Kon’nichiwa, ya’ll! If you follow my blog you may have noticed that I am on an organization kick. I’ve gone from pantry to closet, but I could not tackle these two areas in the same way. My closet is way more sentimental than my pantry, and there’s way more items to purge in my closet. Recently I’ve been watching episodes of Marie Kondo on Netflix. Her show is what has inspired me to reorganize my master bedroom closet. If you’re not familiar with the KonMari method, she breaks home organization down into five categories: Clothes, Books, Paper Documents, Komono, and Sentimental. I’ll explain the clothing category. It’s basically emptying all of the contents of the closet/dresser and assessing each item before returning it in an organized fashion. Marie would like you to hold each item and ask yourself if the item sparks joy. If it does not, you must thank the item for its service and send it packing, whether it’s to be donated or sold. I admire this idea because there are so many items that I hang on to thinking I might use or wear when this or that happens. What I should really be thinking about is how that item makes me feel right now, at this moment. Does this item bring me joy? This is such a profound question and one that might be harder to answer than you would think. A question that I really couldn’t ask of each item in my pantry. Do these Dorito’s spark joy? (yummmm! ok, bad example) How about this ground black pepper? What about this can opener? See, it doesn’t work quite the same way in the pantry.
I have a lot of shirts, they’re one of my vices, for sure. I like t-shirts, sweatshirts, blouses, any kind of shirt. Not sure why this fetish started, but it is present none the less. My closet is packed. At this point there really is no reason to hang things up because all of the hangers are so smashed together that there is zero chance of anything staying wrinkle free. However, Marie folds each item in 3rds then in half then in thirds and stacks them vertically (not sure if I explained that so great; see diagram). She makes it look easy (I’m thinking Marie might be a little obsessed with folding, bless her heart). My big hang up (no pun intended) about even starting this shirt folding project is that I might not keep it up. It takes effort, like anything else. Marie says, “The space in which we live should be for the person we are becoming now, not for the person we were in the past”. I guess I should not worry about the fact that I’ve never really been a fan of folding t-shirts and decide that I’m going to become a fan of folding t-shirts. That’s fair.
I’ve started the process, and it is taking me a long time to assess each item. As I assess, my mind wanders and what I’ve decided is that the KonMari method is basically my conscience. It’s this little Marie Kondo voice I have inside my head that hangs out with me when I’m at the TJMaxx and whispers ‘does this item spark joy?’ each time I lift a hanger. Marie’s spritely little voice is so much nicer than my husband’s voice saying, ‘do you really need another shirt, Toska?’. Marie is full of thoughtful phrases, but this one works here: “The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life”. Ooh, that hits home for me. It’s all about being mindful about what you bring into your home. So, what she’s saying is, if I want to own many shirts, I shall live a cluttered life. I don’t want that Marie, no way. I promise to be more mindful. And shouldn’t we all?
What do you think about the Marie Kondo clothing method? Do you think you could make it work in your home? Have you used her methods? What do you think of them? Talk to me, folks!
