As promised last week, I embarked on applying Marie Kondo’s KonMari tidying up principles to my own life.
If you haven’t watched her Netflix series (you should) or read last week’s column (you should do that too) here’s the basics of KonMari:
- Commit yourself to tidying up (because there’s a lot of time and effort involved. “Tidying up” sounds like a passive, casual exercise in housekeeping, but it’s not).
- Imagine your ideal lifestyle (like a mental vision board — oh and don’t forget to thank your house in the beginning because you’ll probably say some mean things to it during the process).
- Finish discarding the things that don’t bring you joy first (because once you put stuff in storage containers or adorably fold them into your dresser drawers you won’t properly assess them for their joy factor — and you’ll probably relapse).
- Tidy by category, not location (because gathering all like items into one spot allows you to see all the shit you have and the volume alone will inspire you to be more selective in what brings you joy).
- Follow the correct order: Clothes, books, paper, komono (misc) and sentimental items (because we just have to trust the method in her madness). Continue reading “Beat JENeration #023: Tidying Up with Jen is not nearly as cute”