When people come to my home they always say something like, "You're so organized!" or they comment on the fact that I must have OCD. Because my home is clean and I hide my clutter very very well. But I am not organized by any stretch of the imagination people. Not by a long shot. I just have pretty things to hide the mess. I am just like the rest of the free world with a million extra things I don't need and not enough will power to throw them away.
Until now. :)
There's this book - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying up by Marie Kondo. You've maybe heard of it, and perhaps you've read it? I read it on a car trip to Delaware a few weeks back and I can honestly say it has changed my mental status on organization. Crazy, but so very true.
I've read quite a few blog posts on this book, but none actually reviewed the book in a way that was helpful - I couldn't find a single blogger who actually attempted to USE the book to declutter their lives. With that, I made it my mission to actually attempt to use the KonMari method to change the way we live. I'm going to write these as a series - hopefully one a week - tackling the larger categories of organization.
This book isn't just another organizing book. Most organizers will tell you to go room by room and organize quietly. Choose a nightstand and tidy that, then tackle your closet by pulling out just 10 things a week. With this method only little bits and pieces of your home will be organized at any given moment because we all know the clutter just returns, right?
The KonMari method approaches it differently - and I like it. Kondo suggests that rather than go room by room or space by space, she recommends category by category, all at one time. A "whole house" organizing instead of a "room by room" organizing. This is her secret sauce. By tackling the entire house at once, you find yourself surrounded by complete organization versus intermittent spots of tidy.
She recommends a specific order in which you should organize. The first whole house category is clothing. We all have a LOT of clothes, right? I love that she starts with this category because tackling the one part of our home that is typically the messiest brings just a little bit of peace in the morning when you get dressed, and I love that everything is tidy from the start of my day. I am totally on board with this starting place.
Here's the method she suggests, and how the KonMari method works: bring all of the clothes in your entire home to one central location - every single stitch of clothing from underwear to coats. Make an enormous pile. You'll be shocked at how much clothing you own! She then says to touch each and every piece of clothing. If it makes you smile, feel a tingle of happiness or if it is something you love to wear, it stays. It must spark joy!!!! If it's something that you just feel "eh" about - it goes. Sounds hokey and too simple, and I will admit that when I was reading the book I was an absolute skeptic about my clothes sparking emotion, but truly it does work.
I tried this with my own clothing - just mine, not my children's or the hubs clothes. I wanted to see how it worked first, so I was my own guinea pig. I made a big huge pile on my bed of everything in my closet and proceeded to touch each piece. I was surprised at the lack of emotion I felt for certain clothing I loved in the store and how much joy other pieces brought me. Your body really does react to each piece of clothing right down to underwear.
This is my pile - unfortunately I took the photograph before I added all of the hanging clothes. It was twice as tall and wide when I was done.
When I was reading the book, I literally thought "there's no way I'm going to care what underwear I own." But, DUDE - I totally did! I ended up throwing away 1/2 of my skivvies because I realized I only ever choose the silky ones. I never ever choose the cotton Jockey functional pieces, so I just eliminated them altogether. Same thing for my bras - I only ever select the Victoria Secret pieces - so the ones from Target made their way into the black garbage bag for donation. The added bonus is that I now know what I love and can stop buying the ones I'll never wear.
Amazing right? In the end, with just my clothes, I ended up eliminating 5 large garbage bags of clothing. I proceeded to do the same thing with my purses, work bags, shoes and jewelry and was able to add 3 more large bags to that pile. From just MY closet, I had 8 large black bags for donation. Success!
In hindsight, I realize the key to the success of this program/method is how you put things back once you've eliminated the extra clutter. The KonMari method teaches you how to fold clothing succinctly so that they are easily seen in your drawers. Most pieces are folded and stored on their sides - so you can see everything in the drawer at one time. I will admit that it's a great way to achieve this, however when you have a big drawer and you are folding your tshirts in little squares, it's not tidy when you have some missing - the remaining shirts fall over and unfold themselves.
I solved this problem by using shoe boxes in my drawer for each type of shirt. One for my work out shirts, one for my plain shirts, one for my camisoles. This is much more effective. In the end, I went from a closet that was overflowing and wouldn't close to this:
In the photograph above, you'll notice that I have a pull out jewelry rack mounted on the inside of our closet. Instead of jewelry, I use this to store my silky tank tops. They always fall off the hangers, won't fold nicely and this way they are never wrinkly when I need them. Thank you Ikea!
I'm still working on the rest of our home to implement the KonMari method. She recommends going category by category through your home. Starting with the easy stuff like clothing and paperwork and ending with the hard stuff like memory books and personal mementos. You can find a full checklist of her categories at Jersha and Dup
Since I finished my own closet, I've managed to tackle the remaining closets and clothes in the house with the same success and organization. The best part? Laundry isn't a thorn in my side any more! It feels great to not be miffed at having to put the laundry away. I actually look forward to folding those clothes and putting them in their proper place. I've also found that while I'm shopping, I am much more careful about what I purchase and only purchase things that I absolutely love love love. I wouldn't want to clutter my beautiful closet with things that don't make me happy, right?
Part Two of this series is tackling the paper. I might be under that paper pile for a while... I think we have more paper than we did clothing.
Are you going to try this method? HAVE you tried this method? Tell me about it in the comments! What's the messiest part of your home?
