I Tried the KonMari Method and Here's What Happened

WARNING. This post may cause you to binge watch yet another show on Netflix. Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. Admittedly I had never heard of Marie Kondo until I stumbled upon a tweet mentioning her new show. What happened next will shock and amaze you, maybe. Probably not. But read on anyway. 

Tidying Up with Marie Kondo

Marie Kondo appears to be the sweetest person ever. She comes to your home ready to get your house in order and while her and her translator seem pleasant enough as soon as she enters your home she tells you throw almost everything away. If it doesn't "spark joy" it doesn't belong. The show is light while also showcasing just how hard it is to part with items you've held on to for so long.

The epodes show a mix of people in different stages of life; young couple with two kids, newlyweds with one on the way, a grieving widow and empty nesters. Each episode follows the KonMari Method of cleaning house with Marie Kondo sharing her tips with everyone. She appears to barely lift a finger while she delegates tasks to be completed prior to her next visit. When it is all said and done the homeowners have gotten rid of A LOT of their belongings and the rooms show it.

I was super inspired by this since I'm currently hanging on to clothes that I wore in my teens that lets face it, even if I lost the baby weight and then some, I'm not (nor should I be) wearing the same clothes I wore when I was teenager. Also, post Christmas gift receiving, we have a lot of over flow in the house and things have got to go.

What is the KonMari Method?

I will admit, I have not read any of Marie Kondo's books and this is a very watered down version of her method as I am purely basing this off of the Netflix show.

The KonMari method in the simplest terms does not require many steps. In fact it is basically two steps.

The KonMari method is made up of five categories; clothing, books, paper, komono (kitchen, bathroom, garage, miscellaneous) and sentimental items. As you focus on each section the steps basically remain the same. Each category comes with its own way of storing; example if you are storing items in a garage she suggests using clear bins so you can always see the items. If you are reorganizing a drawer in your kitchen Marie Kondo is a big fan of using small boxes inside of drawers in order to sort and separate. 

Step 1

In order to figure out what you are getting rid of you need to be able to see all of it. This means taking out all of your clothes and placing them in a pile, mound or mountain as the case my be. If you are organizing your kitchen you'll need to empty your drawers out onto your counters, if you are working through excess Christmas decorations unpack everything and place them in the center of the room.

Step 2

Touch each item one at a time and decide if that particular item "sparks joy" or not. If it does, keep it. If it does not, toss it. 

Step 3

Putting everything you've decided to keep, back. Hanging clothes is easy that doesn't change but folding clothes, gets revamped under the KonMari Method. Marie Kondo suggests a very specific way to fold clothes: the smaller the better and make it stand up! 

It is important to always see what you have at all times so instead of folding clothes in a way that lays them one on top of another, Marie suggests folding each item into a small rectangle and standing them up one next to another in rows in your drawers. ​

The Verdict. 

I emptied my drawers, pulled out any article of clothing I had a tossed it on to the bed. Before me grew a very daunting mound of jeans, shirts, dresses, scarves, leggings, shorts, sweaters and sweatshirts. 

This was quick and easy. The real work hadn't even started yet. Going piece by piece and deciding if I wanted to keep it or toss it was time consuming but as I sorted through my toss pile kept growing and I started feel a sense of accomplishment Items in the toss pile that were in good condition would be donated and the rest would be tossed in the trash.

Looking at everything I had all at once made me realize I did have a ton of clothes; most of which I wasn't wearing so it actually was easier than I thought it would be to toss things aside. In the past when I've cleaned out my drawers I've done them one at a time so while I felt like I was making progress I was still holding on to things for reasons beyond my understanding. 

The real work came in the refolding and putting everything back in its place. Again, hanging stuff is easy but the monotony of folding each piece of clothing to put back in my drawers got to me, quickly. While I filled two garbage bags for donation I still had a lot that needed to go back and I couldn't finish folding all in one day. I mean, I probably could have but I really didn't want to. 

I started the process of dumping all of my clothing items and sorting during nap time and began folding while the kids were preoccupied but it wasn't long before they both needed me and then dinner needed cooking and then they needed baths and the next thing you know it is almost 9 o clock and you can't go to bed because you still have a mound of clothes on top of it.  

It all got put away (eventually). I'll admit the remainder of my clothes did hang out in a laundry basket over the course of a few days while I completely lost the will to fold but I got back into it and completed the task.

Will I "KonMari" the rest of my house? Probably, not.