Is our home simplified... or barren?

Cluttered.... or abundant?

What’s our personal “click point?”

Marie Kondo says the “click point” is when the amount of space and the amount of stuff are in perfect balance. When we reach this optimum, our home’s energy is calm and cheerful. That’s the magic Kondo is getting at in the “Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.”

My house has been far from my click point these past few months, absorbing two adults working from home and a new baby. Living above my clutter threshold had been an additional stressor in a stressful year, particularly when 95% of that year was spent in the house.

But now, I’m slowly getting back to that preferred state. Clearing out the makeshift office, letting go of ill-fitting clothes, passing along hand-me-downs our baby didn’t need, cooking through the overstock of pantry goods.

We might be tempted to slash and burn our way through our house out of desperation, black trash bags in hand.

But we’d serve out future selves better by slowing down and tuning in to our gut. That way we don’t stop decluttering too soon, or blow right past our click point and feel deprived and ill-equipped for our lives.

As more things leave my home than enter these days, I feel closer to the serenity and simplicity that I enjoyed in previous seasons of my life. My click point might be different these days, but I’ll know it when I reach it.