{"id":34600,"date":"2016-11-03T23:51:37","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T03:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=34600"},"modified":"2016-11-04T00:02:03","modified_gmt":"2016-11-04T04:02:03","slug":"throwback-thursday-whos-got-the-button","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2016\/11\/throwback-thursday-whos-got-the-button\/","title":{"rendered":"Throwback Thursday: Who’s Got the Button?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2014, Marie Kondo<\/a> wrote the book on decluttering. Literally.\u00a0 The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing <\/em><\/a>was a #1 New York Times bestseller. Fans are devoted to Kondo’s “KonMari” method for organizing their homes.<\/p>\n

You will not find Kondo’s book perched in my extensive bookshelves.\u00a0 If you look long and hard enough, however, you might locate a ripped-out New York Times page printed with Dominique Browning’s 2015 article, “Let’s Celebrate the Art of Clutter<\/a>.” I’m sure it’s around here somewhere. Check the floor!<\/p>\n

Anyway, I’ve decided that whether you’re a minimalist neat freak like Kondo or a maximalist packrat like me, you should commit to the lifestyle fully. Keep nothing or keep everything. (Obviously, if you’re on the “everything” side, stay within the limits of sanity<\/a>. No animal carcasses, please<\/a>.) It’s a mistake to keep practically everything and then — in a brief, crazy moment of “uncluttering” — toss one or two items. Whenever I do that, I don’t free up any meaningful space, but do manage to lose something with meaning.\u00a0 I’m still scouring eBay for the silver Todd Oldham t-shirt that I wore in the early 1990s<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This week, I searched in vain for a button (or a badge, depending on the word you prefer) that I got around the same time as the Oldham top. I did find three other buttons.<\/p>\n

\"buttons\"<\/p>\n

The “I Care” button is probably from 1993 or 1994, the years I did AIDS Dance-a-Thons<\/a>. I’m pretty sure I got the top two at a pro-choice march on Washington in 1992<\/a>.\u00a0 That would have been the same time and place I got the button that said something like, “Vote for Hillary’s Husband.” I thought that would be an interesting artifact to share ahead of next week’s election, but it is nowhere to be found. I’m also missing a button that I got in the mid-’80s that said, “It’s Frank Sinatra’s world. We just live in it.” (It was hilarious to me at the time.) I’m sure I had those two buttons till relatively recently and I’m convinced that in a fleeting KonMari instant, I thought, “Wow, it will really tidy things up if I get rid of these two buttons.” Yeah right. That made a YUGE<\/a> difference around here! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2014, Marie Kondo wrote the book on decluttering. Literally.\u00a0 The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing was a #1 New York Times bestseller. Fans are devoted to Kondo’s “KonMari” method for organizing their homes. You will not find Kondo’s book perched in my extensive bookshelves.\u00a0 If you look…<\/p>\n

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