KonMari is a method of home organization created by Marie Kondo and I’m joyfully obsessed with it. And coincidentally so are lots of my friends. I hadn’t seen two of my good friends in months and when we got together we were happily surprised to learn that we were all into it and a little obsessed. It was nice to be with my people who get it when I go a little glassy eyed talking about something that I’m all amped up about. Because, it really is magic.
I wouldn’t say I was ever a hoarder. A person might say that about me, but I tend to view myself as just really creative in imagining the uses a thing can have. I can conjure up the story of a time when any item I own would be just the thing I need. So, in that spirit I have been holding on to tons of stuff “just in case”.
Marie Kondo, or MK as many of her follows refer to her, cuts right through that thinking with her ingeniously simple criteria for whether or not an item should remain in our possession. Does the item spark joy? If not, thank it for it’s service and “release it”. Woah. Why didn’t I think of this myself?
How is it that so many of us have been led so far astray from what truly brings us joy in life that such a simple question seems trivial at first? How did I mindlessly live with so many items that I neither needed or really enjoyed? A sense of guilt for acquiring them forced me to hold on even after their useful period had long since ended. I feared letting go of the “stuff”. But why, when letting go means releasing the item so that it can spark joy for someone else who really needs or wants it? Right?
There is this attitude that donating stuff means giving it up forever and that that’s a bad thing. But jeez, that MK has helped me to see that donating things is SUCH a good feeling. “Releasing” items to go on and live their own lives feels right. And yeah, MK sees objects as animate, which seems strange at first but the more I did it the more I realized that it’s exactly what I had been unconsciously doing when I held onto old t-shirts from my 20s for sentimental reasons. The idea of thanking objects seems pretty hokey at first too. But… um… it is seriously part of the magic! It feels wrong to just throw out things that had meant so much at one point, even if they are being donated, so this helps with the transition. It’s like a little ceremony in my head.

For me Konmari has felt like the beginning of a new way of living and being. It really is spiritual tidying. Konmari is the tool but the way of living that it inspires is more. The physical purge of decluttering has allowed me to get back in touch with what I truly value in life and how I want to live. It has helped me to cut through the mental and physical clutter and find the things that truly “spark joy”. I’m finding ways to have natural rhythms in my days and weeks that helps me and my children to have a feeling of comfortable control over our lives. I’m buying less through intentional consumerism. KonMari has given me space in my mind, my home and in my days. And it’s been SO good. I think it all comes down to appreciating what we do have and doing more with less.
Marie Kondo’s book, “The Lifechanging Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing” is one of the most life changing books I’ve ever read. She can talk you out of keeping anything that doesn’t spark joy with her simple and clear outlook. She wants us to live our lives surrounded with the things in life that matter and bring us joy. It is so refreshing and just what I needed.

(Our tidy play area… I REALLY should have taken a before picture! hahaha)