She makes a go of KonMari

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I’m not sure how I first heard about ‘The life changing magic of tidying’ by Marie Kondo but something intrigued me about it. 

Tidying does not come naturally to me, in fact I think I am more the magic art of piling kind of person. So when I read a few reviews of the book and they were from people who were like me, I decided I would give it a go.

I read over half of the book the first day it arrived and decided this was a good sign. I also like the fact that Marie Kondo explains that there is no surprise none of us can tidy as we have never been taught. This means I am off the hook about my general ineptitude for keeping things tidy.

It turns out tidying room by room is my biggest failing. This is why I cannot keep up and never complete tidying the house – instead it is about tidying in categories.

First category : Clothes. Cue the deep intake of breath. 

This is my wardrobe  

 I have avoided going anywhere near this for some time now. It’s too big a job! The thing is I was on a bit of a roll and the book kept cropping up in conversation so I had a bit of drive.

The method: put all of your clothes in a pile in the middle of the room

Erm… How long was I allowing to get this completed again? 

A quick re-read of the clothes section… Ah sort your clothes in categories first: tops

  
Yes, more of a mountain than a pile. 

Next step: Hold each item and decided does it spark joy? If yes, keep it. If no, get rid of it. Hesitation – get rid of it.

I found this surprisingly easy and discarded quite a lot of the mountain! 

   
 Second:Bottoms

  
Again, hold each item and decide – Does it spark joy? This pile was even quicker to sort than the first one.

  
By now I was amassing plenty of black bin bags which further spurred me on. Third : Things than need to be hung up.

 
Now, these items are likely to be some of the most expensive you own. Mine was culled in record time.

  After this you do underwear, shoes and bags. Funnily enough I didn’t photograph my underwear pile! 

It was complete! All of my clothes decluttered. From start to finish it took me just over an hour. This was the thing I struggled with the most. Just an hour! I had procrastinated for so long and it took so little time.

   
 
Six and a half bin bags full of clothes that I neither want or wear but have been cluttering up my wardrobe and drawers for years.

  
This is just the first part of my KonMari journey for me. The next category to tackle is books. It is my intention to follow the methods in the book and declutter our entire house within 6 months.

Have you heard of ‘The life changing magic of tidying’ or the KonMari method? What are your thoughts about it? Are you tempted to give it  a go for yourself?

I will be posting updates of how I  getting on with the rest of the methods.

I do have to say though, I was clothes shopping earlier and didn’t buy a thing as all I kept thinking was ‘Does it spark joy?’ And the predominant answer was no!

10 thoughts on “She makes a go of KonMari”

  2. I’ve been really interested in this method since seeing it on another blog. I am pretty good with my clothes though – I swap my clothes over for winter/summer, when I put them away at the end of the season I chuck it if I haven’t worn it. Tidying other parts of my house in this way might be a bit more of a challenge! Lovely to find your blog, God bless x

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  3. The book has, like its title suggests, changed my life. I did clothes, shoes, books, then bags, accessories — out of order I know but I didn’t know where some of those items were — until I started the prep for doing papers. In gathering my boxes of papers I found a box a scarves. Anyway, it has helped me to do the categories. So while I’m doing papers if I find mementos or photos I put them aside for later. Part of what I’ve learned about myself is that i own many things that I did not choose myself. Gifts, hand-me-downs — things that are passable but don’t suit me. The book gave me permission to let these things go and find my own style. I’m the youngest of a family of girls. I was raised on hand-me-downs. I got too used to not choosing things for myself. Same with things I bought second-hand or on sale — most times in my effort to be frugal I clutter my space and wear and look at things that make me a little sad. No more of that. Antiques are great, if chosen wisely or inherited with a purpose and if they spark joy. I found that much of what I own I got from dead relatives and people who have moved and given away their stuff. Nope. No more.

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    • I am looking forward to moving onto the next categories and having a real declutter. I have realised I have s lot of stuff that I just don’t need or like! Am glad to hear it is actually life changing

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  4. I did *all* our clothes in the September school holidays, and much to my amazement, the kids stuff was still reasonably tidy in January (five minutes to straighten rather than the normal half a day per kid); and the bloke who likes to look with his hands can see exactly what shirt he wants to wear instead of scruffling about in the started off neat but completely trashed after a couple of weeks piles. I’m going to have another go at my clothes before I hit the book case.

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    • I often think it is the thought of these things which is actually worse than the doing of them. My wardrobe didn’t take as long as I anticipated as I got in the zone about it. We are going to tackle books later this week. That will be interesting but I am already thinking about which books I can discard and am a bit excited about it!

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