I the love feeling I get when a new year starts. This is when I get super motivated to declutter and clean up my house. It feels so good to clear away clutter, especially after the overload of Christmas decorations. Just recently I read the book, "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up- The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing" by Marie Kondo. And.... it changed my world! New ideas I had never heard of in my life were presented in this book. I have made a goal to "get my house in order" (as Marie calls it) as soon as possible. The idea of the Kon-Mari method is that if you truly get your house in order once, you will never have to do it again.
Marie recommends tidying by category in a certain order. The first category is clothing. Basically you are to hold each item of clothing in your hands and ask yourself, "Does this spark joy?" If not- discard it. Don't keep things because you think one day you will wear it (when you tell yourself that every year, yet never wear it). It is the most liberating feeling in the world to finally make the decision to discard something and throw it in that discard pile. Maybe it's just me, but I tend to see items of clothing I never wear hanging in my closet and feel guilty for not wearing it. Guilty for not loving it. Weird I know. So getting rid of these guilt causing items feels amazing.
I started this journey a few months ago and just barely finished discarding and organizing all of the clothing in our house. It took me a lot longer with a new baby, I couldn't just go crazy and take a whole day to do it. I also wanted to do it right and not cut any corners. I donated bags and bags of clothing. When it comes to organizing clothing, Marie recommends folding and storing everything vertically. not horizontally. She states in the book, "Every piece of clothing has it's own 'sweet spot' where it feels just right--a folded states that best suits that item." Sounds crazy, but it's SO true. See the picture below, this is Nash's top dresser drawer with his clothes stored vertically. I love how I can see every item. There is no digging in drawers and forgetting about an outfit because it's buried. The drawer dividers are Ikea Skubb Organizers and they are perfect for baby clothes.
Putting away laundry used to be my least favorite job. I don't love it now by any means, but it is SO much easier to do. I no longer have to put all my strength into forcing my husband's work shirt drawer shut because it's so stuffed. Our closets are also so much more organized and tidy. Our master bedroom does not have a walk in closet, unfortunately. Instead it has two regular closets. I now like my closet a lot more, even though it is not a walk in closet, because of how tidy it is.
I am now ready to move on to discarding and tidying in the next category: books. Which I think will go a lot faster than the clothing category. I'm so pumped and motivatd to continue tidying and getting my house it order. It is so liberating and amazing! So buy this book and start your own journey to happiness and tranquility in your home!
XO
Kemley
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