Organising - The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying

So I like to think of myself as a neat and organised person and I've read a number of books over the years about organising and decluttering.

The most recent book I've read is The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo. 

This book has gone gangbusters and I've read a few articles where people have discovered the KonMari Method and rave about it.

Be warned, Marie Kondo is not for the faint-hearted. She's obsessed with tidying and organising and is rather condescending to other methods of organising other than hers.

Not all of what she said resonated with me, but some of what she did say was GOLD. In a nut shell, here's what she believes:

1.     Ask yourself Do the things I own spark joy, if not get rid of them (this is Gold!!)

2.     Tidying should be done by category, not location, that is, if you're going to organise say your clothing, organise it all at once, including items that are stored in other parts of the house, that is, in your wardrobe, in your bedroom drawers, in the spare room, under the bed, everywhere all at once (for me I don't have things from the same category scattered around the house, that is, all of my clothing is stored in the one location)

3.     When they say there are two types of disorganised people - either the can't-throw-it-away type or the can't-put-it-away type (gosh I'm definitely the second on many occasion)

4.     Discard first, store second (in other words cull, cull, cull - Marie's really into getting rid of stuff rather than storing it in containers)

5.     Tidy in one-short quickly (difficult unless you're super motivated)

6.     Have a visual idea of what you want your space to look like (Pinterest is a great place to find and store visual cues, below is my Organising Board)

7.     Don't let your family see what you discard (it will just sit in someone else's room then)

8.     Don't move clothes into the loungewear category, that's not discarding (I have to agree with this one)

9.     Fold and stow as many clothes in drawers as you can (um I'm still a fan of hanging clothes as opposed to folding them so big fail here for me)

10.     Fold vertically (this is something that I have taken on board, I have to agree that you can see what's in the drawer so much better when they are folded this way - yup addicted)

11.     Hang heavy items on the left and light items on the right (this doesn't work for me, I'm still into colour order, yeah but no)

12.     Order left to right - coats, dresses, jackets, trousers, skirts and blouses (I already do this and it works a treat for me)

13.     Put all of the books on the floor, pick up each one, one by one, and ask yourself does it spark joy, don't read books as you go, don't fall into the trap that I might read it or I might read it again (argh books are difficult to let go of)

14.     There needs to be a spot for everything (ahh a place for everything and everything in it's place, my favourite saying)

15.     Am I having trouble getting rid of this because of an attachment to the past or because of fear for the future? (Yup I have discarding issues).

The Wrap

If you're into organising as much as me, this is definitely a great read, although you need to get past the contemptuous language in the book. Give vertical folding a go and see what you think. And then when you are next purchasing items or tidying ask yourself does this thing spark joy. Thumbs up from me.

Until next time xx