Do You Believe in Magic?

I did something that felt super grown up yesterday. Over the last week I read the book called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and took its advice. Written by Marie Kondo, a celebrity personal organizer and de-clutter-er from Japan, it tells you everything you need to know to employ the KonMari (her trademarked system) method of decluttering your life. I decided my closet was the perfect victim for this organizing trend, and so Monday was the day it happened. Be forewarned that if you drink too much of her kool-aid, you might start talking to your clothes, thanking your socks for their hard work, and greeting your home each time you arrive at the front door. Whatever, man. The closet looks good, so she must be on to something!

Before I go into the details of how and why this worked for me, let me just say I feel like I'm channeling Gwyneth Paltrow and all of her rich-person minimalism with this whole program. Suddenly I was like "Hmm maybe I'll make kale shakes for breakfast now...and name my firstborn child Apple...and be spiritual but not religious." Then I was all like, "But wait, Anna, remember how you like pop tarts and Jesus and not scarring children for life?" Right. So maybe not.

I digress.

First, I will say that it's always good to evaluate our relationship to stuff, and I found that this kind of confronted the root emotional reasons why we keep stuff, instead of doing a more legalistic "get rid of one thing each day" or "throw away everything you haven't worn in a year" type of method. Here are the steps she follows - distinctive from other advice you've probably heard about putting your house in order. The first step, obviously, should begin with getting rid of stuff.

1. Downsize by category, not by room. Don't go around the house tidying up one room at a time. Work on clothes first. (This is the only one I'm doing - since it's the only category where I had an extreme amount of excess, but you could apply this method to everything you own.)

2. Get ALL OF THE THINGS from one category and put them on the floor in one place. And I mean EV-ER-Y-THI-NG. Yikes. This is where my first-world-guilt kicked in. As I stared at that massive pile of possessions, I couldn't believe that this all belonged to me. Just look at that beaut.

My mountain of stuff. 

3. Physically pick up each item, and ask yourself, "Does this spark joy?" This was the most important question, and the central idea to why you should keep anything. You don't ask whether you wear the item a lot, whether you have worn it in the past two years, whether it is in good condition or not, or even whether somebody gave it to you as a gift. You should be surrounded only by things that you love, that spark joy for one reason or another.

4. Keep the joyful stuff - pitch the rest. For real. Get rid of every last item you own that doesn't have a spark of joy. Now, I had to think around a few things. For example, exercising is something I love to have in my life, but it doesn't spark joy at first - I know it always comes after the workout is finished. So I kept the workout clothes with this in mind. Or, while I don't absolutely love my school-issued Timothy Christian School polo, I do love my job, and it is a joy to work there, so I kept the shirt for our spirit day Fridays. Basically, I tried to be reasonable. After I got going, the "joy" test was very effective and I ended up making all of my decisions to keep or not to keep within about 90 minutes. I sent a crazy amount of stuff off to be donated. For those who are counting, that would be 9 large garbage bags filled to the top, along with a 3-drawer set and a huge storage container, all filled as well. I gave over half of my clothes away. 

5. Put each and every item that you keep back in a specific and intentional place. This seems simple, but it was a really important part of the book. One bonus tip she added: hang things on hangers so that they slope up and to the right. It just looks good that way. So I put my wedding dress on first, then maxi dresses, then regular dresses, followed by skirts on the end.

6. Reevaluate all you know about folding. You can see from some of my pictures how I've changed my folding habits. Here's an article with a few tutorial videos attached: http://goop.com/the-illustrated-guide-to-the-kondo-mari-method/. This is my favorite part, as I can get a good view of everything I own, and, unlike my old method of the stacked-up piles, I don't make a mess every time I want to pick one shirt off of the shelf.

Tank tops, sweaters, and t-shirts

My athletic t-shirts now all fit in one drawer! I gave 30 away in the donation pile. 

Jeans and other pants. 

So there you have it. My closet renovation. AKA, I have too much time on my hands because I'm a teacher on winter break. 

Happy tidying, everyone!

Compact Car

Today, Jen (one of the roommates) and I decided to go on a small adventure out to suburbs for an IKEA run. There comes a time in every girl's life when, dang it, she just needs to purchase some place mats with a weird Swedish name! We did some damage and the apartment looks all the better for it. We got bath mats, throw pillows, candles, trays, cake pans, paring knives, a butcher's block. picture frames, and a cute lamp. We split it up, paid, and loaded the stuff into the car. This is where that sneaky store got us good.

