondo, stress, The life you want, UpBeat Living

© Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

       -Image © Kebba Buckley Button                      

I have owned and enjoyed my condo for 18 years.  After I did a basic job of decorating, and laid in some basic landscaping for the back yard, I started dating the man who would become my husband.  We married, he moved in, and there was a lot more Stuff.  We thought, oh, we’ll just try this living-together-in-1000-square feet thing while we look for, say, a 3 bedroom 2 bath place with a large garage.  And we did look for something larger, but we never got serious about it.  In a sense, we downsized before it was popular.  We made our decision right before the Tiny House Revolution, which you can see on HGTV in a few forms.

My husband and I enjoyed over 15 years together in our small space.  He then had a health crash and passed last summer.  Family helped me divest his business gear I would never use, and I traded a huge collection of fine tools to a contractor friend for the labor on a couple of projects.  To love my home, I wanted more light, more white, a larger tub, and much less Stuff. 

• The tub was switched for a larger “soaker” tub with new tile trim.
• The vanities were switched from butter yellow 1980-styles with scuffed maple-ish cabinets, to all white with all white.
• The bedroom got hardwood floors and over half the Stuff donated. A few computers were (safely) passed on. 
• The bedroom got a smaller bed, giving the feeling that the room had grown.
• Dozens of boxes of shredding have gone to be professionally powdered.
• Today a deep rolltop desk left, and a small shelf unit arrived to replace it. The whole living room feels lighter and more spacious with that one thick object gone.
• Today I found about 1 cubic foot of photos that no one will ever need or want to see again. That one couple’s stunning wedding photos don’t matter now, with the divorce having been final years ago.  (Secretly, I will share several images with their grown sons.) I pulled about 15 prints out of the collection of hundreds, several as excuses to get back in touch with old friends. 

I’m making huge progress, layer by layer.  My home now has less than 1/3 of what it contained 9 months ago.  You know what Marie Kondo, AKA “KonMari”, would say.  Her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, is probably the Bible of decluttering.  She would say, clean up, clear up, and keep only what you love.  I’m keeping the condo, which I love.  I’m keeping the Feng Shui Garden, which I love.  I’m keeping about ¼ of the clothes I used to own, and I love what I have kept.  I’m keeping all of the décor colors and the art, and very few of the files.  And I’m keeping all the lovely SPACE.  And making more.

As you look around your house, what would it take for you to love it?  Just cleaning?  Donating a car load?  Better lighting?  Different tub?  Clean windows, or larger replacement windows? New European coffeemaker?  Soft recliner? Brighter, more coordinated color scheme?  Wide wooden blinds?  Ceiling fans?  Sit with a pad and pen, your iPhone Notes section, or even your journal.  Ask yourself these questions and discover both the answers and the other questions that come up.  Write down any random ideas that come to you.  Keep that place bookmarked, so you can add more as you realize more about what you want, later.

You may be amazed at the freedom that comes with consulting with yourself.  Then pick one thing to make happen, say, each week.  And really do it!  Then enjoy loving your home and feeling the energy that feeds you.  And that will be you, moving ever more into being Healthy Happy and Loving Life^sm!  And that is what I want for you.

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Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert, holistic healer, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a 30-year natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   They are also available in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Franciscan Renewal Center bookstore and at the bookstore at St. Barnabas on the Desert Episcopal Church. Or simply email us to order:  kebba@kebba.com .  Thank you!

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: If You Can’t Find It, You Don’t Really Own It!

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clutter, declutter, Kon-Mari, konmari, Marie Kondo, Ten Percent Decluttering

© 2021 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

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Do you need to declutter?  How does this image of clutter make you feel?  Don’t tell me it’s “casual”!  I dare you to tell me the same couch without the clothes dropped on it wouldn’t look better.  The people I know who have messy homes generally love being in a clean, clear, well-decorated home.  For a visit.  And then they go home and can’t seem to shift their own mess.   So is there a great answer?  There are different systems that work for different people, to declutter.

The Kon-Mari, or konmari, method, is probably the most famous method.  Developed by a petite and feminine Japanese woman, Marie Kondo, this method was made famous as The Magic of Tidying Up.  In this system, you sort for what you really love and discard everything else, by category.  Vases or pants, for example, might be the next category of attack.  Make a pile of vases or pants, look them over, and keep only the ones that make you feel good. Your favorite charity will be delighted to have what doesn’t work for you.  A relative of mine did this with pants.  She found two pairs out of 19 that were keepers.  Her husband said kindly, “I think we need to go buy you more pants!”

Releasing Stuff feels great!

Ten Percent Decluttering was invented by me, and almost no one knows about it.  This consists of walking into a room and asking yourself, “what can I take out?”  Your goal is to remove at least one tenth of what is in the room, asking yourself if Tyou love it and it gives you joy and energy.  For me, this method takes less time than konmari.  And it can be repeated tomorrow or any other time.  Just keep walking into the room and taking a fresh look.  Then ask again, “What can I take out of this room?”  Then immediately toss it, recycle it, or donate it!  In either of these methods, be brave!  Ask yourself, “Is this really something I want to carry forward with me in my life?”  If not, you know what to do.

Are you having trouble deciding if you need to declutter?  Here is a key:

If you can’t find a thing quickly, you don’t really own it!

When was the last time you looked for that dressy crystal-studded watch and actually found it?  So if you can’t find it or use it, it isn’t in your sphere of influence, and you don’t really “own” it.  Or how about that green leather-bound NRSV Bible you last referred to 5 years ago?  Where is that, anyway?  If you can’t find it now, you may as well launch a decluttering project.  And when you find that dressy watch or that green leather-bound NRSV Bible, either give thema specific memorable location, or donate them.

The less you own, the quicker it is to clean your home.  Also, the quicker it is to lay your hands on anything.  Imagine how free you would feel with, say, a third less Stuff?  Gasp!  Imagine how much spare time you would have to relax with loved ones, rather than managing all that Stuff?  Get on a clear-and-donate binge and notice your stress going down down down.

And that’s you, being more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Life^sm!

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Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

Books by Kebba Buckley Button