Cleaning up made me think about what I really want

I belong to the "Cleaning Club," where Sheena-san serves as the club president.

I have never been good at cleaning or tidying up.
I know that cleaning and tidying are actions that make you feel refreshed.
However, I find it hard to actually get started.

Since I joined the Cleaning Club, I have been able to keep up with cleaning almost every day.
When you browse "#CleaningClub," you can see the tweets and articles from everyone in the club.
Every time I see an article, it makes me feel like, "Oh, everyone is working hard, so I'll do some cleaning today too...!" It is very helpful.


When I first learned about the Cleaning Club,
I remember thinking, "If I'm with someone else, I can do it, and I can keep it up," and I immediately commented on Sheena-san's article asking to join.

Cleaning in the Cleaning Club is 5 minutes a day. Of course, you can do more than that.
If it were a minimum of 30 minutes every day, I'm sure I would have given up right away.
The "5 minutes a day" rule makes me feel like, "I can do it if it's just 5 minutes."
After cleaning (or even if you just plan to), you tweet with "#CleaningClub" or comment on the club president Sheena-san's article. Reporting it also helps with motivation.

This might be true for anything, but I feel that the secret to consistency might be lowering the initial hurdle.
If it seems like you can keep it up, try raising the hurdle a little.
If you raise it and it doesn't work out, you just have to lower the hurdle again.


As the days of working on cleaning piled up little by little, I realized that not only was my room becoming cleaner, but my heart was feeling lighter too.
I have always had a tendency to overthink things and fail to take action.
Thinking is important, but there were many times when I overthought things and regretted not being able to take action on what I wanted to do.

A few days ago, I submitted 150 items, including collectibles, for an estimate to sell them at a recycle shop.
(*Today I got the reply for the estimate, and 62 items could be sold!)
These were things I bought in the past because I wanted them.
However, if asked whether I was really taking good care of them, I couldn't answer immediately.
I did put them in sleeves or file them away. But I feel like I rarely looked back at them, displayed them, or used them.

Thinking about it now, perhaps I was filling a sense of emptiness by buying things.
I think there were many times when I was satisfied just by purchasing them.
There were even items that remained unused after purchase.
I think I was filling a sense of emptiness I felt somewhere at the time of purchase by buying things.
Because of that, the act of purchasing had become the goal.


"What kind of life do I really want to lead?"
"What do I really want to spend my money on?"
"What kind of room do I really want to live in?"


When I asked myself these questions, I found two answers.

The first is"I want to spend money on experiences and making others happy."

Buying things I like or want is a good thing, and I want to continue doing that.
However, in my case, there are times when the feeling of "I want to buy something" arises to fill a sense of emptiness.
If I'm going to spend the same amount of money, I now think I'd rather travel somewhere or eat delicious food.
If I go somewhere, I also want to buy souvenirs for my close friends and family.
That is why, before buying something, I want to pause and think, "Is this really necessary for my life?"
Well, sometimes it's hard to tell, though!!


The second is"There is a limit to the number of things I can truly cherish."That is.

I am not aiming to be a minimalist.
However, a room overflowing with things had become uncomfortable for me before I knew it.
Even though these were things I bought because I liked them, it's a pity for the items this way.

I thought I had many things I wanted to cherish, but because the room was overflowing, I couldn't tell what was truly important.

I believe that if something is truly necessary, it will come back even if you let it go once.
So, for now, I decided to let go of the things I could part with.

My cleaning (decluttering?) will continue.

What I am aiming for now is
"A room that is clean and uncluttered by reducing things"
"A room that is easy to clean"
These two things.

I think I will continue to buy goods that I want, but I hope I can buy them while thinking about which ones I want to keep on hand.

Cleaning is fun now.
I don't know when I will reach the room I am aiming for, but I hope I can enjoy cleaning and creating my room until the day I reach it.