We went back into IKEA after loading up the car and got lunch in their restaurant/dining area upstairs. After a plate full of delicious Swedish meatballs, we were ready to head back to the city and introduce our apartment to all of its new goodies. The problem, however, lies in the fact that in order to head back to the city we had to head back to our car. And in order to head back to our car we had to go out of the door and into the parking lot. And in order to go out the door and into the parking lot, IKEA forces you back through the labyrinth of home goods, storage, and linens before letting you outside. This, of course, led Jen and I to make just one more tiny purchase. Except it wasn't a tiny little purchase, it was a big fat huge purchase. On the second walkthrough we bought a picture of Paris to hang over our dining room table that is the size of an Olympic swimming pool. I, of course, convinced Jen that it totally would fit in the backseat of her car, no problem. Then we got to the car and found that it did not, in fact, fit in the back of the car with no problem. After 20 minutes of inching it back and forth, we pushed the driver and passenger seats as far forward as possible and miraculously fit our beautiful print in the back of the car. Now, Jen and I are two tall ladies. She's 5'11 and I'm 5'9. The driver's seat was so close to the dash that Jen couldn't move her leg to hit the gas pedal since her legs were too long. I had to take over the driving duties thanks to my more averagely-lengthed femurs and inched us home to unpack. As you can see below, we did succeed in getting the print back out of the backseat and up on the wall. It was a Swedish success. 

Squished up in front, with our beloved Paris in the backseat.

#legsaretoolong #tallgirlproblems

Okay we don't keep pillows on our table, but I wanted to show off my
favorite pillow that we bought. Paris is rockin' on that wall. 

Progress

Sometimes with studying and e-mailing all day for Teach For America stuff, I feel like I don't make much tangible progress. I know I'm technically making progress on the time I'm supposed to be putting into the prep work, but still. So I've been making lists on my phone purely so I can cross stuff off of it. One longstanding item on the list has been to work on organizing my clothes and bedroom. To give you an idea of the chaos, here is a before picture....

And an after picture...

Dude, working through that mess felt like I was machete-ing (just made a verb I think) my way through the Amazon rainforest. I even killed a deadly jungle spider today that was crawling on my ceiling. I also vacuumed my room for the first time in far too long. It's just that you couldn't see the floor before, you know? But now it's got those fresh vacuum lines that we all love. I obviously had to clear more junk out of there to even see the floor. Have you ever counted how many t-shirts you have? After four years of high school, four years of college, and playing on sports and intramural teams the whole way, you pick up truckloads of t-shirts. I got rid of over fifty of them and still have piles left! So needless to say there's a fairly large donation headed its way to the local thrift store...

Being in my room at my parents' house when I can actually see the room is kind of cool. We moved here before my freshman year of high school and I got to choose the paint colors. OBVIOUSLY 14-year-old-Anna chose orange AND yellow, and my 15-year-old dear friend Clara came over to help me paint. I covered the walls in VanGogh prints and others that I liked, including this one...

I think I just really fancied the idea of strolling through London in the rain in 1890. Or something. I don't know, but it's a goodie that I've always loved. As a trophy for this huge room accomplishment, I've rewarded myself with having this movie on while I work on my TFA homework...

While now I will always check for a colonial woman dressed in traditional garb churning butter on the wing of every plane I board after watching this movie, I love it. Making progress is a beautiful thing. 

Cominatchya!

Really long sidenote: Today, I wore leggings as pants for a few hours. Not because it was a fashion statement by any means (I can't stand when girls do that), but because that's what I wore to bed last night with an old State Farm Insurance t-shirt and proceeded to run errands in my pajamas after waking up this morning. Also, since I had gone about my busywork throughout the day sans showering, I just kept with the grossness and decided a run would make me smell even better. As I made my way around town and back to my country roads, I started to daydream and did not see the huge branch of leaves from the maple tree on a passing lawn. I proceeded to run directly into it, getting a face full of leaves. I reacted as though I had been electrocuted and flailed in all awkward directions, only to look up and see the old man across the street who was checking his mail start to laugh at me. 


ANYWAY...


Down to business. Teach for America is COMING UP SOON and I am continually doing things to get ready for it. I have "To-Do" items to cross off each and every day in addition to the never-ending packing/unpacking process I have as the aftermath of living away at college for four years. First, here's a  few facts about what it means to be in Teach For America:

- I'm not an education major, but I will be teaching!
- Teach For America employs the philosophy that it is important to have leaders in teaching positions for underachieving classrooms
- I will get my teaching certification/licensing through classes at Dominican University in Chicago
- I am officially a 2012 Chicago Corps Member, which basically means I am in this year's "class" of TFA people who are beginning their two-year commitments to teaching through this program

Here's a little timeline for what's coming up for me:

JUNE 13: Induction.
This is like FYF for you Trinity people, or Orientation for any other normal person. It takes place at IIT (Illinois Institute of Technology) where I'll move in and live for about 5-6 weeks for the Institute training time that follows. These first few days are what get us in the mindset for our training. I'm going to venture a guess that it will be ENTHUSIASTIC and FULL OF ACTIVITIES with lots of SMILING CAMP-COUNSELOR TYPES FACILITATING GROUP DYNAMICS! Believe me, I know. I'm a card-carrying camp-counselor-hyperactive-group-activity girl from my high school and college years. The get-to-know-you games will be in abundance, I can only imagine. Better start thinking of my "one interesting fact" right now. Maybe I'll go with my mad hula hoop skillz that last for hours. Or the fact that I can say the alphabet backwards. Those are my two go-to interesting facts.

