Diary of decluttering

Marie’s Magic

For the last few months, I have been obsessed with the Queen of Decluttering- Marie Kondo’s magic of tidying up. I always used to spend hours setting up things in my wardrobe and within a week or so, it would be back to the normal clutter. Finding matching items of clothing and accessories when I had to leave for work used to be a hassle. Though I did not have much stuff by typical urban, working Indian women’s standards, it was difficult to manage. Let me elaborate more about Indian urban women’s dilemma. We have traditional clothing like sarees-blouses and petticoats, salwar kameezes that are purchased on various occasions such as weddings and other functions. If you want to appear westernized at some parties or at work place, you have western wear and there are jeans and T-shirts. You also have Indo-Western wear! The list just goes on. But there is only so much that you can wear and manage! Even if you realize that you need to reduce the stuff, it is not easy! Sometimes, you keep things because they cost you a fortune and sometimes you cannot dump them because they have been gifted. Fashion, waist sizes, and tastes change. No matter how much you have, you keep wearing what you can find on the top of the stack. So most of the stuff remains untouched for years. Then it starts looking old and you do not feel like wearing it! Although, I liked the mantra of three R’s. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. It was not easy to do reduce in the first place. Everything appeared to be either good or useful.

Cluttered drawer (Before)

Decluttered drawer (After)

To dump or not to dump that is the question!

Like several other Konmari followers, I followed the sequence for decluttering – clothes, kitchen, komonos (small items), documents, books-magazines. I am yet to reach the higher level of clearing up old photographs and other mementos. It was truly blissful to be able to see the back wall of my wardrobe. Earlier, I had the stacks which would touch the ceiling of every compartment and every time I needed something from the bottom of the stack, the stack would topple. I must have discarded about 4-5 large bags of my own clothing over one year and most importantly almost stopped purchasing new stuff. It did not happen in one marathon clean-up as Marie suggests in the book. I realized that there was so much stuff that was not sparking any joy! Sometimes, it was hard to decide what is sparking joy. However, it was definitely far easier to find things which were neither useful nor sparking any joy.

Vertical folds of salwars

I had thought that the books would be the hardest to give away, but I still managed to remove around 70 books. Two years ago, I had removed around 100 books from the collection. With the information being available at the tip of your fingers, the need for keeping books is reducing. There were around 10 cookbooks which were totally outdated because there is so much on the internet.

But why is this so important? There are so many people who love retail therapy and want to purchase new clothes, accessories every month. Also, now it is so easy to buy online? The moment you open your email, Facebook or any other site there are ads which are luring you. There is a constant information about sales and offers that are difficult to resist. During the clean-up process which was akin to detox, I figured out the pieces of clothing that I really like.  It opened up my eyes and I am able to sense the temptations. I am able to value what I have and care for them personally.

Travel on a lighter note

Recently, I had the opportunity to travel to Italy and Switzerland with my husband and my in-laws who are in their eighties. Although the airlines allow 30 kg baggage for each overseas traveler, four of us together had 30 kg. We decided to keep it low because we were going to travel to five different places within a matter of 2 weeks. To my surprise, we managed to eat home-cooked food (for breakfast and dinner) at all the Airbnb apartments where we stayed. Also, surprisingly we returned without purchasing a single piece of clothing or accessory. All we got was a few chocolates and some Swiss cheese which I relished for a few days later! The memories and photographs are enough to remind of the joy we had. When I saw the pictures after returning, I noticed that we were changing the cities (backdrops) and wearing the same attire!  The traveling was very smooth as we were traveling light. Except for the day 1 when we reached Rome, we never hired a cab. We could easily move around in public transport. As we reduced our luggage, the luggage of expectations also reduced.

Clarity & Calmness in the kitchen

Earlier, in the kitchen, some items would go rotting in the refrigerator and in the cupboards. I would have purchased them with great enthusiasm and even made some exotic dish earlier but the remaining ingredient would still be waiting to be used up.  After decluttering, I started enjoying the process of household work. Grocery shopping became more mindful after the clean-up. The consumption became sustainable and waste reduced. During clean-up process, several plastic containers and damaged steel bowls which were removed. The counters and shelves have lesser items and it is easy to peep in and decide the menu. I re-arranged things so that I can access and clean effectively. Now the place is so easy to clean that I have stopped the pest control service which charges around ₹4500 p.a. I am using sustainable methods to keep the pests away. The waste is being minimized with a little bit of awareness. I feel there is a direct connection between clutter-free home and energy efficiency.

Kitchen drawer organized 

According to Marie Kondo, the reasons you do not want to part with something are only two. It is either the attachment to the past or the fear of the future. There could be people who peacefully live in the present at all times while being messy surroundings. However, the exercise of clean-up has helped me to become peaceful to a great extent. It was a self-discovery of likes and dislikes. It had a very soothing and cleansing effect on my mind as well! I am not sure if the methodology will work for everyone but there is no harm trying.

Although there has not been much scientific research about Marie’s methodology of decluttering, looking at her massive tidying up business and best sellers there must be some truth to what she is saying. Also, her claim that “Once cleaned up, you will never revert to clutter!” has not been tested. As years pass by, we will know.

Ref:

http://tidyingup.com/

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1110022/spark-joy/

The Glass Universe – Gripping tale of how the dream of a woman to map the sky came true!

