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With the new year approaching I thought I would take some time to write about my experience with the KonMari method of organizing our things.
For those of you who may not be familiar, the KonMari is a method of organization developed by Marie Kondo, a Japanese organizing consultant (that is an actual job title!). I came across this concept in my nesting phase while frantically searching Pinterest for ways to perfect our tiny apartment before Lo’s arrival. I listened to Kondo’s entire audiobook, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, in a matter of two days. Before discovering this book I knew I had a lot of stuff, I just didn’t realize how much that stuff was weighing me down.
So to sum up the KonMari method in a super super basic manner – everything you own is broken down into categories, and then further broken down into subcategories, for example, the category clothes is broken down into tops, bottoms, outerwear, underwear, etc. As you work your way through the categories you gather EVERYTHING you own that fits the bill. If you are anything like me, you will end up with a mountain of things on your floor or bed or what have you – essentially giving you no choice but to work your way through it. Then, one-by-one you pick up each item and determine, right then and there, if it brings you joy. If it does, it is folded nicely and neatly and placed perfectly in its appropriate place. If it does not – it is gone. Simple as that.
For me, the journey began with tops – shirts, tanks, blouses and the like. I had a couple of the largest plastic bins that exist stored in our basement filled with clothes that had once graced the halls of my high school. I had a closet that overflowed into my husbands. And I had an entire dresser with drawers that hadn’t been opened since we moved into our apartment – mainly because they were so full it was hardly possible to close them once opened. The mountain that took over our bed was insurmountable. I had no choice but to tackle it if we didn’t want to spend the night on the couch (not going to lie, the latter was tempting).
One by one I picked up each shirt. Had I worn it in years? Did I despise a photo of me in it? Would it be appropriate to wear at my age or anytime in the future (other than as a Halloween costume)? I don’t know whether to offer the credit to the nesting or to the lessons learned from the audio book – likely a perfect combination of both – but I worked through that pile like it was nobody’s business. My “toss” piles grew and my drawers refilled with loved items folded in a too-perfect-for-Martha-Stewart method.
I managed to repeat the process through the remaining clothing categories, including handbags and shoes.
I worked my way through books and movies.
And then I took a break.
By the end of the week I was surrounded by things I now realized I no longer needed to hold onto. BUT I had to get them out of sight STAT or they would all of a sudden gain some tiny place in my heart and force their way back into my neat – though full – drawers.
YARD SALE!
Just before bed on Friday night I had the brilliant idea that we would wake up bright and early and have a yard sale. D knows I’m crazy and quickly was getting fed up climbing piles of my unwanted clothes and things so he didn’t question it at all. Plus, we were lucky enough to live on a busy street that we wouldn’t need a huge amount of advertisement – I highly recommend signage if this is not the case for you. Saturday morning we gathered all of the clothes in bins, picked a few larger items from the basement that hadn’t been used in a year or more, stuck a piece of cardboard with and arrow at the top of the street and added a Craigslist ad and we were on our way.
$300. With a baby on the way this was huge!
Bins upon bins of clothes I no longer loved – all gone for $1 per item – maybe they were “worth” more. Some were brand new with $30 price tags, but $1 was more than it was fetching me by sitting in a drawer.
Nothing came back into the house – THIS IS IMPORTANT. Everything that didn’t sell had to be taken immediately to the donation drop off. I knew if it entered the house again it would resume its place and hang around for another couple of years – case and point, not EVERYTHING left us, a nice jacket and a couple of suits came back to live with us…in the back of the closet…for going on two years now.
I didn’t make it through the entire KonMari checklist. The nesting period had come and gone and I moved onto the too-huge-to-do-anything phase and that was that. But it has certainly changed my mindset on “stuff”.
When we moved into our new house this past April I promptly carried out the same steps with my remaining clothes and away went another huge bin – this time straight to the donation drop off. Next weekend our neighborhood is having a community yard sale so this week will be spent KonMari-ing the crap out of our back patio storage and Lo’s toybox! A task that once seemed daunting – downsizing – is now something I truly look forward to.
If you feel like you are constantly climbing over things or looking for places to store things you no longer use or you are constantly browsing Pinterest for ways to “organize” a.k.a. move your stuff around so you can’t see it all the time – then I highly recommend checking out Marie Kondo’s method. Even if you are like me and barely make it through the first couple categories it will certainly change your thinking about your “stuff” and just how much you need to hold onto to be happy.
In the future I hope to make it through the entire KonMari checklist. I look forward to sharing that with you!
Have you tried KonMari? Did this post inspire you to try? Let me know about your journey in the comments!!
xo Christy
OH! Did I mention you can find the book here! 🙂