JUNE 17: Institute.
This is where we get down to the nitty gritty. Training and summer school teaching. I'll be getting on a bus at about 6:00 AM with a packed lunch, teaching little children important things, heading back on a bus in the evening, lesson planning until late, crashing in bed, and repeating. This is our "student teaching," if you will. Since TFA (get used to that abbreviation and many others. sorry.) uses alternative licensing programs for their corps members (remember, we are mostly non-education majors) during this time I will also begin classes at Dominican University for my certification. As if I needed something to fill up all that spare time I'll be having, right?

August 1: First Day of School at LEARN
HOLY COW. That date is coming up very quickly, in my mind. Before this day I'll take part in an orientation for my specific school, the LEARN Network's Campell campus, and figure out what grade I'm teaching as well as my classroom setup. I can fill you in on that more later of what that really looks like. As of now, I'm praying for peace and confidence and energy and gusto as I look ahead to start the school year on the right foot.

So, there you have it. The blueprint of my summer. (I didn't include all the weddings, though, I didn't want to overwhelm you.) Until June 13, I am maddeningly getting my life/stuff in order, working on Institute pre-work and pre-reading (of which there is about 40-50 hours), and slowly trying to work out a living situation (say a prayer!). Don't worry, I'm leaving plenty of time for Jeopardy each night. Of course. It's going to be a crazy but awesome summer!

Photo evidence that I am actually making headway
on going through my stuff. This is all off to Goodwill; hopefully
many more trips to the thrift store are coming up! 

Gifts for the Rents

Every year, I struggle with figuring out a Christmas gift for each of my parents. My dad doesn't want much, and if he does truly want something, he will just go buy it. My mom, while I know would love certain things, rarely articulates what she does. I really like to give thoughtful gifts that capture the occasion. But with the very people who raised me, I draw a blank.

Let me just confess:  I've literally once considered buying my father a shoehorn. Whew. I said it. It's sad, but it just felt good to admit.

But this year was different. I'm actually pretty proud of both selections. And, interestingly, both gifts were a collaboration. For my dad, I joined efforts with my brother Alex to make this happen. The third season of the Sopranos. There's more behind this too.

My dad has this obsession with the mob. He is a guy that tries to take the high road. While he is, in every other area of his life, extremely principled and unwavering when it comes to following rules, I think the mobsters play into that small part of him that appreciates vigilante justice. My dad's thoughts on the mafia: "I know it's not right to kill people, but I gotta say, you don't keep your word with the mob and you don't get away with it. You cross them and POW! They whack you."

He loves the Godfather, as well as reruns of The Sopranos, and mentioned a few weeks ago that he wished he had the third season, unknowing that my gift-giving-radar was on high alert. BOOM. Add one mental note-to-self taken in Anna's brain, combine with a stellar free shipping order on Amazon by Alex, and you have one well coordinated and necessary gift. Dad is a happy camper. Now on to Mom. The trickier of the two.

I've debated in my mind on "mom gifts" for awhile. While I KNOW she loves those stores with all the kitchen/cleaning/organizational supplies and latest gadgets, I sometimes get the odd feeling that buying her a gift in that category reduces her to the chores she does around the house like cooking or cleaning. So I'd be getting her something that she likes and wants, but I'm scared to send the message. Like in Father of the Bride when the girl gets all offended because her fiance buys her a blender. Get what I mean? Either way, it makes buying a gift difficult.

Well, I was racking my brain about options and it came to me: Buy her the stuff AND make her life less stressful. Enter our bathroom towel/medicine/cleaning supply closet.

My "gift tag" on the door 

It is a pretty large closet that, over the years, (no offense Mom) has gone completely Lindsay Lohan on us. Out of control.

So. For her present, I partnered up with my dad who was all about the idea. I took a little trip over to The Container Store and bought some organizational stuff funded by my business partner, while I provided the manpower and creative genius. Just about four hours later, after lots of throwing stuff out (2 garbage bags full!) the job was done. A completely organized closet with brand new bins and fun containers. She gets new stuff and a fresh look at what she's got to work with.

As a respect to my mom, I didn't include a "before" picture. But here's the "after." And let me tell you, it is a HUGE difference. If I do say so myself.

So, let's just say that Parent or Guardian Christmas Gifts 2011 is a success in the Gesch household. What have we learned? We've learned that two things are key: 1) Collaboration, and  2) Making Mom's life easier. Well, those two things are key in most of life's situations. I'm already accepting input for 2012...let's get the ball rolling.