The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

First Commandment: “Be Gretchen.” No, I didn’t like to shop for gifts, but how could I be more generous?
    Well, I reflected, I had the passion for clutter clearing that I’d developed back in January. Many of my friends felt oppressed by clutter, and I could help. I’d love to help. I started pressing my ser vices on everyone I talked to. “Come on, let me come over!” I kept saying. “I need the buzz of clearing a closet! Believe me, you’ll be happy you did it! You’ll see, it’s addictive!” My friends were intrigued but embarrassed. They didn’t want me to see their messes. Once I managed to talk my way in, however, it was a hugely satisfying experience for both of us.
    One night, for example, a friend and I worked on a single closet in her house for three hours. She hated her overstuffed closet so much that she never opened its door; rather than try to use it, she kept wearing the same clothes over and over again, and those she kept stacked on her bureau or draped over the side of the bathtub.
    “What should I do before you come over?” she asked, the day before our meeting. “Should I buy any containers or special hangers or anything?”
    “Do not buy one single organizing gadget,” I said. “All you need is a few boxes of big garbage bags. Oh, one more thing—you need to figure out who’s going to get all the stuff that you’re going to give away.”
    “Can I decide that later?”
    “No, it’s better to know ahead of time. It’s much easier to let go of things when you can imagine who’ll benefit from receiving them.”
    “Okay, I can do that. Is that really all?”
    “Well,” I said, “maybe get some Diet Coke.”
    The next day, I showed up.
    “I have no idea where to start,” she said after the usual apologies for the disorder.
    “Don’t worry!” I said. “We’ll go through it several times, and each time, we’ll eliminate a new layer of clutter, until nothing’s left except things you want to keep.”
    “Okay,” she said dubiously.
    “Let’s just jump in.” I knew from experience that I should start slow. “First, let’s take out all the extra hangers.”
    As always, this initial step yielded a pile of unneeded hangers and cleared out a bunch of space. This was my flashy morale booster.
    “Okay. Now we go through and look at each item. We’re most suspicious of anything that still has tags or anything that was a gift or anything that doesn’t fit you now or anything you associate with pregnancy.”
    We eliminated a layer. The giveaway pile was already large.
    “Now we look for duplicates. If you have four pairs of black pants, are you really ever going to wear your least favorite pair? Nope.” Good-bye to some khakis, some shirts, some turtleneck sweaters.
    My friend clutched a T-shirt protectively. “I know you’re going to tell me to get rid of this, but I can’t. I never wear it, but it was my favorite shirt in college.”
    “No, keep it! Absolutely keep some clothes for sentimental value—just store them somewhere else. They don’t need to be in your main clothes closet.”
    We started a box for keepsake clothes and slid it onto a high, unused shelf.
    “Wow, it’s looking great,” she said as she surveyed our handiwork.
    “We’re not done yet,” I cautioned. “Now we look for ways to make space. This closet is prime real estate. Let’s put the heating pad and the duffel bag someplace else.” She tucked those things into a hall closet. “Do you ever use these empty shoe boxes?”
    “Nope! I have no idea why I kept those.” She chucked them into the recycling pile. “What now?”
    “Now you’re warmed up. We’ll go through the whole closet again, and you’ll see, there’s more you’ll want to take out.”
    Slowly the back of the closet became visible. By the time she was done, her closet looked like something from a magazine. She had even achieved the ultimate luxury: an empty shelf. We both felt thrilled and triumphant. A few weeks later, I heard that when she’d had some friends over for dinner, she’d taken them all to view her closet.
    I wasn’t exaggerating when I said that I got a huge buzz from clearing her clutter. This kind of generosity was far easier for me to offer than giving a birthday present—and far more valuable to the recipient.
    I looked for other opportunities to give. Last month, as part of my resolution to “Go off the path,” I’d started carrying my camera everywhere, so I’d been taking more