I like to think that I am a fairly organized and tidy person. I keep my room clean, and try not to hoard things. But after reading
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, I have realized that I could be living a way better life by thoroughly cleaning out my house. Marie Kondo has created the KonMari method of cleaning, meant to properly clean and organize your house once, so that you'll never have to do it again. She ensures that her method will make sure that you don't rebound and have a messy place again. starts with saying that you need to organize and clean out by category, starting with clothes, then miscellaneous items (such as books and papers), and finally items with sentimental value. (Kondo 65) In the clothes category, you go through tops, bottoms, clothes to be hung, socks, clothes for specific events, etc. (Kondo 65). For this particular round of cleaning, I decided to help my mom declutter her specific events clothes, which more specifically are her clothes that she wears to church.
My mom started with two drawers full of her clothes. According to Kondo, you need to take all of the clothes for the category out and lay them out to see what you are working with. (Kondo 66) She then proceeds to give the criteria as to what to keep and what to get rid of. "What things will bring you joy if you keep them as part of your life?" (Kondo 66)
After laying out all of the clothes, my mom started to go through the clothes, and kept the ones that still bring her joy and that she wants to keep in her life.
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| Clothes the my mom wanted to keep. |
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| Clothes that my mom didn't want to keep. |
She then proceeded to put the clothes into two piles, the clothes she wanted to keep, and then clothes that didn't bring her joy and that she wanted to get rid of.
While cleaning, my mom came across a few miscellaneous items that Kondo addressed in her book. Those things include random buttons and some photos in the envelope that they came in.
According to the book, "You will never use spare buttons." (Kondo 111) So we got rid of these right away.
We then found some pictures in the envelope that they came in. Kondo says, "I'm sure you found the old photo or two enclosed... in the envelope from the photo shop... put them in a designated spot every time you find one and deal with them all at the very end."(Kondo 118) It's as if Marie knew we would find this! But we took her advice and put the pictures to the side. After we took care of the clothes, we went through them and placed them in albums.
After going through all the clothes, my mom put away the clothes that she wanted to keep back in the drawer and put the other clothes in a bag to be donated. After decluttering my mom's specific events clothing, she was left with only enough clothes to fill one drawer, meaning that she had gotten rid of half of her clothes!
Overall, I feel that this session of decluttering was a success. To make sure that every other session is a success as well, I will make sure to follow Marie Kondo exactly as she outlines in her book to fully be successful in cleaning my house.
Have you ever tried to fully clean out your room/house? If so, have you rebounded and have had that place become messy again?
Jasleen Virk
Kondō, Marie, and Cathy Hirano. The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
Wow this is so relatable! I am constantly organizing my clothes to fit my liking! Just like KonMari suggests, I do spend time sorting my clothes into the like and don't like pile which is just perfect for freeing up space. After I've gotten all of the clothes that I want to keep, I organize them into three more piles: athletic wear, dressy clothes, and casual. This way, I can go to a specific pile when I'm dressing for a certain occasion. Personally, I just all of my buttons because I tend to be a very active person and end up popping a lot of them up! To answer you're last question, my room is CONSTANTLY messy. My 10 year old sister and I share a room and as much as I love her, we're like an atomic bomb that's ready to explode! Our clothes are all over the place and it's just not pretty. :)
ReplyDeleteJasleen,
ReplyDeleteYou did an excellent job of giving step by step information. It was also really helpful that you had pictures that coordinated with each explanation. To answer your question, yes I have cleaned out my whole closet, it was over the summer. It is still very tidy now because I have specific places and bins where I keep certain tops and shirts. Versus, throwing everything in my closet which will result in a mess. Also, from personal experience another thing that I think is very helpful to avoid rebounding and having the place become a mess again, is getting rid of clothes that you never wear or are too small for you. This way you don't have random pieces of clothing taking up space.