“She had barely heeded the stars before she met Henry, any more than she regarded grains of sand at the shore. He was the one who pointed out their subtle colors and differences in brightness, even as he whispered his dream of abjuring medicine for astronomy.” Anna Palmer Draper (1839-1914) could have easily married someone after her husband Henry Draper’s death at an early age of 45. She had inherited a huge amount of wealth from her father. Henry was a medical doctor and had his own funds. Working together, the couple had set up their private observatory at Hastings-on-Hudson. Most of us would love to have wealth however, very few of us would know what to do with it! Anna Draper had wealth and property in the form of houses from both her parents and husband’s side, laboratories and a full-fledged observatory with photographic equipment. Sadly, she lost her love after 15 years of togetherness. In these years she had learnt to use the equipment in the observatory. However, the dream that Henry and Anna had was big… They wanted to solve the puzzle of the chemical composition of stars. Now that was her dream. How was she going to fulfill it alone? In those days, women just had started going to college and some of them took great interest in Science and Mathematics. A few would go for higher studies. Computers as we know of now were non-existent. There were no electronic calculators. The work of computers and calculators was done by these smart ladies whose position was titled as a "computer". The Glass Universe is a detailed story of the hard work of women "computers" at Harvard College Observatory which houses over 500,000 astronomical plates taken between the mid-1880s and 1989 (with a gap from 1953–68). Eminent Science writer Dava Sobel has written this marvelous book that keeps you engaged through the detailed, long 300 + pages narrative. 

Newton declared in the 17th century that white sun light is made of seven colours. Who knew that a couple centuries later, the same mechanism could be used to study millions of stars? This is exactly what was happening in the 19th century. Kirchoff formulated the laws of spectroscopy in 1850 s and observational astronomy changed completely. High resolution prisms and photographic plates could be used to record spectra of hundreds of stars. The stars were not just tiny dots on the print anymore- the photographic plates were treasures of data which needed trained, devoted pairs of eyes and analytical brains. 

Harvard College Observatory was headed by Edward Charles Pickering from 1877 to 1919. A very long period which included the World War I. The demand for computer positions at Harvard was very high and even the qualified women with college degrees would want to work there for free so that they could improve their resume! Pickering’s computers were fondly referred as “Pickering’s Harem” in those days. Mrs. Williamina Fleming, Antonia Maury, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Annie Jump Cannon, Cecilia Payne to name a few! Each one of these computers has a long story and one can surely write a separate biography on each one! Of these, Henrietta Leavitt is famous for her calculation on Cepheid variables which proved extremely valuable in estimation of distances to distant galaxies. Apart from her, I would like to mention three particular ladies who touched my soul- Mrs. Williamina Fleming, Annie Jump Cannon and Cecilia Payne. 

Williamina Fleming had no familial or collegiate connection to the observatory. She was hired as a maid by Pickering. Although she had some teaching experience back home in Scotland, in America she was forced to work as a housemaid. After her husband’s disappearance while she was pregnant, Pickering found out that she had good analytical skills. However, she went back to Scotland for delivery and returned after a year. She left her son (named after Edward Charles Pickering!) with her mother and grandmother and came back to work at Harvard. Later on, she was given the title of “Curator of astronomical photographs” on Pickering’s request. It was the first title given to any woman at an educational institute! Mrs. Fleming’s work was very monotonous…rather all of the computers were doing a tedious, monotonous work…they had to look at the glass plates, analyze the spectral lines, annotate the spectra and document them in a log book. They did that entire day and sometimes took some work home too or perhaps returned to work after supper. What is remarkable is that with the meagre earnings, living with a frugal lifestyle Mrs. Fleming managed to send her son to MIT! It must have been expensive even in those days! The book not only tells the story of computers but it portrays 19th century and early 20th century American life in a wonderful way. 

In contrast with Mrs. Fleming, Annie Jump Cannon had studied Physics and Astronomy at Wellesley College. She had lost hearing due to scarlet fever and had very little social life. She never married or had any children. Annie was introduced to stars and constellations by her dear mother. After mother’s death, she immersed herself in work at the observatory. In four decades, she classified around 350,000 stars. Any beginner astronomy student knows about the classification system mnemonic- “Oh Be A Fine Girl Kiss Me Right Now”! However, when you look at the spectra, it is not easy to tell one from the other. Ms. Cannon was the master brain behind the classic classification system of stars. In her own words- “It was as if the distant stars had acquired speech and were able to tell the constitution and physical condition!”

Cecilia Payne – the British- American astronomer who arrived in Cambridge from England in 1923 at a tender age of 23. At the observatory, Annie Jump Cannon and Antonia Maury became “mother hens” to her while her English mother worried about her over-enthusiastic child. Back home, once she had heard Eddington’s talk and she was so impressed by it that she did not sleep for three nights. She was equally impressed by Director Harlow Shapley’s talk about structure of our galaxy. She accurately connected the spectral classes to stellar temperatures by using Meghnad Saha’s theory of stellar atmospheres and was the first person to complete Ph.D. in Astronomy from Radcliffe College. The book narrates the exciting story of her affair with Russian astronomer, Sergei Gaposchkin in 1930s, how she managed to get him to the USA and how they lived happily ever after!

The research would not have gone ahead without Mrs. Draper’s lifelong support. It was her dream to come up with a catalogue of stars and several women computers worked to fulfill it. Did “Pickering’s Harem” live up to her expectations? Although, there are separate biographies of some of the computers and plenty of information about their work on the internet, this is a first thorough book about the complete history of Harvard College Observatory which can be enjoyed by a layman. Dava Sobel has put in a great amount of effort in going through the diaries and documents of several people associated with the observatory. She has a knack of weaving personal matters with scientific details which makes the book very interesting!