I have found a new love, and her name is Marie Kondo. When a coworker told me about the show, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Since then, I have been absolutely swept up by the tidying craze. A box of garbage bags and a couple weeks later, my entire apartment has been re-energized.
At this point I have watched the show and read the book, and I am a big fan of the Konmari method. She bases her theory of successful tidying on getting rid of items you don't love, or as Marie would say don’t “spark joy” for you. Then, when you are surrounded only by things you love and need, you can easily organize and maintain your space. Her theory makes a lot of sense and has a huge payoff in terms of wellbeing and mental health.
I live in a small, 554 square foot one bedroom apartment. With not a lot of space for storing things, I didn't think there would be much to throw away or tidy. I was definitely wrong. I discarded one garbage bag of clothes, four bags of garbage and 2 large bags full of books. I did not realize how much stuff I owned, until I was forced to put it all in one pile. I was also surprised to find how many of the same items I stored in more than one place. That certainly doesn't make it easy to find things or put them away.
Although I am loving the Konmari method, there are some aspects that I struggled more to get on board with. For starters, I haven't woken my books up or started emptying my handbag every day to let it rest, but I have started folding and storing my belongings in a way that makes sense, and brings joy, if you will. (See below photos).
My biggest challenge with the KonMari method was tidying my books. I am an avid reader and book lover so I had a hard time letting go of any of them. I didn’t want to start, so I pushed it off until later in my tidying process. But, once I got going I realized that I had books I didn’t even remember buying. Some I had been excited about reading a couple years ago and now I didn’t want to read them at all. Then I realized I was holding onto books that I had already read, and didn’t even enjoy. I was never going to re-read or recommend them to anyone else, so why was I holding on to them?
After my first wave of book purging, I felt proud of what I had accomplished. But once the entire apartment had been finished and I was enjoying the results, I began noticing my books again. All of the books I was unsure of getting rid of, now seemed like a no brainer to donate. I found even more books I didn’t want to keep and did a second wave of purging. Let me tell you, it feels amazing to look at my bookshelves and not think “I have such a huge To Be Read list it’s overwhelming”, but “those are filled with books I have LOVED and ones I am dying to read”. That is the Magic of the Konmari method.
Speaking of books and the Konmari method, there is a lot of confusion happening online. Rumor has it Marie says you can only keep 30 books. To all my book loving friends let me tell you, this is NOT TRUE. Mari herself only keeps 30 books. Her entire method is based on you keeping things that bring you joy. So if having 200 books brings you joy, keep them! She wouldn't say otherwise. I was definitely left with more than 30 and I still feel the effects just the same.
If anyone else has tried the method or read the book I would love to hear your thoughts. I would highly recommend both the book and show to everyone. Watching the show is the perfect introduction to Mari and her methods. I hope you enjoy both as much as I did. Happy tidying.
Yours Literarily,
Lauren.
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