Friday KatMari

[rachelmanija]

Yes, I am still at it. While in Mariposa I mentioned it to my parents, who watched a few episodes and promptly tidied up some of their stuff, donating clothes and watching videos on how to fold vertically.

As always, please no negativity in comments. Cut for photos of bookcases and cats.

Here is a shot of my kitchen from a month or so ago.



Here is my kitchen today. (Still need a new table and chair. That is way overdue.)



Here is my memoir bookcase, with Jewish, Chinese, and oversize books on top. (Some overflow memoirs are elsewhere.) You can tell when categories change because the alphabet-by-author starts over from the beginning. It goes something like: My Happy Childhood, My Funny Family, I Love My Family, My Fucked-Up Childhood, My Mental Illness, I Loved Someone Who Died, My Exciting Experience, My Exciting Hobby, My Showbiz Career (Dance, Music, Acting, Directing, Writing), I Live Somewhere Cool, My Civilian Wartime Experience, Let Me Tell You About Religion.



Here is my food bookcase, with Japanese books on top. They're ordered more by size than by category, but the categories are How to Cook, I Like to Cook, I Like to Eat, Regional Food Is The Best.

Comments

[oracne]

I like your categories.

[rachelmanija]

Thank you!

[movingfinger]

Those book categories are very useful. I still haven't sorted my books properly after moving (just spent fifteen minutes looking for one and not finding it), and part of it is that categorizing problem!

The kitchen looks welcoming. Do you have a preference for table styles/sizes? Leaves?

[rachelmanija]

No, but it has to be fairly small as the space is small.

I have already cut down enormously on the amount of time I spend searching for stuff.

[snickfic]

I really appreciate that there is a kitty helpfully modeling in both pictures.

[rachelmanija]

Alex is so considerate.

[jamethiel]

That looks fantastic!

[rachelmanija]

Thank you!

[cloudsinvenice]

I love your categories. If I ever really pare down my book collection, it'll be interesting to see what categories emerge from the ruins...

[rachelmanija]

The category of "I did a weird thing for a year" really took a hit when I considered whether or not I would ever want to re-read the book. There was exactly one survivor, The Year of Living Biblically.

I now know not to buy those books. They almost always sound interesting, and almost always aren't.

[cloudsinvenice]

Yes, I think these things stand or fall on how interesting the people involved are...

[summerstorm]

oh, nice. Love the categories (and the kitten!). I kinda stopped buying physical books a few years before I got into non-fiction so mine are largely sorted alphabetical, though I've got a few I sort of categorize as "stuff I want handy" on a shelf where they are, well, handier. It's about half poetry because I'm likelier to reread that than anything else. But you make me want to shake up my e-book categories, haha. I do separate funny memoirs from plain memoirs, and under fiction I've got one folder that's just called "disturbing" for anything thrillery or murdery, but everything else is just genre.

[osprey_archer]

I love your book categories.

[rattfan]

Marie Kondo taught me how to fold a fitted sheet :-) It still doesn't look as tidy as when she does it, but considerably less of a crumpled mess.

I watched the whole season on Netflix. Love the guy with the 160-pair sneaker collection!

[rachelmanija]

Me too! It was a perfect little therapy session going on with that.

[minoanmiss]

If I were witty I would say something cute about battling back entropy, but instead I shall cheer!

[sylvaine]

Your categories are fabulous.

[illariy]

What a huuuuge difference in the kitchen! I love the photos of your bookcases. I wish I had space to have as many memoirs. :D

[grayswandir]

Nice. :) I enjoy the thoroughness of your organization categories!

please no negativity in comments

I just have to ask -- is this really a thing? Like, have you run across people who would respond to a look-what-I'm-doing post with negative comments about the thing you're doing? :|

[rachelmanija]

If you click on the decluttering tag to find earlier entries, you will find quite a lot of objections to my first few posts.

[grayswandir]

Oy. :/ I see what you mean.

However, I'm glad I did go back to your first couple of decluttering posts, mainly because of this (and all the people agreeing with it in the comments section):

I don't literally believe that things are alive, but I emotionally do. So it feels mean/heartless to throw them away. Especially if they're things like dolls or animal toys that have expressions. But also stuff like clothes, Tupperware, etc. This is totally irrational and feels incredibly childish and weird, so I'd previously just told myself that when I was trying to discard things.

I've spent my entire life, literally up until right now assuming that my (sort of) belief in the animate-ness of things (especially anything with a face, but sometimes even, like, cups or scissors or whatever) was, like, a mild form of insanity? Which maybe it still is, but I've got to say it was kind of amazing to me to see so many people in your comments section saying "YES" about this. I wonder how many people are watching Marie Kondo's show and thinking "you mean I'm not the only person who feels bad for the actual things I'm getting rid of?" I would have never imagined that this was a common phenomenon.

[rachelmanija]

I don't know how common it is, but I sure feel that way. And directly addressing it rather than trying to tell myself not to be that way is why I'm still decluttering almost two months later, rather than, as I had always previously done, spent a half-hearted hour or two, then drifted away and didn't come back for two years.

[batwrangler]

Yay, you! Congrats!

[benbenberi]

Time Life Food of the World -- isn't that a fantastic series?! I inherited a set from my mom -- great recipes, and all those amazing pictures, a real time capsule of the world in ca. 1970.

And your KonMari progress is inspirational. Just saying, voice from the gallery.

[rachelmanija]

I LOVE them. I actually hunted down some other books by Joseph Wechsberg, I was so taken with his book on the food of Vienna's Empire. The one on the British Isles is also just a gem.

[rachelmanija]

YES. I love those books so much. Do you have a favorite? Mine is The Cooking of Vienna's Empire. I loved that one so much I obtained several other books by the author, After that, probably The British Isles.

[dancing_crow]

The new versions look so composed and lovely!

[monanotlisa]

Nice! I love organizing, despite (or because of?) being so bad at it.

[havocthecat]

I really, really need to hit up my garage and buy some more shelving and organize it. But I don't want to!

Your kitchen is great.

I have a couple bins of stuff to take to Goodwill, and my foyer is not in great shape.

But you're amazing! Your categories! I'm at the most emotional stuff to get rid of and I just don't know I can.

[rachelmanija]

Why are you considering getting rid of the most emotional stuff?

[alchimie]

I am pleasantly envious of your complete Time-Life set -- I had the British Isles for a long time and then more recently had the luck to find a stack at a thrift store, but I am a long way from having them all. I did see the Classic French one from a library; seeing what those supremely fancy old-school Fresh cuisine classics actually looked like was fascinating and somewhat terrifying.

Also -- Dororthy Hartley! I love her books.