We see you girl, overturned laundry baskets full of unpaired socks, re-wrinkled t-shirts that you need to “toss back into the dryer," jeans on the ground that require the “sniff test” to see if they are clean or dirty. Well, we have found your guardian angel and her name is Marie Kondo. We know, we know...stick with us, we have Amy + Meredith’d your KonMari Method to fit the everyday Home Girl who maybe doesn’t have time to tackle ALL the overflowing sock drawers or closets just yet.
So unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few weeks, you’ve heard of the marvelous Marie Kondo and her new series on Netflix called Tidying Up with Marie Kondo wherein our heroine introduces folks -- who are a little bit clutter-challenged we’ll say -- to the joy of decluttering or the KonMari Method first made famous in her 2014 best-selling book: "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up."
RULE 01
Commit yourself to tidying up.
Okay, now this may be one day out of thirty or heck, even one hundred, but you should take some time to tidy. We don’t think you need to look at this like an all or nothing activity (which is going to directly contradict rule 4 below - but dang it we are trying Marie, cut us some slack!). Even ONE DRAWER of tidying up will be satisfying. Just last week we conquered one drawer of jeans with the konmari method and it felt like winning a gold medal at the Olympics, or at least what we think that feels like. So we choose to go a little at a time - progress not perfection.
RULE 02
Imagine your ideal lifestyle.
We sometimes stress eat over the very idea of having everything in one place perfectly decluttered; I mean, how do the kids play if they don’t pull out everything from the bins? You know, like if a parent can’t step on a Lego every once in a while is it real life? We don’t think so. So our ideal lifestyle is one of compromise, where we are able to make small changes over time, maybe even involve our kids in the “magic of tidying up” - just kidding our kids will probably run from this challenge - no joy. No. Joy.
RULE 03
Finish discarding first.
Tidy moms unite. Man, we love taking a heap to Goodwill or repurposing something to recycle it, but dang, getting through all the stuff is a job of its own. Getting through the piles does take some persistence, but what we have found is that once it is done, it’s like we have moved a MOUNTAIN. So this "discard it, before you organize it" philosophy does have its ups and downs, but overall, it’s worth it to make a clear discard pile and get that out of your life. Because if you throw it away, you NEVER HAVE TO PICK IT UP AGAIN. Boom.
RULE 04
Tidy by category, not by location.
Okay Marie, we have tried this and have a hard time making it happen. To grab ALL the clothes and dump them in our living rooms to sort would take us probably weeks, so while we will follow you to the ends of the Earth with your legendary t-shirt folding technique, we do violate your rules when it comes to this one, and we tidy by location, not category. We will work toward category moving forward, but our initial purge admittedly hasn’t happened by category.
RULE 05
Follow the right order.
We understand that committing to tidying up is the largest hurdle. I mean truly committing to this type of lifestyle is deep change. We daydream of a tidy always Instagram worthy house and maybe this is the way to get to it, maybe not, who knows? We are willing to try for a little life-changing magic. Are you?
RULE 06
Ask yourself if it sparks joy.
This is the most brilliant step we’ve used to declutter. Never before have we stopped to ask if something brings us joy after it’s been in our homes for years [sometimes many, many years]. So we totally understand and appreciate this rule. Upon purchasing something initially, we definitely feel the joy...but does it bring us joy TODAY? That is where we feel the real MariKon genius lies. How often do you stop to consider if an item is still useful? Probably never. Or maybe you do, but indirectly, like how frequently you use the item. That’s where we are right now - our faves, those sparking joy, are used a lot. Those that do not spark joy, not so much - and get shoved to the back of the closet. How many shirts in your closet do you actually wear? We’re thinking we wear about 15% of all of our clothes and that does NOT bring us joy. So our focus next is our own clothes [gasp]. Purging clothes [do not forget to thank the items!] for kids is so much easier...they outgrow the clothes before we need to ask if it sparks joy!!!
How about you? Has the KonMari method taken over your house? Tell us all about your decluttering and missions to being a Tidy Mom. We’ll reward success or even TOTAL FAILURE with a set of Copper Canisters and a Home Girl t-shirt to KonMari in - we KNOW these items will bring you joy. ;)
To enter, leave a comment below with your KonMari success OR failure story AND sign up for our C+C newsletter here. A winner will be chosen at random and announced on Friday, February 15th!
Comments
Hi! The kids and I have started watching Marie Kondo and although they are six and seven they love it! Mediately after watching one of her episodes I got the kids into their playroom and they sorted into piles. Did it spark joy for them? They thought that was quite funny. Another pile was to throw away and another pile was to donate. We also decided it was time to clean out the pantry so while my husband was away traveling the kids and I surprised him and completely re-organized our pantry. Things are so much easier to find now and we love it!
Love the t-shirt and love my other Cloth and Cabin purchase!! Thank you!
I’ve been decluttering my home!! Our drawers look amazing!! We’ve gotten rid of so many bags. Some we donated and some just plain garbage!! I’ve done so much, but have so much more to do!
Fail because I haven’t started yet but I will!
I decided to declutter/organize my “junk drawer”. Bad idea! I feel like I decided to try mountain climbing for the first time and just went straight for Everest. In my sad attempt I thought maybe if I categorized items first… kitchen, tools, miscellaneous, etc. The issue with this method is almost everything in the drawer falls under miscellaneous, hence it’s presence in the junk drawer. After an entire afternoon of pondering possible solutions I’ve decided to walk away. I will start with my closet first, I need some small successes to build my KonMari confidence :) Thanks for the motivation girls!
We have an old room attached to our house that has become our ‘garage’. It’s where our washer and dryer, old deep freezer and a bunch of other stuff lands. I recently spent an entire afternoon decluttering, cleaning, purging and reorganizing things from that room. Now I dread going out there to do the laundry a little less than I did before! 😜
I organized my pantry with baskets, plastic containers and I love it! Working on my closet. Lord help me!!
I haven’t actually watched this but have been hearing many things about it, many good things. I am a fairly organized person so try to stay de cluttered and minimal, but with three kids that is often hard.
I look forward to watching and getting even MORE organized!
Thank you!
I recently had back surgery and was way behind the KonMari trend. However now I’m catching up and let me tell you….I feel way less stressed and crowded in my home. Not that I was living in a cluttered home but I just didn’t realize how many things I was keeping that wasn’t sparking joy in my life. I feel lighter, more organized and just plain happier!! Lol
We went full closet. Moved tools and dvds that had piled up in boxes after we moved. We used the technique and brought everything out in a pile and really looked at it! It was alarming how many hammers we had! After we decluttered and put the leftovers in clear bins we moved to the shelves in the basement. Tried the technique in my pantry! This will be a work
In progress. Trying to eat all the boxes of pasta that has accumulated! Carbs!
I started in my kitchen with the spice cupboard! It’s amazing how a little decluttering can really impact ones mood. It also made finding a certain spice that I need less of a task during meal prep time! Now to tackle my pantry and baking supplies cupboard! I feel like those canisters just might help to do the trick!