Last year, I got my paws on The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, a wildly popular book about decluttering by tidiness guru Marie Kondo. In the book, she explains her lifelong obsession with neatness, her struggles to discover more effective tidying up techniques, and how she developed her own unique method, which she calls KonMari. The book is an easy read, has a number of helpful anecdotes, and brims with the author's adorable mix of modesty and tenacity.
KonMari asks you to organize your possessions by category: (1) clothes, (2) books, (3) papers, (4) miscellany, and (5) sentimental items. You must handle each item in every category and ask: "Does this spark joy?" The idea is to keep what makes you happy, and toss what doesn't. (Despite the crunchy premise, Kondo remains practical and suggests storage solutions for indispensable items such as lease agreements, tax documents, etc.) The process has step-by-step instructions that are easy to follow, but you must commit, because the first thing you do per category is to gather everything, and I mean everything, and pile it up in a single location, like so:
Afterwards, you keep the joy sparkers, and in the case of clothing, fold them according to Kondo's recommended three-fold pattern. She also suggests storing them by color, going from lightest to darkest. I tried?
Socks should not be rolled up, says Kondo, because that stretches them out, which a lot of people probably know already. I did stop rolling up mine and just folded them up per KonMari, but found that this was impractical in the case of Junior, who has mysterious sock-losing powers.
The other items on the list were easy, because I'd sold most of my books after college, and I was always moving around so I didn't have much stuff anyway. I finished up my KonMari in a few days and patted myself on the back.
However. Most of the items in our home belonged to Fragrant Husband, who loved his stuff. Frustratingly, this was both in keeping with and totally against KonMari, which asks us to respect our things, but also to know when to let them go. My campaign to have Fragrant Husband also KonMari his stuff met with derision. "I paid for these things," he huffed. I said that perhaps his very eighties jackets and pants could make some other Gen Xer happy, which he dismissed. Thus, his side of the closet remained the perfect hiding spot for a family of four elephants, and traversing hisman cave office to retrieve something required careful planning and maneuvering.
Interestingly, in the three episodes I watched of Kondo's Netflix special, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, all of the husbands were doubtful about the method and reluctant to try to declutter. Naturally, by the end, they had seen the light and had happy wives and happy lives, and at least one full dumpster.
Dear readers, I am happy to report that a year after I deployed KonMari, Fragrant Husband decided that he, too, would--well, not KonMari, but at least tidy up his closet and office. So he went through all his clothes, books, board games (just kidding, no one touches those), etc. and eliminated the ones that his CPU determined he didn't need anymore. He went to Home Depot and ~created~ new office shelving like a true oily bohunk. (dreamy sigh)
So now we've decluttered and lead totally stress-free lives! Just kidding, we have small children and will never stop cleaning up after them! But at least we can now walk into our walk-in closet, that's something, right?
TL;DR: Declutter with KonMari, and maybe, a year later, your partner will too!
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This post brought to you by my craving for Bonchon chicken! Forget Popeyes vs. Chick Fil A, twice-fried Korean chicken rules!
KonMari asks you to organize your possessions by category: (1) clothes, (2) books, (3) papers, (4) miscellany, and (5) sentimental items. You must handle each item in every category and ask: "Does this spark joy?" The idea is to keep what makes you happy, and toss what doesn't. (Despite the crunchy premise, Kondo remains practical and suggests storage solutions for indispensable items such as lease agreements, tax documents, etc.) The process has step-by-step instructions that are easy to follow, but you must commit, because the first thing you do per category is to gather everything, and I mean everything, and pile it up in a single location, like so:
 |
| All my clothes and shoes in one spot prior to KonMari-ing |
 |
| I further divided my tops into short-sleeved, long-sleeved, and workout |
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| Baby clothes: tiny and therefore very easy to organize! |
However. Most of the items in our home belonged to Fragrant Husband, who loved his stuff. Frustratingly, this was both in keeping with and totally against KonMari, which asks us to respect our things, but also to know when to let them go. My campaign to have Fragrant Husband also KonMari his stuff met with derision. "I paid for these things," he huffed. I said that perhaps his very eighties jackets and pants could make some other Gen Xer happy, which he dismissed. Thus, his side of the closet remained the perfect hiding spot for a family of four elephants, and traversing his
Interestingly, in the three episodes I watched of Kondo's Netflix special, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, all of the husbands were doubtful about the method and reluctant to try to declutter. Naturally, by the end, they had seen the light and had happy wives and happy lives, and at least one full dumpster.
Dear readers, I am happy to report that a year after I deployed KonMari, Fragrant Husband decided that he, too, would--well, not KonMari, but at least tidy up his closet and office. So he went through all his clothes, books, board games (just kidding, no one touches those), etc. and eliminated the ones that his CPU determined he didn't need anymore. He went to Home Depot and ~created~ new office shelving like a true oily bohunk. (dreamy sigh)
So now we've decluttered and lead totally stress-free lives! Just kidding, we have small children and will never stop cleaning up after them! But at least we can now walk into our walk-in closet, that's something, right?
TL;DR: Declutter with KonMari, and maybe, a year later, your partner will too!
---
This post brought to you by my craving for Bonchon chicken! Forget Popeyes vs. Chick Fil A, twice-fried Korean chicken rules!
Later on when kiddies are grown up and moving out, not to allow them to leave their junk behind.
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