My New KonMari Experience

I am not the neatest person in the world. In fact, I hesitate to allow friends into my home. So when I came across a beautiful little book called "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo a couple of weeks ago, I was very interested.

I picked up the little book and read a bit. I liked what I read. And I'd already heard good things about Marie Kondo. But I'm on a tight budget, so I decided to put off buying it.

One week later, I was out with a friend and she gave me an unexpected Christmas gift. It was the book! The poor woman hasn't been allowed in my house since I met her this past April. Thank you, Lorraine!

The book is as calming to read as it is to look at. That helped me get into a "tidying" mood. Although I haven't quite finished reading it, I read enough to get started yesterday.

How It Works

It's important to read the book, but here's an overview of how it works:

First, she splits things into categories and subcategories. In each category, you find everything you own that fits into that category - seriously, go into the attic, the basement, anywhere you might have stowed your things away.

Then you put everything on the floor (I'm "cheating" and using my bed). Next, you pick up each item and ask yourself "Does this spark joy?" If the answer is "no," discard it. If the answer is "yes," keep it.

There's more to it in terms of how each items is stored. But since that's different for each category, that's as far as I'll go with that for now.

The main ideas are to:

1. Tidy your entire house all in one go. Kondo says that if you do it bit by bit, it will never get done. She says that takes about six months.
2. End up only with items that bring you joy.

I don't agree with everything about her method, so I'm tweaking it just a bit to suit me. I'll explain as I go along.

As I go through each category and subcategory, I'll create a post about my experience in that category or subcategory in the hopes that it will help you with your own KonMari experience. I'll include things like:

• Videos I've found that show how to fold the KonMari way (this is an important part of it).
• Places where you can donate particular types of items.
• What worked well for me.
• What about the method did not work well for me and how I handled it.

I hope you enjoy this and find it useful!

Janet