Decluttering and Organizing
Whether you are a parent, live with roommates, or even live alone organizing your living space can be very important. Having a clutter free house can improve your mood and reduce stress. Having fewer things around also means there are fewer things that can get piled up and cluttered. Both myself and my husband have a tendency to acquire a lot of stuff. We are notorious for having piles of papers laying around. Unfolded laundry can be found piled on our futon. My son scatters toys throughout the house. In an effort to help declutter and organize we read the book:The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo
She developed a method called the KonMari Method of removing clutter and organizing your things. The book was very inspiring. She says to keep only things that spark joy. If you pick something up and it doesn’t bring you joy you throw it out (with a few obvious exceptions of course.) I won’t delve too much into the book because you should totally read it for yourself. There are a lot of great tips which is I’m sure one reason it is a best selling book.
Although the book did inspire me to try and get rid of some of my things, I have a bad habit of holding sentimental value with everything or I think I may use it again some day, or I may fit in those pants again some day. I’m not always honest with myself when it comes to all of the “junk” I have. Especially if something was a gift. I have made some strides to better organize myself. They don’t necessarily fit with the books theme but I feel slightly better. I put shelves and cloth cubes in my sons room and in our living room for storage of our items. It does look nice when cleaned up. The problem is my son dumps bins at a time out and it quickly gets overwhelming. It makes me better understand where the author is coming from when she talks about a much more minimalist approach. My clutter problems are solved by sticking stuff into bins, they are just more hidden.
I do feel less stressed when my house is in order and I make excuses as to why it often isn’t. ‘My toddler will just mess up what I clean, I’m just going to mess up the bed again anyway why should I make it, the dishes are never-ending I just don’t feel like doing them right now…’ Perhaps you make similar statements.
Do you want to change? Do you want your house in order? Perhaps you and I both need to take a closer look at the KonMari method and organize in a way that will bring us joy. I’m going to try to implement some of the strategies from the book. If you have read the book and have successfully incorporated her methods I would love to hear about it. If you haven’t I urge you to read the book and let me know what you think. Now I just have to convince my toddler that he doesn’t need all of those toys 🙂