If you don’t have Netflix and you’re suffering from a serious case of FOMO, fear not! This Netflix loving Mum has watched Tidying Up with Marie Kondo and has the Cliff’s Notes for you.
What is the KonMari Method all about?
If you were to watch the first minute of the first episode, Marie Kondo explains the KonMari Method so simplistically, you could KonMari your whole house.
The KonMari Method is broken into five steps:
1. Clothes
2. Books
3. Papers
4. Kimono (Home)
5. Sentimental Items
Marie suggests focusing on each area one bit at a time. She puts a positive spin on removing old objects from the home by saying you should only keep the belongings that ‘spark joy’ and those that no longer do, you thank them for their services and find some way to re-home them or donate them.
How do I organise the clothes?
When you have removed the items that don’t spark joy any longer, you carefully fold your clothing and the KonMari Method suggests we fold everything into pocket sized parcels so we can store them side by side instead of stacking them. This way we can see everything we own and this is where your life will change.
You might think no this isn’t for me, I like the way I fold…. but since we KonMari’d the kids rooms, they have been finding items of clothing they had forgotten all about. We pulled out things that no longer fit or spark joy for the kids and donated them to charity. We kept only what they love and we displayed them the KonMari way. Instead of the kids pulling five shirts out of the drawer, dropping four on the floor and deciding on one, they can see exactly what they own and select what they want from the get go.
I was also blown away with how many items of clothing both of my kids actually had. I love when people give us hand me downs, and I love passing clothes from my oldest to my youngest but this method forced us to really look at the wastage that was going on in their clothing drawers. They physically couldn’t have worn all they owned in a year. And as a result of Kon Mari’ing, I’m not even interested in looking at clothes in the shops for them or opening sale emails from our favourite shops. They need nothing. Each child has at least a dozen pairs of swimmers. And the socks and undies were out of control!
How do I declutter?
Storage baskets and boxes are the key to KonMari success. I used a few of the back to school shoe boxes to segment my daughter’s sock drawer so her school socks are in one, her sports socks in another and her every day socks in the last box. It was so easy.
Bathroom cupboards were a joy to declutter. Out of date medication got binned, then I categorised what I had. I headed to Kmart to purchase cheap storage baskets and put bathroom cleaning products in one, eye make-up in one, moisturisers and foundations in one, sanitary products in one, nail and hand products in one and medication in the last.
When the kids figure out you’re organising things, believe it or not, my pack rat kids got right on board. They started saying that their bath toys no longer sparked joy and someone else might need them now. They discarded old ribbons, clips and hair elastics that they deemed not good enough any more. They are loving the sense of order and calm that has come from the process and now, even my parents are deep in the KonMari way.
What else do I need to know?
There are key pieces of info that you gain from watching an episode of Marie Kondo, or reading the book, some that will make complete sense to you and others that you might think that’s not going to work. But here are some helpful hints I’ve picked up.
- Sort toys into storage for each child, and have another toy box that is toys for all children to share
- Try to limit the number of books you keep in the home. Marie suggests 30 to keep the clutter down.
- Go through your sentimental items such as photos, cards and school work from the kids. Find a way to display them or store them. Hang photos in frames and make some new photo albums to enjoy.
- Declutter the garage as part of Kimono – decluttering doesn’t mean moving your things out into storage in the garage. If it doesn’t spark joy, don’t hang onto it.
- Find a place for everything to live. Don’t sit it down and think, I’ll come back to that later, find a home for it and put it away.
- Marie says you need to thank your items for their service. This is thought to be a very ‘Shinto’ way of living, but even if it doesn’t make sense to you, try it because it removes the negativity from the process and brings a sense of calm with the decision to part ways with your belongings.
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