#UULent - #joy

Two things come to mind on the topic of Joy that Sally and I share.

For several years now we have followed the mantra "don't postpone joy", and when we were downsizing from a three bedroom to a studio apartment last year we read Marie Kondo's NYT best seller "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up".

"Don't postpone joy" has been a regular life goal of ours since Sally first retired (early) and was a large part of the reason that three years later in 2013 , I retired just as early as she did. Our use of the term bounced around for many years before that but it probably came foremost in our minds after buying a second home in 2008 a few months before the market crashed. Having a foothold in our beloved Vermont has been a constant joy in our lives since the day we closed on the South Hero property but we also realized at some point, that six months later after 40% drop in the value of our retirement savings we probably would not have made the same decision regarding Coniston (the name we gave the house).  However the joy we have gotten from Coniston and the joy it has dozens of friends who have used it and the joy it has given Chris and Bethany and their friends is simply beyond dollars.

When we were moving we took to heart the over arching statement Marie Kondo made in her book. Basically it boils down to whether or not something sparks joy in your heart. If it does keep it, if it doesn't get rid of it. It helped us pare down our three bedroom house, with a family room as well as a living room and  the contents of one large shed and one small shed. It was pared down to fit into a 1,300 sq ft condo. Two Subaru Outback loads of books went to More Than Words in Waltham. Superfluous mattresses went to a place in Lowell breaks down the other wise unwanted mattresses into their component pieces to recycle them. Superfluous furniture was taken by friends or disposed of on Craigslist or Freecycle. All of our wall art is very personal, most of it was done by friends, so this was a difficult task for us to reduce but we did it eventually. Clothes were easy, uncomfortable, ill fitting, and old stuff was the first stuff to go. 

In some way having a Mayfair (a church fair) box made it easier to get rid of some stuff we were in two minds about. Knowing it would provide joy to someone else and raise a little money for a church in the process helped with the parting.

A few things made it to the new home but that became a new opportunity to readjust our personal settings and make a new assessment as to what gives us joy. We now have a "no joy" box undertake stairs to the loft where we can put anything we stumble across which no longer gives us joy.